Reviews (8)

Some clarity beneath the muck...
While this much maligned biography may indeed dwell a little too much on Bernstein's personal life (how many times do we really need to be told he was gay? this gets tiresome after awhile...) Peyser does include a wealth of competently researched background on the life of this most American of musicians. If you aren't offended by the cheap and trashy (but rarely explicit) parts, it's worth a read. Keep your nose in joint and take this biography for what it is and you'll probably learn a few things!

A Supreme Disservice to Music and Society
Thanks to this book, it will probably be a long time before Bernstein can really be apprediated for what he was: a musician. One could read a generous portion of this book and never know that Bernstein was a musician, so obsessive is Peyser's interest in his personal life. Bernstein was not perfect; sure, it's the easiest thing in the world to smear and smear until biography becomes gossip. You can pick apart Bernstein's sex life, his politics, his manners, or whatever you please. But that was not what Bernstein was about. What must be remembered - and what Ms. Peyser seems to forget in the course of this book - is that Bernstein was above all a musician, and one of the greatest in history. Sure, Peyser can write all she likes about how Bernstein's personal life, and some of it (all to rarely) is even interesting. But in the final analysis, Peyser royally misses the point. The question is not "How much dirt can we get on this guy?", but "What was it that made him, in spite of all his obvious faults, such a powerful and good presence in his time?"

This is the one question you will never hear Peyser answer, nor any other Bernstein biographer for that matter. There is nothing worth knowing in this book that one would not know from hearing Bernstein's conducting and compostitions, from seeing his "Young People's Concerts' and 1973 Norton Lectures, or from reading his "The Joy of Music". This is the real Bernstein, and is an eloquent testimony on Bernstein's behalf that the efforts of all the gossip-columnist biographers like Peyser are rendered irrelevant in light of Bernstein's extrordinary artistry, and his unparalleled ability and desire to communicate.

He lives on in spite of all the Joan Peysers in the world, and let us hope to God that he continues to do so.

This book is TRASH
This book is one big gossip column about Bernstein 1) being bi-sexual or 2) Bernsteins apparent motivation to constantly undermind other people and turn the focus of anything to himself. Bernstein certianly had an ego, but this book is simply not accurate. In the introduction the author says, "The crevices of character have to e explored as fully as the peaks of achievements to understand...." She certianly explored the "crevices." Instead of spending $18 on this go buy the National Enquirer.

I guess inquiring minds want to know
The USA Today endorsement of this book neatly summarizes its raison d'etre: 'A spicy Bernstein bio.' If you are seeking all of the outrageous anecdotes, all of the juicy nitty gritty, all of the 'naughty bits' that make up the Bernstein story, then look no further: this book supplies these in abundance.

If, however, you desire any kind of intelligent or intriguing assesment of Bernstien's musical legacy, any discussion whatsoever of Bernstein's music itself, or even any thoughtful, balanced, or interesting discussion of why Bernstein was the person that he was, then you will be sorely disappointed. This is truly a biography in the National Enquirer style.

True, Leonard Bernstein was a self-serving, outrageously flambouyant personality. But so was Mozart, and, while interesting, I certainly want much more from a Mozart biography than explications of his obscene letters.

On example: Chapter 34 ends in 1982, when Bernstein was at work on his last opera, 'A Quiet Place', as composer in residence at Indiana University. Ms. Peyser ends the entire chapter by fully quoting a bawdy limerick that Bernstein apparently sang to the Dean of the School of Music at a party. The limerick, dealing with the size of genitalia, ends:

But you're a goy, And boy oh boy! I'll just betcha it's built for two!

End of chapter. No comment from Peyser. Apparently, the wisdom that she wants to impart to the ages regarding Leonard Bernstein in 1982 was that, at a certain party, he sang a song about the Dean's ying-yang.

This is about as significant (and interesting) as ending a chapter in a Mozart biography by quoting a letter in which Mozart jokes about defecation.

Bernstein and penies. Mozart and ca-ca.

Musicians writing about music?

Could not put it down!
Read this (it seems) in one sitting. Recommended to anyone interested in Bernstein, or in the music of our day. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Perfection is here!!
I don't need a thousand words to express my admiration for the deepness of this Liszt's biography by Alan Walker. The research evolved unto these should have been formidable. The unique comparison for such a work of 30 years of research is the Work of Liszt itself. We cannot immagine how Alan Walker got all these informations, he seemed to really know what Liszt made all days in his life.
In a word: Incredible !!! Get it!

