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<ref>http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stephenhough/100003275/why-was-josef-hofmann-considered-the-greatest-pianist-of-all/
</ref>).
His concert instruments had subtle action changes for faster repetition, two pedals (he liked the older Steinway trap work geometry), faultless regulation, and were accompanied on tours by his own recital chair, built with a short folding back and a 1 1/2" slope from rear to front. Gunnar
Unlike Rubinstein, Hofmann sat quietly at the piano <ref name=schon/>, striking the keys in a kneading manner. His finger staccato was at the time unequaled, as was his orchestral sonority. According to his student Nadia Reisenberg, he contiuously used a combination of finger pedalling and foot pedalling <ref>http://www.nadiareisenberg-clararockmore.org/nadia_biography.htm</ref>. New York Times critic [[Harold C. Schonberg]] said Hofmann had all of [[Leopold Godowsky]]'s technique <ref name=schon/>, a claim approved by Godowsky himself
<ref name=chasins>Abram Chasins. ''Speaking of Pianists''. Random House. 1957.</ref>. By his own admission, Rachmaninoff, in his 40's, prepared for a career as a concert pianist by praticing over 15 hours/day with the goal of attaining the level Hofmann's technique <ref name=chasins/>. When pianist Ralph Berkowitz was asked if [[Vladimir Horowitz]] had the greatest technique of all the pianists he had heard, Berkowitz replied that Horowitz indeed was the supreme master of the technical parts of performance, but one older era pianist was his equal - Hofmann.
Hofmann's approach and style can be summarized by his motto "an aristocrat never hurries"
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<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo7_gyGJsM8</ref>.
==Repertoire, Musical Ear, and
Hofmann's repertoire was mostly confined to music written before the start of the 20th century.
Much like Rubinstein's seven historic recitals of 1885, he gave 21 consecutive concerts in [[St. Petersburg]] without repeating a single piece, playing 255 different works from memory during that marathon cycle in 1912-1913<ref name="Schonberg, 385">Schonberg, 385</ref>. In the diary his wife kept during his 1909 Russian tour, she mentions his raising his eyebrows when he saw [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]' ''[[Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel|Handel Variations]]'' on a program—a piece he had not played or even looked at for two and a half years. He played the work at the concert without hesitation.<ref name="Schonberg, 385"/>
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[[Harold C. Schonberg]] has argued that Hofmann was the most flawless and possibly the greatest pianist of the 20th century <ref name=schon/>. HMV and RCA pursued Hofmann to record unsuccessfully in the 1930s. Older generation critics such as [[James Huneker]] labled Hofmann the "king of pianists," and Samuel Chotzinoff called him the "greatest pianist of our time."
Contemporaries such as Rachmaninoff, [[Ignaz Friedman]], [[Josef Lhevinne]],
and Godowsky considered Hofmann to be, overall, the greatest pianist of their generation
<ref name=chasins/>
<ref name=leyda/>, but the acclaim was not so universal from the next generation of pianists.<ref name="marstonrecords.com">http://www.marstonrecords.com/hofmannv7/hofmannv7_liner.htm</ref>
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