Book Description

The accounts of Chopin's pupils, acquaintances and contemporaries, together with his own writing, provide valuable insights into the musician's pianistic and stylistic practice, his teaching methods and his aesthetic beliefs.This unique collection of documents, edited and annotated by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, reveals Chopin as teacher and interpreter of his own music.Included in this study is extensive appendix material that presents annotated scores, and personal accounts of Chopin's playing by pupils, writers, and critics. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

You need this if you play Chopin
You need this book if you play Chopin. There is a wealth of information on playing Chopin's music directly from the composer and his pupils. It has answered many questions and cleared up some misconceptions I had about this music.

great book on how to play Chopin
For those of us who bungle at the keyboard and can always use more guidance, this book offers a great start in understanding Chopin's music. Probably the most difficult piece to play in public is Chopin Ballade No. 4, and Chopin offers some incredible insight into how he wanted it played. As you know, the music notation on the sheet cannot cover every intention of the composer, much like writing cannot capture everything, but most of what we want to say. This book supplements your understanding of the music. I would not be surprised if your great piano teacher pulls material out of this book in order to advise you on how to play Chopin.

A Great Historical Document
This book is wonderful for understanding Chopin's philosophies on technique and musicianship. One important thing you learn in reading this book, however, is that the piano has changed dramatically since Chopin's time. My main reason for reading this book was to gain valuable information about how to improve my technique for playing Chopin. Although I definitely learned a lot by reading this book, the issues relating to Chopin's advice about technique are unfortunately not as relevant on pianos today as I was hoping. In short, it's a great read, but will not solve all your Chopin technique problems.

A must for Chopin fans
This is an excellent and well documented work. Anyone who tries to play Chopin or has an amibition to do so, should read this. It goes straight to the heart of Chopins entire musical philisophy, and gives not only insight into the artist himself, but solid and sound advice on practicing, technique, and interpretation. Strongly recommended.

Indispensible to anyone interested in Chopin
When I went to university, I devoured almost all books on Chopin from the library. None was nearly as informative. Through his pupils, friends, associates, colleagues, you'll know exactly what the master was like when he played and taught, his stylistic requirements, his temperament and the magic he evoked.

I just can't stress this enough - this is a must-buy! If you still have your doubts, get your hands on a copy and have a browse - what you can learn from it is priceless. ... Read more

Book Description

When Bertensson and Leyda's 1956 biography appeared, it lifted the veil of secrecy from several areas of of the intensely private Sergei Rachmaninoff's (1873-1943) life, especially concerning the genesis of his compositions and how their critical reception affected him. David Cannata's new introduction summarizes what has happened in Rachmaninoff scholarship since the book was first published. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This book is excellent
I found this book extremely helpful and a joy to read. I have used it as a resource for a Rachmaninoff class that i am creating and also for my own pleasure. It spans through Rachmaninoff's life, going in-depth to look at glimpses of Rachmaninoff's life with family, and then meticulously explores his music career.It looks into what inspired him, his meetings with other famous composers, his performances, and includes many letters about his personal life that he wrote to his family and friends. Overall, an excellent look into the life of a composer about whom we do not know much.

A must-have for any Rachmaninoff lover.
This book is very thouroughly written, drawing on resources of Rachmaninoff's relatives, letters that Rachmaninoff himself wrote, and of personal interactions. It gives a glimpse into Rachmaninoff's private life, which very little is known about, and shows Rachmaninoff for the true musical genius that he is. ... Read more

Book Description

Blessed with one of the most beautiful voices of her generation, soprano RenéeFlemingis one of the most celebrated talents on today’s music scene. In The InnerVoice,this great singer shares what she has learned from her experience as aninspiration forthose contemplating a career in the arts. From struggling to get a career underway todealing with her own personal doubts, Fleming is wonderfully candid andarticulate abouther art—especially the little discussed heart-throat-mind connection—andchildhoodinfluences, formal education, mentors, preparation, and mental and physicaldiscipline.

Here is a look at the real life of an artist today, a life confronted by theloneliness oftouring, the need for resilience, the desire for creativity in the face ofoverwhelmingcommercial pressures, coping with business issues, and, most important,balancingpersonal and professional fulfillment. The Inner Voice adds itsdistinctive voiceto works such as Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings and Uta Hagen’s RespectforActing, teaching by example and the hard-won human lessons all artists mustlearn. Itwill be eagerly awaited not only by her legion of fans, but will also berequired readingfor anyone contemplating a career in the arts. ... Read more

Book Description

In an age of artistic accomplishment, Gustav Mahler stood out as one of the supremely gifted musicians of his generation. As a composer, he won acclaim for his startling originality. As a conductor, his relentless pursuit of perfection was sometimes seen as tyrannical by the singers and musicians who came under his baton. And always, even with his greatest triumphs, he provoked controversy among the critics. Now Henry-Louis de La Grange, Mahler's celebrated biographer, offers new insight into Mahler's life and work with his latest look at the career of this musical genius.

In Mahler in Vienna, La Grange follows the great musician to the intellectual and artistic capital of turn-of-the-century Europe. From Mahler's spectacular debut as director of the Vienna Court Opera to his triumphant tour of the continent, we see him at the height of his powers. La Grange vividly portrays the marvelous spectacle, including the extraordinary range of artists who worked with Mahler--the composers Dvorak, Gustave Charpentier, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, and Schoenberg; the painters, architects, and decorators of the Secession (led by Klimt); and the writers Hauptmann, Dehmel, Hofmannsthal, and Schnitzler. In Vienna, the conductor worked a revolution in standards of performance and (along with Secession painter Alfred Roller) scenic illustration. It was also during this period that he wrote some of his best-loved symphonies--including his Fourth and Fifth--and his three orchestral song-cycles and collections, the Wunderhorn-, Ruckert-, and Kindertotenlieder. For each of these works La Grange provides full notes and analytic descriptions. And the author does not neglect Mahler's temptestuous personal life, for during these years he met Alma Schindler--"the most beautiful woman in Vienna." La Grange deftly captures the story of their engagement and marriage in 1902.

Mahler remains one of the greatest figures in the historyf music, a man whose work provokes strong reactions today as in his own time. This account is just one part of the definitive four-volume biography Gustav Mahler, the result of a thirty-year research project; the author has personally translated it from his original French into English. Scrupulously researched and insightfully written, this volume is a brilliant account of a critical epoch in Mahler's life. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

More for reference than reading or understanding.
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This is not biography in its best form.

De La Grange has done us a service by compiling a very detailed but largely chronological history of the events of Mahler's life. You'll find a largely blow-by-blow description of his life: compositional struggles; arguments with cast members, managers, and officials; correspondence with friends and colleagues; listings of cast members in the opera performances he conducted; reviews of his performances by the various publications; health problems, etc. The detail is extremely valuable.

However, De La Grange falls short because he rarely steps back from the detail in order to find the larger themes in Mahler's life, and he leaves that effort to the reader. This is asking too much: this is a projected four volume biography, and it will probably be well over 3,500 pages before it's done.

