Charles Youmans, ed. Mahler in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021). 344 pp. £84.99.

Abstract

ent type of virtuosity and, to borrow Dunsby’s term, it is the symbiosis of the composer and performer that determines the exact virtuosity type. The essays of this book deepen our understanding of the concept of virtuosity and of different approaches. Some essays require previous knowledge of the source described to be fully comprehended. As a collection, the book re-evaluates virtuosity, specifically its given definitions and practices, through Liszt’s own understanding in connection to his contemporaries. However, the topic of audience reception is not addressed much, and it could have enhanced further the conception of virtuosity. The question to what extent something is virtuosic when the external difficulty is not so visual has been raised in a similar vein by few authors. Could this feature be called something different? Is there more than one virtuosity? Some chapters hint, indirectly and directly, that indeed there are different conceptions of the term. One must also consider, though, that virtuosity and its definition as having a specific level of difficulty was comprehended differently not only by composers and performers but also by the audience when a work was first heard, even though today’s audiences expect technical demanding works. There was a mutual collaboration between audiences, composers and performers for the conception and definition of virtuosity.