Bringing Liszt & his world to life
An excellent biography. Alan Walker tells the story of Liszt convincingly and captures the readers imagination. Enormous amounts of research has gone into this book - this is evident - but Walker avoids academic-style writing, and the book should attract a wide audience. However, for anyone interested in the nitty-gritty, there are plenty of footnotes and references. Perhaps the jist of the book is the depth and warmth of Liszt personality. Walker also succeeds in rectifying & correcting some of the myths sorrounding the legendary pianist.

Perhaps the only small minus is that Walker seems to fall in love with his subject. I suppose this is bound to happen. There is no disputing Liszt's impact on piano history, but still see such works as the Transcendental and Pagannini Studies as on slightly outside the core of the piano literature of today, while for example Chopin's Etudes are still right at the center. As a composer, I think Liszt is still more flash than content, although the technical challenges are enormous.

You'll treasure all 3 volumes
Volume I of this massive 3-volume biography of the great Liszt is, as the other two volumes, well written, informative, and, well, fun to read. Liszt lead an exciting life, lived in exciting times, and wrote exciting music. Alan Walker is more than up to the job. His writing style moves along like an octave run up the piano. Remember, these books are about his life; if you want in-depth study of the music, you'll have to look elsewhere. (As I'm in the process of doing now.) I'm the proud owner of all three volumes in hardcover and I refer to them constantly. Don't know what else to say other than "enjoy!" And buy as much Liszt music as you can; you won't regret it.

On The Road Again.....
He was thin and had long straight hair. When he sat down at the piano he would oftimes play with such power that he snapped strings and would have to switch to playing on another piano. When he came onstage the women would swoon. Are we talking about a modern rocker, perhaps? Nope. We are talking about the incomparable Franz Liszt. I believe that Alan Walker took somewhere around 20-25 years to write all 3 volumes of Liszt's biography. It was definitely worth it! In this first volume we follow Liszt the traveling virtuoso. The man with the powerful fingers certainly needed stamina to pursue his career back in those days. Imagine traveling thousands of miles over bad roads in all sorts of weather, in a coach! Liszt achieved amazing fame and was well-aware of the position he had attained through his hard work. In the days when musicians were still generally regarded as the servants of the aristocracy Liszt, in one famous incident stopped playing because the Czar of Russia had the effrontery to speak during the concert! Liszt paused and said, "Even music stops when the Czar speaks!" Despite the picture of Liszt that has come down through the ages as some kind of Hungarian Ham that liked to wear medals and who would leave his green gloves behind on the piano so that after a concert the ladies could fight over them, there was a lot more to him than just being a showman. He was a very spiritual man and believed his ability was a gift from God. He worked very hard and in addition to being a virtuoso he was one of great composers, with an amazing output both in terms of quantity and quality. He was a very generous man who would give benefits to raise money for worthy causes such as flood victim relief or to pay for a statue of Beethoven to be commissioned. Liszt had many, many students and he never charged a penny for his lessons. He thought it was his duty to pass on his knowledge to other pianists with talent. A minor flaw of this biography is that Walker tends to be a bit too fawning at times. But the knowledge we gain because of the tremendous amount of research the author has done makes up for this many times. This is a great biography.

Like a good novel
Over the years my interest in classical music has grown, and being a pianist myself I have naturally focused mainly on the piano. I discovered that the most influential pianist wasn't Beethoven or Mozart. No, it was the Hungarian Franz Liszt. I became more and more interested in this fascinating man and his music and I was delighted when I found this bio by Alan Walker. I have always read a lot of biographies and in many ways I find them more interesting than "normal" books. I think it's more fascinating to read about someone real instead of someone who is made up in someones mind. The way Alan Walker has made this book is amazing. It is not just the basic facts and stories, no, all the details and little "less significant" episodes are here as well. It is written like a good novel and I found myself unable to put it down before I'd finished a chapter.

Besides the fact that it is very well written some other things have to be said as well. Walker is very careful when talking about the periodes of which we know very little, he always makes it clear whenever a source or something else isn't 100% reliable. Another remarkable thing is the way he describes the people around Liszt, he gives us a detailed background story on all of the artists who has infulenced Liszt or in other ways been important to him. This background detail serves to give us more insight into the world of Liszt. It must have taken Walker ages to gather all the information in this book, but it is certainly all worth it!