I imagine it will take a later biographer to come along and sift through all that De La Grange has delivered in order to write a more informative biography.

I have an additional issue with an editorial decision that's been made here. The first volume was published in the 1970's, by another publisher. Oxford has not re-published it, but will publish a second edition of the first volume when the fourth volume is published. They have styarted with the 2nd volume rather than the 1st, out of deference to those who might still have the 1st volume. Fair enough. But the footnotes that refer to content in the 1st volume only refer to chapters, not specific pages, and are thus incomplete. Perhaps the reasoning behind this is because the original 1st volume will be superceded by the 2nd edition 1st volume, and they don't want to be specific to something they imagine will be obsolete. However, at the current rate it could well be 5-10 years before that 2nd edition 1st volume is out. Will Oxford then ask readers to buy a 2nd edition 2nd volume that has page numbers in the footnotes? (The whole idea sounds like very little deference to those who might have the original 1st volume.)

As close as you canget to getting to know the REAL Mahler
This is the Classic Mahler biography by the major Mahler scholar, Henry ouis de La Grange. Though this only covers the middle years, de La Grange's excellent use of primary sources let us learn first hand what Mahler was like as a musician, conductor, and human being. No other Mahler biography is so erudite and completely non-judgemental ... Read more

Book Description

Softcover edition of this national bestseller!Hailed as a masterpiece for its original interpretations of Beethoven's life and music.This edition takes into account the latest information and literature.Includes a 30-page bibliographical essay, numerous illustrations and a full-color pictorial biography of the composer. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Good but not definitive
How to describe Solomon's very good book on Beethoven? It is part psychohistory, which is always a perilous operation for a writer. I am one of those people who actually like Freud, but sometimes Solomon's psychoanalysis irritated me, and I was always glad when he left the couch and went back to more or less solid facts. There is a huge chapter on the Immortal Beloved that bored me after a couple of dozen pages, but those particularly interested in this aspect of Beethoven's life are in for a real treat! I'd like to have seen more discussion of B's politics and social views; Solomon's discussion of these is, overall, pretty thin.

But Solomon's weaknesses (and that is my judgment) do not ouweigh his great strengths. He has certainly done his homework on B's life, and he is a skilled writer and a patient, tireless researcher. He knows his Thayer as well, and he isn't above questioning long-held assumptions about this flawed but very great man. Solomon's discussion of B's music is sufficient for a biography (those who want a lot of details on the music should go elsewhere), and he does a great job of showing how the composer followed the classical models and broke away toward romanticism. He does well in showing the man's great genuis without ever worshipping him (the way 19th century music lovers did). No doubt about it, Beethoven was a real crumb in a lot of ways, and Solomon makes this clear.

As good as this book is, I wouldn't call it definitive. I imagine some bright peson coming along some day who has a deep understanding of the Enlightenment, of early romanticism, of music, and of German and Viennese society who will give a truer picture of the man in his full context. It is very difficult to describe music in words, but my imaginary writer will be adept at this as well. Until this person comes along (and we're talking about a reincarnation of Samuel Johnson or Shakespeare), Solomon will do just fine.

Not really a biography
I have spent over half of my life researching the life of Beethoven. Like many people, I was excited to learn of the new edition. However, I found it as disappointing as the original. If you are SERIOUS about Beethoven research, stick with Thayer. Unlike Solomon's biography, Thayer's reads as if it were a diary. Solomon provides too much analysis, which should be left to some of the fine articles and papers he has written in the past. This book would serve well as a supplement instead of a cornerstone. Thayer provides facts, and very little opinions. It is important to remember that Solomon is not the first person to do extensive Beethoven research. Many other authors and researchers have come before him with richer results. Take his finding as that of only one of a hundred authors on Beethoven. Check his facts with others and decide for yourself. If you are just interested in reading one or two books on Beethoven, please select another biography. Solomon's is not completely acceptable.

Too much pseudo-psychoanalysis
A generally interesting, and presumably authoritative, narrative of Beethoven's life and music is too often de-railed by whole chapters of amateurish, armchair Freudian psychoanalysis. It is further side-tracked by the long-winded pursuit or trivia [for example, an entire chapter (40 pages) of stuffy prose evaluates alternative theories on "who was his 'immortal beloved'" -- who cares? her identity is irrelevant].

The New York Times Book Review may think this is "a landmark of Beethovian scholarship and interpretation", but in my view, the narrative frequently suffers from a rather pompous style of pseudo-academic writing. A good edit is clearly warranted. Not really recommended.

An ode to genius
Maynard Solomon's 1977 biography "Beethoven" is divided into four main sections, "movements" so to speak, and every section is filled with themes and variations. Each section ends with an essay titled simply "The Music", in which is described the works Beethoven composed during the period under discussion. The interpretations are acute but easily understood by the non-musician. In fact, it could be that Solomon's book is the most reader-friendly of Beethoven biographies. (There are dozens.) Some of Solomon's revelations are surprising. For instance, the average reader does not think of Beethoven as a composer for voice, outside of "Fidelio" and the Ode to Joy, but Solomon states that "half of his 600 works are vocal". (Among other things, Solomon's description of "Fidelio"'s plot is fascinating.) Solomon also discusses how Beethoven's later works threatened to become travesties of his Herioc Style. In fact, "Wellington's Victory" was considered by professionals "a stupendous musical joke". Beethoven's difficult nature is legend, and Solomon deals with it frankly. Some of his irascibility was undoubtedly due to his deafness, which exacerbated after 1812. What caused the deafness is a little mysterious. The composer himself, in a rather weird anecdote, attributed it to an "excitement of rage", but the cause may have been more medically sound. Beethoven never married, and his "open" sex life consisted of flirtations with married women. (In fact, the 30-page account of the Immortal Beloved theorizes that she was a pretty Viennese matron whose affair with Beethoven eventually became an "exalted friendship".) His "secret" sex life, however, was his employment of prostitutes; and in his youth he was treated for syphilis. Did the contraction cause the deafness? Solomon doesn't go there, but he does indicate that Beethoven's morose treatment of other people was aggravated by the deafness. His brothers, for instance: the omission of Nikolaus Johann in the Heiligenstadt Testament and the shabby treatment of Kaspar Carl's widow and her son. Beethoven's gall could be incredible. Although he enjoyed "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", he warned Rossini not to attempt serious opera because it "ill suited the Italians. You do not possess sufficient musical knowledge to deal with real drama". Well, so much for Verdi (who was a child at the time). Of course, now, nearly 180 years after Beethoven's death, it's the music that matters. Even so, such a productive life can be appreciated on a literary level, and it's that experience that Maynard Solomon provides in this superlative biography.

