Mini-pianist biography- from Harold Schonberg's Great Pianists
Josef Hofmann (born January 20, 1876 in Kraków, Poland; died February 16, 1957 in Los Angeles)
"Nor is it likely that any pianist of the century has Hofmann's incredible control of dynamics. His pianissimo had many levels of shading, and he seems to have a brain built into each of his velvet fingertips. When he played Chopin's posthumous D flat Étude the piano did things that pianos are not supposed to do […] When he really let go, his fortissimo attack had an almost savage quality. There was actually something frightening about it, all the more that he used it spaingly and with meaning. Even when, toward the end of his career, he was out of pianistic condition, his interpretations were never less than fascinating. At his last New York concert in 1948, Hofmann played Chopin's B minor Sonata. At one point in the last last movement- measure68- he did not like the way things were going and in a frenzy brought his left hand down and smashed the keyboard with his palm, sforzando as marked. It was like a roar of a wounded lion. When Hofmann got carried away, losing his classic poise, and when in frustrated madness he would try to burst the flesh that held him back."
Follow the links for more~
http://www.geocities.com/greatpianists/hofmann.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Józef_Hofmann