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Liszt and want to know more about this unique artist. But beware! This is only the first in a series of three, so it's a 1200 page biography! it's not something you "just sit down and read". I have only read the first volume but I'm dying to get started on the next and then the third. This is without doubt the most complete biography I have ever read. Many thanks to Mr. Walker for his huge efforts in making this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Crises in the life of Gustav Mahler inspired some of his greatest works—but eventually led to an early death

The life of the brilliant composer and conductor Gustav Mahler was punctuated by crisis. His parents both died in 1889, leaving him the reluctant head of a household of siblings. He himself endured a nearly fatal medical ordeal in 1901. A beloved daughter died in 1907 and that same year, under pressure, Mahler resigned from the directorship of the Vienna Opera. In each case Mahler more than mastered the trauma; he triumphed in the creation of new major musical works.

The final crisis of Mahler’s career occurred in 1910, when he learned that his wife, Alma, was having an affair with the architect Walter Gropius. The revelation precipitated a breakdown while Mahler was working on his Tenth Symphony. The anguished, suicidal notes Mahler scrawled across the manuscript of the unfinished symphony revealed his troubled state. A four-hour consultation with Sigmund Freud in Leiden, Holland, restored the composer’s equilibrium. Although Mahler left little record of what transpired in Leiden, Stuart Feder has reconstructed the encounter on the basis of surviving evidence. The cumulative stresses of the crises in Mahler’s life, in particular Alma’s betrayal, left him physically and emotionally vulnerable. He became ill and died soon after in 1911.

At once a sophisticated consideration of Mahler’s work and a psychologically acute portrait of the life events that shaped it, this book extends our thinking about one of the great masters of modern music.



Stuart Feder is clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and attending psychiatrist at Beth Israel Hospital in New York. He is also on the faculties of The New York Psychoanalytic Institute and The Juilliard School in New York.

... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (20)

Wagner, from leftist revolutionary to world-rejecting mystic
Before picking up this book, I had Wagner pegged as a proto-Nazi. This was not based on any investigation, I just absorbed it somehow, and took it for granted. Imagine my surprise, then, to learn that Wagner was a hotheaded anarchist revolutionary as a young man, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Bakunin as a leader of the 1848 uprising in Dresden! This part of Magee's book is just the prelude to his real topic, Wagner's later turn to the philosophy of Schopenhauer, but I enjoyed it tremendously. Like many before and since, Wagner became disillusioned as he reached middle age. Whereas he had developed an elaborate philosophical and aesthetic theory about revolutionizing human relations, based on Fuerbach among others, he read Schopenhauer and had an epiphany. One of the most fascinating aspects of this is that he was only partially through composing "The Ring" -- the libretto was complete, but not the music. He stopped in the middle of "Siegfried," wrote "Tristan und Isolde" in a Schopenhauerian frenzy, went on to write "The Mastersingers," and only then returned to finish the music for "Siegfried" and then "Gotterdammerung." So the story of the "The Ring" reflects an anarchist revolutionary vision, far from any proto-Nazi sentiments! "Parsifal," often taken for a Christian work, is not Christian per se, but rather Schopenhauerian -- Wagner used Christian mythic imagery just as he used "pagan" mythic imagery in The Ring.

If you have only the received view of Wagner, prepare for a journey of discovery. Magee's writing is smooth and easy, and the nearly 400 pages read as if only half that. My only minor complaint is that Magee proclaims at regular intervals that Wagner is one of history's greatest geniuses, alongside Shakespeare and Mozart. I have only heard a small sample of Wagner's music, and I am as of yet far from convinced of that, but for the first time I'm ready to give Wagner a fair hearing!

Wagner- One, Two, Three
This book, 380 pages in length, is a perfect book for those people who love Wagnerian operas and want to learn more without having to plough through a heavy tome which 9 out of 10 readers never finish. The author, Bryan Magee, intelligently wites to the lay reader. His explanation of philosophers such as Nietzche, Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer and others who helped form Wagner's thinking, is easy to follow and brilliantly shows how Wagner developed and merged philosophy and music. Wagner changed music. One cannot recommend this book more highly to those interested in learning what made one of the great composers tick and how he is often misunderstood. It is a treasure trove of information and is well laid out. A great read. Bravo, Mr. Magee.