I love Beethoven!
This is a well researched, delightfully written book about one of the world's greatest composers of classical music. If you read it, you'll know a whole lot more about the man, his family, his friends and colleagues, his music and his times.
Beethoven was born and raised in Bonn, Germany (1770-1827), but as soon as he could he gravitated to Vienna (Austria), because that was the capital of the Empire (Austro-Hungarian) and that's where the greatest musicians lived and where the greatest opportunities in music were. Beethoven showed some musical promise early in life (though he was no child prodigy like Mozart) and by age 15 he was already composing and performing in public. He eventually learned to play a number of instruments, but by 15 he was already a virtuoso on the piano and in his prime he was the best pianist in Vienna.
Beethoven enrolled at the University of Bonn in his teens but soon withdrew because he preferred to study independently - by reading the classics and the other greats of the day (Kant, Goethe, Schiller, etc.) and through tutoring in musical composition and performing. He eventually studied in Vienna with one of his 'music heroes' - Franz Joseph Haydn. (His other 'music heroes' included Mozart, Haendel, Glueck, and Cherubini).
Beethoven's life was filled with numerous successes, achievements, rewards, etc., he eventually composed some 600 pieces of music of all kinds, and he knew at the end of his life that he'd won the only kind of immortality in which he himself believed - that which man could earn personally through his own efforts here on Earth. But his life was not all 'milk and honey'. Beethoven also encountered much adversity in life that caused him great mental anguish, sorrows and disappointments. He was disappointed, for example, in his family (all commoners!) - and especially in his two brothers (non-achievers!). He was mainly unsuccessful with women: he could rarely find a suitable candidate - and when he did, he would always opt in favor of his career over a wife. He was unhappy with Vienna and it's noble class: both were slow to recognize his genius and reluctant to properly reward him for his accomplishments - with money or with a permanent position. He also had problems with music publishers (Beethoven was, basically, a free lance composer-businessman), and he was greatly disappointed when Napoleon decided to crown himself Emperor of France. In the end these adversities wore Beethoven down, and as he aged his behavior and manners became increasingly course and rude and his appearance, sometimes unkempt and bizarre. He experienced various health problems throughout his life and his hearing was gone completely by the age of 47. Nevertheless, Beethoven, never ceased working and creating new masterpieces. He almost always maintained his disciplined work ethic and he always carried a notebook in which he could record fresh ideas about music that he was always contemplating in his mind. He'd jump out of bed in the night to record music he was hearing in his dreams.
This book contains useful, interesting facts and information from a variety of sources - including the 'conversation books' that Beethoven used to exchange thoughts with his friends after his hearing no longer permitted him to converse aloud. We know from these materials that Beethoven thought the choice of certain musical keys was important in creating certain sentiments, atmosphere, and emotions in programmed music. We learn his thoughts on music critics and the nobility. We also learn what his last words were: "Schade! Schade! Zu Spaet! ("Pity! Pity! Too late!") - that he uttered on his death bed when he saw some of his favorite wine being delivered.
In conclusion: if you love classical music, you'll love this book! ... Read more

Book Description

Bruno Walter, one of the greatest conductors in the twentieth century,lived a fascinating life in difficult times. This engrossing book is the first full-lengthbiography of Walter to appear in English.

Erik Ryding and Rebecca Pechefsky describe Walter's early years in Germany, where hissuccesses in provincial theaters led to positions at the Berlin State Opera and the ViennaState Opera. They then tell of his decade-long term as Bavarian music director and hisromantic involvement with the soprano Delia Reinhardt; his other positions in themusical community until he was ousted from Germany when the Nazi Party came topower in 1933; and his return to Vienna, where he was artistic director of the OperaHouse until he was again forced out by the Nazis. Finally they trace his career in theUnited States, where he led the New York Philharmonic and other orchestras and in hislast years made numerous recordings with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, anensemble created especially for him. Ryding and Pechefsky are the first biographers tomake extensive use of the thousands of unpublished letters in the Bruno Walter Papers,now in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In addition to interviewingmore than sixty people who knew Walter, they examined countless reviews to assess thepopular and critical impact he had on his times.Authoritative and even-handed, thisbiography sheds new light on Walter, one of the great formative influences in musicalinterpretation. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Bruno Walter:A World Elsewhere
To say that the book "Bruno Walter: A World Elsewhere" is both a godsend and a delight would be an understatement-I cannot say enough good about this work. "A World Elsewhere" is a detailed and concise look at the conductors' life and career from birth until death-and in English.(My definite language of choice) It offers a style that is smooth and a pleasure to read and obviously involved alot of meticulous research. I have been an admirer of Bruno Walter for many years, and this biography is the perfect companion to my collection of Walters'recordings.It is an even-handed, multi-faceted depiction of the conductors' experiences. In reading "A World Elsewhere", I have learned much about the man that has enabled me to understand his life better; although the book does not go into alot of detail about Bruno Walters' connection with Anthroposophy, it has still inspired me to investigate this movement further. "A World Elsewhere" is a definite "must read" for anyone who admired Bruno Walter- a great conductor whose involvement with music touched and enriched many people's lives, and still does today.

Doug Rea

A gentle reader opines
I probably qualify as a representative of the tribe of general readers, being mostly an interested amateur in what this book covers. As such, I found "Bruno Walter: a World Elsewhere" a very satisfying window into an era of music (and my childhood) that I was heretofore only vaguely aware of. In other words, it helped me fit together and fill out a picture of the musical and political and social history of the twentieth century, and that alone made it worthwhile.

But aside from that, it was simply great fun to read personal vignettes about so many eminent musicians, composers, conductors, and others. I found the book entertaining reading too, I mean to say--a dandy thing, in the summer (or any other time as well)!

While I may be an amateur as far as the contents of the biography go, I am also a professor and teacher of writing, and it was gratifying to find a biography written so smoothly that reading it was a pleasure, which is by no means the rule in scholarly biographies. There are notes and indeces aplenty for the scholars, but these should not dissuade the general reader--they do not get in the way in the least.

Add to this the fact that the volume is a handsomely designed one, with splendid pictures and an attractive typeface, and you have a book truly worth owning--or giving, for that matter.

Vindication for a neglected master
Finally, a full-length biography of Bruno Walter in English that devotees of his work can savor. Walter was widely recognized in his time as one of the master conductors, but his lack of flashiness, and sometimes fake air of saintliness, are off-putting to our star-obsessed age, so he hasn't received the recognition he deserves. SONY is sitting on a large back-catalog of important mono recordings by him that may never see the light of digital distribution -- or perhaps the imminent changes in music distribution wrought by the internet will eventually make it all available. Meanwhile, this very well-done, comprehensive biography will have to do. My biggest complaint is the lack of a complete discography as an appendix to the book - referring people to websites won't cut it yet, as too many folks still don't have regular internet access. Apart from that failing, this is a model of what an arts biography should be, a well-researched life, a serious consideration of issues of personal performing style, and decent pictures. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Nadia Stancioff was Maria Callas's friend during the diva's unhappy final years, starting as a publicist for Callas's film of Medea. Interviewing people who had known her earlier, Stancioff sought to explore the woman from the inside--"Maria," not "Callas." Though the result offers no real information we haven't seen before, it is delivered in a personal voice that makes this memoir (first published in 1987) worth reading.

