I have just learned that the pianist Charles Rosen has died in New York City, just one month after the composer he had championed for most of his career, Elliott Carter. He was 85. I last saw him play at Tanglewood in 2008, performing the piano in Carter's Double Concerto opposite Ursula Oppens.
Mr. Rosen was not only a great pianist. He was also one of my favorite writers on music. I have learned more on the subject from The Classical Style than from any comparable text. His short monograph on Arnold Schoenberg is indispensable, and his essays in the New York Review of Books — especially those that followed the header "Charles Rosen responds" — were enlightening and wickedly entertaining.
Lordy, who will save us from Richard Taruskin now?