Wagner: Not a Proto-Nazi
One of the most brilliantly argued defenses of Richard Wagner I've ever come across. The genius composer is not the proto-Nazi that many make him out to be (having hobnobbed with Bakunin, Proudhon and other anarchists early on in his career) The author sets out to show that the philosophers Kant and Schoepenhauer had a profound influence on Wagner's music, esp, the Ring and Tristan and Isolde operas. I commend this author for his courage in defending one of the greatest composers of all time. May all PC hacks wither away and die in Wagner's eternal genius light. (...)

Aesthetic states...
I read this at the same time as J. Kholer's Wagner's Hitler (q.v.) and the result was partial dialectical collision. It is difficult to know how to take Wagner in the midst of so much revisionist detective work. But Magee's book is, in the realm of pure Wagner limbo, a splendidly done piece which shows Wagner to be one of the most complex and significant figures of the nineteenth century. This is not the same as the usual oulala about genius since Wagner and Nietzsche both did a lot of bungled work, among them fixing culturally inadequate views of tragedy. They both failed their own tests, and if you can't figure out the essence of Greek tragedy you can end up in the middle of one yourself. Worth keeping in mind in the tiresome eulogies of these two failures of genius. What a waste.
As a musical peon in the Verdi bleachers with the old rotten cabbage in reserve I can do without hagiographies of this period, but find the subject interesting in a different way. With the Marx brothers A Night At The Opera under one's belt maybe the right methodology to deal with all this is at hand: this complete shambles is important!
Thus it is worth looking at a book such as Josef Chytry's The Aesthetic State for a history of the context of attempts to produce a tragic theatre, and/or the Gesantkuntswerk that Wagner so heroically pursued. But in the context of the overall history which starts with the ancient Greeks the question (which haunted Hegel) is why modern society simply can't match that great other chord of the 'aesthetic state' proceeding from Homer to Euripides. Here Wagner, good or bad, fails his own test, but is the most remarkable self-appointed guinea pig putting the whole issue to a test. It is hard to believe a man of such talents and heroic endeavors could be so unlucky as to fall into the whole occult shebant leading into the emergence of the lunatic far right. Watching him fail is significant in itself, especially next to the stupefying things he manage to accomplish in the process.
But in the final analysis, Wagner was coopted by the society he was and we see a great success in the middle of a great fiasco.
Anyway, Magee's book is a really good snapshot of Wagner. It is good to see the bright side first in trying to get the riddle of Wagner straight.

Essential Reading for Any Wagner Lover
The Tristan Chord is a brilliant exploration of the evolutionary nexus between Wagner's political and philosophical beliefs, and the momunental works of art he created. For me the finest part of the book is the very detailed examination of the philosophy of Schopenhauer and it's extraordinary impact on the composer. To be able to write on such a complex subject and to do it in such a completely compelling and readable way is an amazing achievement. Essential reading for a deepening understanding of Wagner's oeuvre. ... Read more

Book Description

When Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto in 1974, he admitted that he knew only three things about Canada: It had great hockey teams, a lot of wheatfields, and Glenn Gould. In Wondrous Strange, Kevin Bazzana vividly recaptures the life of Glenn Gould, one of the most celebrated pianists of our time. Drawing on twenty years of intensive research, including unrestricted access to Gould's private papers and interviews with scores of friends and colleagues, many of them never interviewed before, Bazzana sheds new light on such topics as Gould's family history, his secretive sexual life, and the mysterious problems that afflicted his hands in his later years. The author places Gould's distinctive traits--his eccentric interpretations, his garish onstage demeanor, his resistance to convention--against the backdrop of his religious, upper middle-class Canadian childhood, illuminating the influence of Gould's mother as well as the lasting impact of the only piano teacher Gould ever had. Bazzana offers a fresh appreciation of Gould's concert career--his high-profile but illness-plagued international tours, his adventurous work for Canadian music festivals, his musical and legal problems with Steinway & Sons. In 1964, Gould made the extraordinary decision to perform only for records, radio, television, and film, a turning point that the author examines with unprecedented thoroughness (discussing, for example, his far-seeing interest in new recording technology). Here, too, are Gould's interests away from the piano, from his ambitious but failed effort to be a composer to his innovative brand of "contrapuntal radio." Richly illustrated with rare photographs, Wondrous Strange is a superbly written account of one of the most memorable and accomplished musicians of our times. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The Title says it all
His music was wondrous, beautiful, and moving. His behaviour was very strange, off and on stage.
He hated performing, once turning down a million-dollar fee for a recital, but he did perform in his early years; they were bizarre, sometimes difficult to watch, but so wonderful to hear.
One the many stories Bazzana relates is of Gould's first Russian concert. The auditorium was only a third full, but at intermission, concertgoers hurriedly called their friends telling them of the incredible performance. There was a small riot for tickets for the second half of the show.
Later in his career he turned exclusive to the recording studio; bringing us some of the best selling and rarely played classical pieces ever produced.
Kevin Bazzana gives us an in-depth, very personal look at the genius that was Glenn Gould.
The Thursday File