There's plenty about Callas's appearance and love life, but the tone is chatty rather than trashy. The events that Stancioff herself was there for were not especially significant (she was present, however, when Onassis paid his first visit to an agitated Callas after his marriage to Jackie Kennedy). More valuable are the stories she hears from colleagues, fans, and the singer's elusive sister. The one subtle, and indeed moving, touch is something the author doesn't do: she declines to resolve the contradictions people tell her. Maria's mother pushed her into singing; it was Maria's own desire. Maria's family was kept in luxury during World War II by her sister's boyfriend; Maria ate out of garbage cans. In the '40s, the Met offered her roles that she turned down; there was no offer. The stories aren't reconciled because Callas can't be: she exists only in the kaleidoscope of other people's impressions. Stancioff's own Maria is a difficult woman--capricious, superhumanly insecure--to whom she is utterly loyal.

The unanswered questions surrounding Callas's death have been discussed elsewhere, such as in Maria Callas: Sacred Monster. As speculated on by the chorus of voices here, the mystery is particularly unsettling. Neither Callas nor, perhaps, anyone who cared about her was in control of what she left behind. It's a sad end to the tale of a tortured woman whose aura is as strong as ever but who was, ultimately, no more knowable than any of us. --David Olivenbaum ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Wonderful account of a diva!
The saga of Callas's life has been told by many people. Some have been close to her and some haven't. Some have been affectionate and some have been cruel. This one was the former. When reading a biography on someone as colorful as Callas you must read everything at face value, however it is nice to know her assistant cared for her. It seemed that she understood her more than anyone and that alone is quite a feat. Callas had so many troubles (family, Onassis, La Scala, press, weight, etc)and Nadia was right there for her.

You must read this as a story of course because the truth we'll never know. Take a read it's worth it for a fan of LA DIVA.

Brava!
Most people who write a biography of someone, especially a friend or relative, have a vested interest in either making the person sound like a saint or a sinner.

The author of this amazing book, however, portrayed her good friend, Maria Callas, in what can only be best described as a very objective manner.

One comes away from this book with a very real sense of the person who was Maria Calles, not particularly in the legend that was Calles, the great Diva, the great voice of the 20th Century.

And I found this book to be quite a spellbinder. It was very hard to put it down. My feelings toward the subject ran the gamut from immense like and understanding to immense dislike. I found her at once fascinating and brilliant and on the other hand somewhat stupid. One minute I would think of her as a simple, silly twitt and the next I would find myself thinking of her as a very loving and warm rather intelligent woman. In some instances she was very stingy and other instances she was very giving and generous.

But I think the thing that stood out most to me was the fact that she had suffered from a good deal of betrayal in her lifetime. People had used her and emotionally and abused her. She was also financially used. And I think this made up a good deal of the woman she later became.

Like most people, Maria Callas was neither all good nor all bad. She was neither a saint nor a sinner. What I like about this book was that it gave her dignity and it gives the reader a feel for who the real Maria Callas was. Although it's written by a dear friend, someone who obviously thought highly of her, the author was nonetheless very objective in writing the accounts of Maria's life. She also told of the darker side of Maria Callas. But she did not use her own words entirely. In fact, she went to a great deal of trouble to interview other people who knew Maria well and many of them had very differing views from those of others who were interviewed.

So in the end the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusion about the type person Maria Callas was. I personally came away with a feeling of being quite touched by her life. I felt that she had suffered greatly, although she had indeed brought a lot of on herself, as we all do. I found her a very human person and quite different from the legend that we know as Callas.

There is no question that Calles, the legend, was the greatest soprano of the 20th century. She was the divas diva. The living up to the legend must have been very difficult indeed. And we find in this book an idea just how hard it was.

If you want a history of the career of Callas this is not the book you want to read. If you want what I believe to be a very factual and objective rendition of what her life as a woman was, this book has no equal.

And while you will get glimpses of the glamorous life of the diva, you'll also be able to feel the crashing reality of loneliness that was at the depth and center of the person behind the great diva, Maria. ... Read more

Book Description

This biography of composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) describeswithunprecedented intimacy, affection, and respect the lifeof one ofFrance's greatest artists. After long being regarded as an oddity and an eccentric figure, Berlioz is now being accepted into the ranks of the great composers. Based on a wealth of previously unpublished sources, and on aprofoundunderstanding of the humanity of his subject, David Cairns's bookprovides a fullaccount of this extraordinary and powerfully attractive man. Berlioz, Volume I, previouslypublished only in Britain, is nowavailable toAmerican readers in a revised edition, together with the eagerlyawaited, newVolume II. These two volumes together comprise a monumentalbiographical achievement,sure to stand as the definitive Berlioz biography.

In researching Berlioz's life, Cairns has had access to unpublished family papers, and in Volume Ihe is able to portray all the people close toBerlioz in his boyhood,and to evoke a detailed picture of their lives in andaround La Cte St.-Andr in thefoothills of the French Alps. No artist'sachievement connects more directly with earlyexperience than that of Berlioz,whose passionate sensibility began to absorb the materialof his art longbefore he had heard any musical ensemble other than the local townband.Volume I also traces the student years in Paris and Italy and discussesBerlioz'sthree great love affairs, shedding remarkable light on his latercharacter anddevelopment. Volume I ends on the afternoon of December 9,1832, the day of the concertthat launched the composer's career. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Brilliant portrait of a complex man, vol. 1
An amazing biography. A work such as this will most likely appeal to only 1 out of 100,000 Amazon customers, but those who read it will never forget it, and once having read it will listen to Berlioz's music with a knowing insider's grin.

Cairns has done what is extremely difficult: he has created an easy-to-read, engaging, yet methodical and thorough modern biography in English of a composer who was born 200 years ago and whose paper trail was written entirely in French. The book has good humor but is not fawning or hagiographic.

A little note (pun intended): this is about Berlioz the man, and not about Berlioz as an ethnomusicologist's project. In other words, this is the study of a young man and how he came to know and create music, but not about that music per se.

Bonne lecture!

Great Scholar
David Cairns is a great Berlioz scholar. Like to meet him someday. His translation of "Memoirs" is much superior to Newmans.I bought the 1st volume of the biography some years ago when it first came out and the second a couple of years ago when it was first published. I revisit these volumes frequently. Berlioz was one of the really great romantics. At least 50 years before his time. Glad to see SF opera is planning on staging Cellini & B & B over the next few years. Sixtus Beckmesser

Incredible.
This really is one of the best biographies of any subject to come my way.I didn't know a lot of Berlioz's music before approaching this but it didn't actually matter.All the elements of a gripping novel are here only for they're true!-fighting paternal disapproval,living in poverty in Paris,eloping with a virtuoso pianist-it's all here and Cairns paints such an intimate picture that you can't but fail to admire Berlioz and his dogged determination to be a composer and write HIS music only to be continually rebuked in his native homeland.The efforts that the man had to go to just to hear his own music is truly heartbreaking.Biography doesn't get much better than this-especially if you're only even remotely interested in music or art.

