Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible

Rusbridger (editor of the Guardian) is a professional journalist and an amateur pianist. In this book, he tells the story of a late-life struggle with Chopin's Ballade in G Minor, a tale that's set against the backdrop of his day job: editor of one of the world's leading news organizations. Vowing to learn the Ballade in a year despite his hectic schedule, Rusbridger charts his progress, both with the Ballade and in his day job, in diary form. While this title is similar to Jasper Rees's amateur quest to achieve French horn mastery in A Devil To Play, there are differences as well—Rusbridger provides more detail on fingerings and other technical matters (he also offers "Score" and "Commentary" sections) and imparts fascinating details concerning WikiLeaks, the phone-hacking scandal, and other major stories reported by the Guardian. Along the way, the author discusses his "Chopin project" with some of the best-known pianists (both professional and amateur) in the world, among them Charles Rosen, Richard Goode, Condoleezza Rice, and Murray Perahia.