Extraordinary Bio...Very Accessible, Very Intelligent...
I've been perusing this book every chance I get at Borders. I can't wait to buy it! This has got to be hands-down the best bio on Gould you can read. And it is remarkably accessible. I'm no musician so hate it when writers go off on tangents describing a certain "contrapuntal line in 3/10 time over a 2/8...etc, etc", but this book is nothing of the kind. Anyone can come to it and enjoy it for what it is -- a candid, in-depth, and intelligent portrait of a genius. Also, full of revealing photographs. A must-buy for any music-lover, Classical or not, doesn't matter. Gould is indispensable and I agree with the author when he talks about a "cult of personality" surrounding Gould, a cult that approaches a "James Dean, Elvis Presley" stature. Believe it!

AN ENIGMATIC GENIUS
Born in 1932 in Toronto, Ontario, Glenn Gould is surely one of the most enigmatic and celebrated musicians of our time. According to biographer Kevin Bazzana, it's almost as if Gould's gifts were too many for one man to pursue.

Bazzana has spent some two decades studying his elusive subject. Given free rein to explore Gould's papers and granted interviews by any number of the artist's friends and colleagues who were once reluctant to speak, the author is able to shed light on many questions that have piqued the interest of Gould fans. We are privy to much of his family history (the original family name was Gold), and the health problems that plagued him.

Precocious? Yes, indeed. Readers learn that at the estimable age of 3 his talents were obvious. Perfect pitch was but one of them. As a child he was publicly performing on both piano and organ. His musical education was completed in Canada, and although known throughout Canada he did not make his American debut until 1955. His programs were unorthodox and his behavior on stage often very odd. To say Gould was an iconoclast is an understatement, but such a talented one. He was also an industrious writer, and later in life began conducting.

It was in 1964 that Gould deserted the concert stage to perform solely for records, radio, television, and film. His last recording was made in 1982, the year that he died.

Like some before him Gould's fame has grown since his death. Today many visit Toronto, paying their respects to a man who is arguably one of the greatest contemporary musicians.

- Gail Cooke

An Enigmatic Genius, Understood a Lot Better
Among the classical musicians of the twentieth century, there was none with as eager a fan base as Glenn Gould. The fans have not diminished in number since Gould's death at age fifty in 1982. Gould was a consummate musician who brought light to neglected but important works, but he was also an oddball who adored the Mary Tyler Moore Show, (...), popped dozens of pills every day to help him over imaginary illnesses, and refused to come out of self-imposed isolation to play a recital for a million-dollar fee. There has been an authorized biography of Gould before, but now _Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould_ (Oxford University Press) by Kevin Bazzana must be the one for all fans to have. Bazzana is the editor of nothing less than GlennGould magazine, and has written a previous book about Gould's musicianship. He brings helpful light on such topics as the influence of Gould's one piano teacher and his love of Canada and his home town Toronto. He is especially helpful in illuminating Gould's early life.

Gould's parents were conservative, strict Protestants who stressed propriety as he was growing up in Toronto's Beach district. They had to make sure he did not practice too much (not too little, like most parents of young musicians) and learned that the strictest punishment they ever needed to enforce was locking up the piano. He remained close to them all his life, only moving out of their home when his parents were elderly in 1959. He knew he was going to be a classical pianist from age around five. He loved his neighborhood and the people who knew he was freakish or famous, but treated him as if he were just an unusual guy. He hated performing and touring. Even so, his performances were regarded by many as high points in their lives as listeners. Among the many stories told here is that of his first Russian concert, in Moscow. The auditorium was only a third full, but at intermission, concertgoers hurriedly called their friends to tell them what was going on. There was a small riot for tickets for the second half of the show.