A Passionate Man
This is a wonderful book both for the lay reader and for the musically knowledgeable. It says a great deal about how well written this book is that someone like me who knows nothing about music could still enjoy the book so much. Mr. Cairns takes the tale from the birth of Berlioz in 1803 up until 1832, when he was in his late 20's. You learn about his relationship with his parents, who were opposed to his choice of composer for a career, and his sisters. We are very fortunate that this was a great age for letter writing. Mr. Cairns makes judicious use of the correspondence between Berlioz and his family and friends to the point where you almost feel yourself to be a friend or family member. You get inside the young composer's mind as he tries to convince his parents that his desire to write music is not just a "whim", but something that he is absolutely passionate about and must do. Berlioz was also extremely sensitive and romantic. After seeing the English actress Harriet Smithson perform on stage in several works by Shakespeare he developed an obsessive love for her, even though he had never met her. He had an apartment across the street from where she lived and would longingly watch her comings and goings. He eventually wrote her several notes expressing his feelings but she rebuffed him, quite understandably one would think! (She had also heard a rumor, which was untrue, that he was an epileptic.) Shortly after coming to the realization that Smithson was unattainable Berlioz met the virtuoso pianist Camille Moke and they fell in love with each other and eventually got engaged. Alas, when poor Hector had to go to Rome to live in order to receive grant money from winning the Prix de Rome, Camille dumped him and opted for security by marrying a wealthy man. This soured Hector on women for awhile but did not diminish his love for music, nature and life. Mr. Cairns has been a professional music critic and is also a scholar, so he understands and ably explains the technical aspects of Berlioz's music. I was totally lost in these sections but my ignorance did not diminish my enjoyment of this sympathetic and wonderfully written book. ... Read more

Book Description

Finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. A landmark biography of Bach on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, written by the leading Bach scholar of our age. Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era. This engaging new biography portrays Bach as the living, breathing, and sometimes imperfect human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances of the last half-century of Bach scholarship. Wolff demonstrates the intimate connection between the composer's life and his music, showing how Bach's superb inventiveness pervaded his career as musician, composer, performer, scholar, and teacher. And throughout, we see Bach in the broader context of his time: its institutions, traditions, and influences. With this highly readable book, Wolff sets a new standard for Bach biography. 42 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

dry but readable and insightful
After reading this book I came away with a good understanding of Bach's musical achievements and his concept of what music is all about. This is a very well written and comprehensive look at Bach's music and musical evolution thru life - including his major, longer works (no minuets included) and musical surroundings. It is very well worth reading for its study of Bach's music if you have some technical musical background (more on that later).

One small complaint: most of the music titles are given in German only. Since there are hundreds of such cases, it was impractical to do always search for a translation on the internet so I'm sure I missed a few points. For example the titles of Bach's first three key teaching works are listed - with only the first in English. Wolff then says that "the carefully coordinated phraseology of all three titles" were impressive!
Fortunately, the German version of "The Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach" is obvious in meaning but shamefully without translation: for many of us, one of our first piano pieces came from that notebook!

Finally, this is not a complaint, but a warning. You will have great difficulty with this book if you don't have some background in musical terminology, notation, and Baroque music history. You should know the meaning of terms like "basso continuo", "counterpoint", "thoroughbass" (figured bass), etc. to appreciate the text. For example, there is much discussion of Bach's role in the evolution of the "Fugue". Other forms, such as the "motet" (sacred music not an integral part of the mass) are mentioned without definition. For such a background, I would recommend Kamien's "Music An Appreciation, Ed.8" - or a less expensive alternative that covers music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque Period.

A scholarly masterpiece worthy of your intelligence!
This book is most ostensibly not a work intended to provide a layman's knowledge of Bach. The book assumes a fair knowledge of Bach and his oeuvre, as well as a thorough knowledge of music theory and general instrumentation. Cristoph Wolff has written a thoroughly satisfying and extraordinarily comprehensive summary of Bach's professional and personal lives. I found that despite the book's intrinsically serious tone, reading it as a whole felt not like a biography, but a story that us Bach fanatics wish would never end.

This book is thoroughly impressive in both its scope and its detail, though the numerous tables cataloguing Bach's work from the various periods such as Weimar and Cothen are not as well integrated in text as one might hope. Where Wolff makes the occasional reference to the tables, I as the reader desired to see more comparison and analysis of various works in each period.

It is also immediately apparent upon even a glance through the index that Wolff dedicates much of his analysis of Bach's major works to Bach's vocal music, and notably less space to Bach's instrumental and keyboard/organ music. As we know, Bach's Fugue "the Great" in G minor, BWV 542, is a towering masterpiece of Bach's (and Baroque) organ music, but Wolff hardly affords it the analysis it demands. He also neglects to develop much depth of analysis with Bach's instrumental works. For example, we know that nearly all of Bach's solo and multiple piano concerti have their roots in previous concerti, but little attention is paid as to why Bach chose to transcribe to piano(harpsichord), why he selected the works he did, and whether there is a distinct method/pattern to Bach's transcriptions.

Wolff does do, however, an exquisite job of analysis of Bach's vocal music, exploring the depth of Bach's passion for writing cantatas, and how skillfully he was able to interpet his vision of the words into music. Wolff provides numerous glimpses of Bach's organ expertise, especially in the field of repair and construction. These descriptions do require some prior knowledge of how an organ produces sound and how it is played in order to be enjoyed to the fullest. The book also does a magnificient job of exploring and relating the various and primary influences on Bach's musical development and style. Wolff provides an insight into the influence of Dietrich Buxtehude especially, as well as that of Johann Pachelbel and the numerous older Bach relations. Much has been heaped upon Mozart's child prodigy fame, but even those of us for whom Bach is a perpetual favorite, know little about Bach's formative years, and Wolff gives a very comprehensive look at Bach's musical training.

Wolff's small digressions notwithstanding, this book is truly one every lover of Bach should keep in his library. (And reread every so often!)

Detailed and Learned but Ultimately Unrewarding
This is a very detailed book covering a great deal about the life of Bach. A great deal of insight is on offer regarding the great man's life and times as well as the likely basis under which he produced his work. I have found that reading and re-reading this book has significantly enahnced my understanding of Bach's world - Thuringia in the first half of the 18th century.

There is more detail here in terms of how Bach lived and his day to day relations, both personal and professional, than anyone could possibly need. In terms of factual aspects concerning Bach and his life one could not expect or need anything more that this book and in this regard the book is successful; Christolph Wolff has been more than thorough in his research. So many points of detail are listed that I thought that I would come across one of Bach's laundry lists if I read for long enough. It could be said that there is actually too much detail here which doesn't significantly more forward one's understanding of Bach the man or Bach the musician. However, in an academic book such as this it is generally accepted that a surfeit of information does not constitute a lapse of quality. Concise is not an adjective which could be applied to the author.

