Tonal Refraction I: Mozart Piano Quartet in G Minor

Pianist Nancy Garniez is a quietly radical phenomenon. Her playing is a happening; her determined spontaneity demands a new kind of participation from the audience, transforming their understanding of the piece they are hearing. We can no longer assume that a minuet is in three, that a B# is indistinguishable from a C, that the black keys resonate the same way as the white. Haydn is revealed to have the tonal playfulness and innovation of Bartok; even the Moonlight sonata becomes unfamiliar, daring, humorous, unpredictable. Listening carefully, we lost our habitual orientation toward the musical surface. Yet we recognize something else, something that is ordinarily unpronounced in our playing and unspoken in our discussion - a prior visceral response to sound, an intimate reaction that has long been ignored or suppressed.

This book is Garniez's first sustained attempt to explain, by means of demonstration, the approach to music which lies behind her extraordinary playing.

- Damon Horowitz