It was the recording studio to which he was devoted and to which he retired from his hated performing. His premiere recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations in 1955 brought to attention a piece that had only rarely been performed or recorded before, being thought too difficult and rarefied. The recording was a sensation, and remains one of the bestselling classical discs of all time. (It ought to be; there is no better join of dazzling technique, speedy fingers, and loving intimacy with the music.) He liked working with the technicians who helped record his performances, and had good humor in the sessions, but it was him in front of the microphone, in the isolation he preferred; he wrote, "Isolation is the one sure way to human happiness." Bazzana relishes the multiple enigmas that Gould presents, and this one is surely key: Gould isolated himself right into millions of homes, where it was obvious he communicated something important. Today, worshipful listeners, some of whom were not alive when he was, make pilgrimages to see his home sites, and his rickety old chair which he used whenever he played. He said that the purpose of art is "... the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." If that is the purpose of art, he would have admired this graceful, readable, big biography that underscores the full complexity of a monumentally enigmatic artist.

A well balanced, definitive biography
After having started his career with meticulous analyses of Glenn Gould's musical interpretations, Bazzana immersed himself in all available resources to write the oracle of Toronto's definitive biography. After the previous biographies by Friedrich and Ostwald and all the articles that have appeared on Gould, much of the material in this book has limited novelty value, yet thanks to the depth of the writer's research, the detailed context he provides of the environment in which the young pianist grew up, and the balanced view of Gould the man and the performer, this biography deserves the "definitive" stamp.

Starting the book with the flight that Gould's fame has taken after his death and the almost pathological admiration among some of the fans, Bazzana puts down the fundament for this biography by detailing the political and social climate of Toronto in the late 1930s. He really does a great job in bringing the sheltered surroundings in which Gould grew up to life, shatters myths over his heritage and does not play up the friction in the relationship between Glenn and his father that others have explored.

Gould was both a "high tech" performer/recording artist and a true romantic. Bazzana delves into this dichotomy by analyzing Glenn's admiration for the odd couple Schoenberg / Richard Strauss. He hits a lot of right notes here, as he does later in unflattering, yet fair analysis of Gould's best known composition, the string quartet opus one, which was clearly influenced by Arnold and Richard.

With an intermission chapter of Gould the man, this book follows the world's most articulate keyboard player throughout his career until his untimely death. A great strength of the book is its balanced treatment of the "hero". Both fans and critics get their say, and many details of eccentricities that have so much been the focus of previous publications are either put in proper context or just completely debunked.

Even almost 22 years after his death Gould is still among his labels best selling artists and has become the most important pianist of the twentieth century. This book shows that this success was based on a lot of method and very little madness.

A must for everyone interested in a visionary artist. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Don't believe everything you read :)
Just scanning the synopsis of this book is quite distressful. I am hoping that the book does not say something as completely wrong as "his sudden deafness at age 26." That is completely false. I am not sure about this book, but I would highly recommend Maynard Solomon's "Beethoven" It is a careful and thoughtful analysis of the man and the musician.

excellent
This is a great book about a great man, Ludwig van Beethoven. Each page has many fine photographs; most in color. It is a very well-written book which will not disappoint. In addition, the quality and feel of the paper is tops. It is nice to have color portraits of people such as Beethoven's grandfather and other members of his family, as well as Antonio Salieri, Haydn, Kreutzer, Clementi, and many of his benefactors and other personal friends, not to mention street scenes, scenes of Beethoven playing the piano as a mesmerized audience looks on, scenes of Fidelio, etc. No one who buys this book can be bored by it or have buyer's remorse.

The reader is transported back to the the late 18th and early 19th century. One thing I liked was finding out what Beethoven was doing at the precise time he wrote a certain work. In the book, Ferdinand Ries (a friend and composer) points out that Beethoven had been humming out loud during a walk in the woods. When he returned, he put to paper the 3rd movement of the famous Appassionata sonata.