However, there are two drawbacks for me in this book. The first is a relatively minor point but the second is very significant.

The first drawback is that the content of the book is, at times, meandering. Wolff seems to move around subjects and themes within a single chapter leaving the reader confused and unsatisfied. While there is plenty of information - sometimes too much even - the underlying structure is confused and confusing. This can appear as a meandering text which sometimes seems to lose the idea of the point it is pursuing. This is more a matter of style than an outright criticim however.

The second drawback is far more significant for me. Most people who would go to the extent of buying and reading this book would have a specific interest in Bach; that is his music represents something special to them. Many such readers will view Bach as a great genius; I am in that camp myself, no doubt so is Christolph Wolff. The main point about Bach is his musical, expecially compositorial skill. Why then is there no analysis of Bach's genius? How and where did it originate and how did it develop in his lifetime? How, in the view of the author, does Bach's genius manifest itself in his works. What is it about Bach which has raised his work to such an exalted level - how is this different to his contemporaries? The author scant regard to where Bach's creativity ebb and flow and how this manifested itself in his work. Little effort seems to be made in this book to consider the work of Bach in terms of how it could be analysed and contrasted - surely this is of primary importance in understanding Bach and his music.

I'm afraid that the dry factual/quantative approach which Wolff takes with regard to Bach's creative process is ultimately unrewarding for me. Most people who listen to Bach would be interested to hear the different musical aspects of, say the Masses. Why is the B Minor Mass considered great and how could it be compared in musical terms to the Mass in F for instance.
Which of Bach's cantatas are the ones to focus on when trying to expand one's understanding of his oeuvre? Merely listing the various Cantata cycles is not sufficient in terms of understanding the qualitative aspects of the music.

While this book gets behind the day to day Bach it does not give any insight into the creative core of Bach. This is certainly not easy given the essentially unknowable aspects of creative genius and the elapsed time since Bach's life - however I would have appreciated some effort on this front.

No book can serve the purposes of all potential readers and what this book covers it does in quality and detail. However an analysis of Bach's life should never be divorced from an analysis of his genius which the author seems to have done here.

Christolph Wolff is clearly a man who understands the life and times of Bach in great detail but I would have preferred to see more focus on the qualitative aspects of Bachs music.

In summary, then an informative and useful factual book but one which misses the opportunity to inform the reader as to the practicalities of the works of the great genius Bach.

Best book ever on Bach
The usual view of Bach's life that I grew up with portrays him as something of a musical hermit, producing masterpieces and children at a prolific rate in relative anonymity with little or no earthly recognition. This book completely revises my view of Bach's life. Wolff shows Bach as a fantastically well-rounded and charismatic musician with a fantastic ability to create masterpieces, a great teacher, well loved and respected member of the community, a profound and simple Christian, and a fundamentally happy, joyful, complete man. Wolff also tries to show that Bach was the greatest musician who ever lived, and does a pretty convincing job at that. I always knew Bach was a great musician; this book simply reinforces and proves my intuition. His intermittant references to Newton are a little annoying and indicative of the hyperbole Wolff sometimes uses, but one gets used to them. The book also shows his human side - his mercurial temperment, his sometimes overbearing and demanding personality, and his greed. This book contains an enormous amount of personal information on Bach, far more than I knew existed. Wolff writes well and does not use an inordinate amount of musical terminology, so a musical illiterate like myself can still read and enjoy him. If you love Bach's music get this book, and you might as well the New Bach Reader along with it, as a good percentage of the quotes in Wolff's come directly from this source.

A Great Book on Bach's Life and Influence
J.S. Bach has been my longtime favorite classical composer, but while I knew he was one of the most influential composers in history, I never quite knew why. Moreover, he always seemed to have a tacit reputation as being rule-bound and stern, unlike the more dynamic, perhaps more charismatic, figures of Mozart and Beethoven (the latter's horrible temper notwithstanding). Cristoph Wolff's book has at last provided me with a fuller picture of Bach and his influence.

The subtitle "The Learned Musician" sets a primary theme for the work, namely Bach as the scholar-musician, who was able to pass rigorous theology exams in Latin and whose mastery of organ building was a significant achievement of engineering, math and acoustics, to say nothing of raw musical genius. A motif that crops up in this book is the comparison between Bach and Newton (which was made in Bach's time). Bach thought that there were rules of causality in canons just like there is causality in Nature, and used other musical pieces to explore theological concepts. Musical science is no mere metaphor applied by Wolff to Bach, but is something that the composer himself took very serious, and this was realized even by some of his contemporaries. Likewise Wolff also points out that this does not mean that Bach was some soulless theoretician either. Rather, Bach's work worked within rules of composition, but also broke and surpassed them when necessary. Bach refused to divorce theory from practice, so his collections of music like the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Art of the Fugue served to show how a particular form of music (e.g., the keyboard or the fugue) could be applied in just about any combination imaginable. These compositions were theoretical statements, albeit ones without words. Wolff does not get too bogged down in musical terms: this layman did struggle periodically, and I would understand more if I were a musician, but a lack of music theory would not destroy this books value to you.

Throughout the book Wolff shows how Bach's methodical perfectionism formed a powerful combination when joined with Bach's surprisingly passionate, joyful life. Just as his music was rigorous, Wolff also points out the profound, genuine emotion that goes into them. He also writes about some of Bach's comic cantatas--one in particular was written for a coffeehouse, and was written on coffee addiction. This did much to endear Bach to this college graduate's heart!

Just as important, Wolff presents Bach's musical odysseys within the context of his personal life. Troubles and triumphs with jobs, Bach's family life and personal anecdotes appear throughout the book with a special chapter at the end also dedicated to Bach's later home life. We learn of a man who always entertained guests despite a brutal work schedule, and who also managed to find time to buy his wife singing birds and flowers. Much of his life would sound quite familiar in America (e.g., rebellious sons, moving to a city with a better-paying job, etc.), and does much to remind us that Bach is a man, not some musical force of nature.

In the end, we have a picture of a man who used his art to explore nature and God, but did so with joy and while surrounded with a family to support and superiors to placate in the workplace. Now I have a foundation for appreciating some of his works that I never studied before, namely Bach's Masses and cantatata, and my appreciation for other works. I had previously read and enjoyed Douglas Hofstadter's _Godel, Escher, Bach_ (which I also recommend), and now I can why Hofstadter chose Bach to help him explore the nature of intelligence in both man and computers. Bach was truly a sort of scientist or natural philosopher, and Wolff lets you appreciate how Bach was both a philosopher and composer of beautiful music. ... Read more

Book Description

Forced by a hand injury to abandon a career as a pianist, Robert Schumann went on to become one of the world's great composers. Among many works, his Spring Symphony (1841), Piano Concerto in A Minor (1841/1845), and the Third, or Rhenish, Symphony (1850) exemplify his infusion of classical forms with intense, personal emotion. His musical influence continues today and has inspired many other famous composers in the century since his death. Indeed Brahms, in a letter of January 1873, wrote: "The remembrance of Schumann is sacred to me. I will always take this noble pure artist as my model."

