Pianist and author Charles Rosen may well be classical music’s most important intellectual of the last hundred years. But his devotion to the inner workings of musical style may have led to his reputation as an ultra-intellectual performer who sometimes doesn’t see the forest for the trees. “The fact that he has chosen to write about the physical experience of making music… may indeed be a reaction not just to some critics’ views of his performances but to the fact that his brilliant reputation as a writer and intellectual has distracted public attention from his considerable career as a concert virtuoso and recording artist.”