Now, in Robert Schumann: Herald of a "New Poetic Age," John Daverio presents the first comprehensive study of the composer's life and works to appear in nearly a century. Long regarded as a quintessentially romantic figure, Schumann also has been portrayed as a profoundly tragic one: a composer who began his career as a genius and ended it as a mere talent. Daverio takes issue with this Schumann myth, arguing instead that the composer's entire creative life was guided by the desire to imbue music with the intellectual substance of literature. A close analysis of the interdependence among Schumann's activities as reader, diarist, critic, and musician reveals the depth of his literary sensibility. Drawing on documents only recently brought to light, the author also provides a fresh outlook on the relationship between Schumann's mental illness--which brought on an extended sanitarium stay and eventual death in 1856--and his musical creativity. Schumann's character as man and artist thus emerges in all its complexity. The book concludes with an analysis of the late works and a postlude on Schumann's influence on successors from Brahms to Berg.

This well-researched study of Schumann interprets the composer's creative legacy in the context of his life and times, combining nineteenth-century cultural and intellectual history with a fascinating analysis of the works themselves. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Superb scholarship, daring musical analysis
Daverio's biography of Robert Schuman eschews the hackneyed themes familiar to what he terms "psychobiography"--dwelling on the supposed interrelationship between Schumann's idiosyncratic style and his mental collapse following the composition of the marvelous "Gesange der Fruhe." Instead, he offers insight after insight into the originality of Schumann's musical (and literary) genius, especially as they inform what he terms Schumann's uniquely "literary" musical enterprise. A must read for any Schumann devotee.

Top-notch Biography and Analysis
This biography is a superb survey of Schumann's life and works. Those of us who adore Schumann's music have found a great musicologist and champion in John Daverio. His insight into German Romantic music was already made stunningly clear in his previous book on 19th Century music and German Romantic Ideology. Now this book concentrates on the arch-Romantic composer who synthesized the old and the new to create a "New Way" for music. While being deeply analytical when necessary, particularly in regard to the musical works themselves, Daverio writes in a very accessible style which brings his subject quite vividly to life. And Daverio's concluding remarks are timely, beautiful and extremely touching. Just a wonderful book in every respect. ... Read more

Book Description

Sixteen essays by leading experts introduce the lay reader to issues that have concerned scholars over the past twenty years regarding Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). They provide an introduction to the composer's life and works, covering such problematic areas as his relationship to Vienna; the numerous editions of his symphonies; performing styles; and his appropriation by the Nazis during the Third Reich. They also consider the extent to which his Catholicism shaped not just his religious music but his symphonies as well. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is the first comprehensive collection of the letters of Johannes Brahms ever to appear in English. Over 550 are included, virtually all uncut, and there are over a dozen published here for the first time in any language. Although he corresponded throughout his life with some of the great performers, composers, musicologists, writers, scientists, and artists of the day, and although thousands of his letters have survived, English readers have until now had scant opportunity to meet Brahms in person, through his words, and in his own voice.

The letters in this volume range from 1848 to just before his death. They include all Brahm's letters to Robert Schumann, over a hundred letters to Clara Schumann, and the complete Brahms-Wagner correspondence. They are joined by a running commentary to form an absorbing narrative, documented with scholarly care, provided with comprehensive notes, but written for the general music lover--the result is a lively biography. The work is generously illustrated, and contains several detailed appendices and an index. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Just Wonderful !!
I'v been a Brahms' music fan for a long time and i have read three different biographies, without having the opportunity of get closer to his thoughts before i buy this great book. Now I know how Brahms' mind worked, how (really) was his relationship with his friends and how were his feelings and thoughts during the periods he composed that wonderful music.

I'm not an english born speaker, so i had some difficulties in understand the meaning of some sentences, more exactly, some modisms, wich are very frecuent in Brahms' speech.

In spite of this, I recommend this book because it's just wonderful.

Wonderful translation, superb commentary
The virtues of this book are several: about 800 previously untranslated letters of Brahms, masterfully translated and carefully and judiciously annotated, based on research entirely from source materials which, among other things, give the lie to the unsavory myths of Brahms childhood, proving beyond doubt that he came from a hard-working, well-meaning family who lived in a good neighborhood, and provided him with a good education and normal childhood. The author's research confines to the rubbish heap the silly Freudian theories, never based on any evidence, for his reasons for not marrying. This compendium of letters and their absorbingly written annotation is a gold mine for amateurs and professionals interested in a truthful picture of Brahms.

Excellent, comprehensive, and revealing.
Unfortunately, Jan Swafford did not have a chance to read this book before writing his own "biograohy" of Brahms. If he had, he would have been privy to a wealth of information, much of which has not been available to non-german speakers. Avins' commentary on the letters of Brahms and many of his correspondents is clear and well researched.

From recent reviews of: Johannes Brahms - Life and Letters
"Richly informative" - Sunday Times, London. "Occasionally a book comes along which changes perceptions of its subject. This is such a book. ... [The] annotations are not only scholarly but often witty and always full of common sense. ... Wherever you read, you will feel you are in Brahms's world and that he is speaking to you." - Sunday Telegraph, London. "There are many gems here ... much to be gleaned from what Avins has selected.. Those who seek to be on more intimate terms with Brahms and his circle... will find much to pore over in this collection" - Los Angeles Times. "Little short of a bombshell ... Ms. Avins's contributions are terse and often illuminating... fascinating illustrations, a helpful chronological table and other tools... Brahms reveals himself in workaday as well as transcendent moods." - New York Times. "This is a work that will thrill Brahms fans and provide much pleasure to those entertained by the personal correspondence of great artists. Recommended for general and academic libraries." - Library Journal. "It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the book presents Brahms in a new but quite convincing light... the book can be read as a biography... this composer has seldom seemed more lovable, more vulnerable, more honorable." - Gramophone. "This is one of the most important music books published in recent years." - The Oldie, London.

A Brahms biography based on his letters.
"Johannes Brahms, Life and Letters" is a new biography published by Oxford Univ. Press and is based on the composer's letters. The letters were selected and annotated by Styra Avins and its 550 complete letters which constitute the first such general collection of letters in English, were translated by Josef Eisinger and Styra Avins. The book also contains 48 rare photos, detailed notes and appendices (e.g. on Brahms and Clara Schumann), and a bibliography. The lively text joining the letters is based on the latest Brahms scholarship and provides a fresh view of the composer's life, much of it in his own words. It sheds new light on the early life of Brahms, his numerous friendships, his family, his work, his character and his personality. A well-written book which will heighten anyone's appreciation of the man and of his music. Highly recommended to lovers of biography and music. ... Read more

Book Description

This autobiography is a luminous portrait of a Soviet artist, richly woven against the backdrop of Soviet History. Translated by Guy Daniels.
... Read more

Reviews (4)

a fierceness requited...
Vishnevskaya's reputation for forthrightness AND the sub-title she chooses here --A Russian Story-- indicate strong intentions for this book. Not 'MY Russian Story', but 'A Russian Story', because Galina Vishnevskaya tells an epic Russian story, honoring with a severe truth the Russia of sorrows of which her story forms but a unique part. This is no prima donna's idle tableau of a curtained career. Vishnevskaya's art comes of suffering, & she doesn't head down that road. She divulges her art generously, but her attitude never self serves. Her aim is always higher - she's interested to say not only what HAPPENED in Soviet life, but what WAS. and WHO!--- Vishnevskaya regularly excoriates with galvinizing abandon the soviet lackeys with whom she had to deal! She names names and motives, because it's the damned truth! The West in general and artists in particular owe a huge debt to Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya for the willing sacrifice of themselves in exile for the simple truth. Rostropovich garners the commentary in the West with the cello & conducting, but Galina is the heart of genius, and THAT seems the telling component in this book. Her depiction of Solzhenitsyn is heartrending, and stands as the book's axis; everything leads to it, and derives from it. Her friendship with Shostakovich, her brilliant feelings toward him-- an almost daughterly reverence informed by the highest artistic aesthetic. It's also through the part Shostakovich played in her life that we meet a musically learned Galina as well. She was a musician FIRST, singer second. How rare and wonderful - no wonder Slava fell in love! Galina dances with the shadows of Shostakovich throughout, & it's one of the book's endearing aspects. There are wonderful stories too of Britten and his music, & a surprisingly frank exposition of Furtseva, soviet Minister of Culture, whose enigmatic machinations both helped and ill-served Galina more than once. Vishnevskaya can sing AND write! The book ends when you don't want it to, leaving Russia... it's ultimately a love story -- Galina and Russia. Maybe she'll yet write her American story.

Galina: A Russian Story
Galina, né Pavlova, has many interesting stories to tell about her remarkable life: as a baby abandoned by her parents, an army officier and a polish/gypsy mother, she was raised by her paternal grandmother. Galina overcame so many difficulties in her life, surviving the blockade of Leningrad during the war and so many hardships such as tuberculosis and starvation. Unlike so many singers' biographies, this intelligent artist shares more than anecdotes about the opera world and her many successes in the theatre. She speaks of her personal friendships with people such as composer Shostakovich her neighbor, scientist Andrei Sakarov, also a neighbor, and writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a live-in guest in her dacha. There is much commentary written with not a little bitterness about the Soviet authorities who so often thwarted her career and blocked free expression in the arts within the Soviet country and in other countries where she was invited to perform. She writes very well and with much insight into philosophy, human relations, personalities, etc. I found the book very absorbing and hard to put down. Her close friendship with British composer Benjamin Britten also yields many stories of their memorable times together both at Aldeburgh and on vacation in Armenia and Russia. Her remarkable and at times stormy marriage to cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, her third husband, brought about big changes in her life, and their mutual courage and boldness to stand up for freedom against the Soviet regime cost them their citizenship.

"Everything was backwards..."
"...We were actors in real life and human beings on the stage."

Thus spake Galina Vishnevskaya, in interviews she and her husband, Mstislav ("Slava") Rostropovich, gave in Paris in 1983, captured in a companion book ("Russia, Music, and Liberty: Conversations with Claude Samuel.") to this one. The quotation barely begins to suggest the Kafkaesque world in which they lived, when they were musical artists of the highest order in the Soviet Union.

Vishnevskaya was a "prima donna assoluta" at the Bolshoi Opera during her prime, arguably the finest Russian soprano of all time. And, as her prime overlapped those of Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi, one can only wonder what her international reputation might have been had her career been entirely in the west; the first two-thirds (and best) part of it was largely away from the gaze of the international music community.

This is, as she subtitles it, her "Russian story" covering her life up to the final hours in 1976 when she left the Soviet Union, eventually (two years later) as an exile. And it almost ended before it ever started.

Born in poverty to parents who abandoned her to her grandmother, she possessed an incredible voice as a child. Largely self-taught, and then - at age sixteen - improperly taught - she didn't learn proper voice technique until after she had established a beginning career in operetta. Then she contracted TB, and the doctor caring for her offered that the only cure - which she refused - was to collapse the infected lung. It was only by mortgaging her future singing fees for black-market purchase of scarce antibiotics that she recovered.

In 1952, in her mid-twenties, she auditioned for the youth group of the Bolshoi Opera Theater, was instantly accepted, underwent a meteoric rise through the Bolshoi ranks on her voice and talent, and soon became the prima diva of the troupe. In 1955, she met Rostropovich, whose courting of her is one of the few lighthearted sections of an otherwise chilling tale of intrigue, deception and lies in the intelligentsia circles in which the pair of them existed and performed.

The next two decades (1955 - 1975) of this journal focus largely on one person, and the special relationship that they had with him: Dmitri Shostakovich. As artists, it was only natural that their paths would cross and thereafter, for the rest of Shostakovich's life, intertwine. But this was more than acquaintanceship; it was friendship based on trust during Shostakovich's years when it was virtually impossible for him to trust anyone. And Vishnevskaya defended that trust with the ferocity of a tiger. One anecdote of her ferocity will suffice as an example.

In the early 1960's, the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko was well-published in "accepted" Soviet literature journals despite his "rebelliousness." His famous poem, "Babi Yar" (1961) about the German slaughter of Ukranian Jews during WW II, gained overnight success, and Shostakovich, moved by the poem's message, placed it at the core of his Thirteenth Symphony with Yevtushenko's warm agreement. The work received its Russian premiere "as is" on December 18, 1962, and was tumultuously received by the audience but not by officials of the state, who read into it a message of Russian complicity in the matter of anti-Semitism, a subtext of Yevtushenko's that was undoubtedly accurate, as he revised the text shortly after the premiere without consulting Shostakovich. Some years later, in London where Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich met up with Yevtushenko, Vishnevskaya gave Yevtushenko a tongue-lashing over his "revisionism" that runs several pages.

In an act of supreme political courage involving another Russian writer, Rostropovich provided refuge, for four years in the early '70's, to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose writings on conditions in the Soviet Union were officially banned. Solzhenitsyn subsequently went into political exile, but this act of courage was to have its effect on the careers of Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich, particularly the latter, who for all intents and purposes had his abilities to perform and conduct stripped away from him. Only by "pulling in markers" were the two of them able to secure permission from Brezhnev to go abroad on a two-year "artistic leave."

"Galina" ends on a note of uncertainty and apprehension, as Vishnevskaya, in 1976, boards a plane with her two daughters to join Rostropovich in the West, eventually (1978) in exile when their citizenship was revoked for the Solzhenitsyn matter. But this is merely the end of her "first" Russian life and the beginning of another, more international, one. Her own career as a diva continued for nearly another decade; Rostropovich went on to become an internationally-know