This book gets an A plus. ... Read more

Book Description

Gustav Mahler and Alma Maria Schindler were married in . . . 1902. The bride was twenty-one and a half years old, her groom a few months short of forty-two. Apart from their substantial age difference, it seems to have been the very disparity of their intellectual and social backgrounds that drew them together. Mahler was attracted to Alma by her beauty, her alert mind and emotional intensity. Though aware that he possessed by far the broader outlook, he trusted in Alma’s ability and willingness to learn from him."—from the Introduction

"Once the stiffness of unfamiliarity has been softened by a few months of marriage, Mahler’s style of correspondence with Alma is generally simple, direct, and astonishingly down-to-earth. In a manner akin to that of his musical style, he spikes his language with witticisms and double-entendres, colloquialisms and quotations from librettos and classical works of literature."—from the Preface

This profusely illustrated collection of Gustav Mahler’s letters to his wife Alma is more comprehensive than any previous edition; it contains 350 letters, 188 of them until now unpublished. Since 1995, when the German edition of this book was first published, two events have served to expand its horizons: the publication in 1997 of the complete text of Alma’s early diaries, dating from January 1898 to March 1902, and the publication in 2003 of a catalogue of all Mahler letters acquired from the Moldenhauer Archives. With the aid of this new material, the editors were also able to revise the dates assigned to many of the letters. Commentaries and annotations throughout the book have been corrected and expanded annotations included. The editors’ introduction provides a biographical context for the correspondence that follows. ... Read more

Book Description

The meteoric career of the Austrian cellist Emanuel Feuermann ended with his sudden and tragic death in 1942, aged only thirty-nine. A brilliant soloist and chamber performer, many expected him to inherit from Pablo Casals the reputation of the greatest cellist of all time.The trio he formed with Jasha Heifetz and Artur Rubinstein was considered the leading chamber ensemble in the world. This new biography of Feuermann -- a rich combination of documentary and oral history and gripping narrative -- discusses his life, work, and legacy and awards him the place in musical history that he was denied by his early death.

Born one hundred years ago in a humble Galician shtetl, Feuermann grew to maturity in a tumultuous era. Annette Morreau gives an account of the world wars, politics, music culture, and recording history that form the context of his achievements. She also provides invaluable detail about Feuermann's life, drawing on interviews and private letters of family, colleagues, students, and friends, as well as on a wealth of first-hand recollections from some of the most distinguished musicians of the twentieth century. Morreau describes Feuermann's unique style of playing, basing her assessments on the many surviving recordings he made and on contemporary press reviews gathered worldwide. Moreover, so that readers can judge Feuermann's extraordinary talent for themselves, a CD with examples of his performances, some never before released, is included with the book. ... Read more

Book Description

This major work, the result of years of careful study and analysis, places Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's life and music in the context of the intellectual, political and artistic currents of eighteenth-century Europe. The result is a fresh interpretation of Mozart's genius, as Robert Gutman shows the great composer in a new light. With an informed and sensitive handling, Mozart emerges as an affectionate and generous man with family and friends, self-deprecating, witty, and winsome but also an austere moralist, incisive and purposeful. The major genres in which Mozart worked-chamber music, liturgical, theater and keyboard compositions, concertos, operas, symphonies, and oratorios-are unfolded to reveal a man of luminous intellect. Mozart is an extraordinary portrait of a man and his times and a brilliant distillation of musical thought. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A flesh-and-blood Mozart
Though I'm not much of a Mozart buff, and his music generally does little for me, it's impossible to deny his genius or to escape its fascination. So, after again having watched the entertaining nonsense of the movie Amadeus a while ago, I felt compelled to find out a bit more about the REAL story (I knew the gist of it only from Peter Gay's tiny book). What luck then, to find this beautifully produced, comprehensive tome lying around in the remainders corner of a book store. It was worth every cent of the modest price I paid for it. This is biography as it should be. It covers all details of Mozart's personal life, his family, and the troubled relation with his father; it covers many details of his works besides. It also shows his constant wavering on the brink between the dictates of protocol on the one hand and his sense of superiority through creative genius on the other. This delicate balance defined his dealings with Colloredo in Salzburg, with Joseph II in Vienna, and with the hosts of princes, dukes and bishops who governed the mind-boggling patchwork of states that constituted the Holy Roman Empire at that time. In dealing with these issues, Gutman never loses himself in speculation and is eminently sober. Where information is spread thin because of a lack of correspondence or interrupted work on a diary, he just tells us so and moves on. If you are looking for scurrilous anecdotes of the Amadeus kind, you will look in vain here. Mozart, no matter how convinced of his own qualities, would never have dreamt to bow low with his back turned to the ruler of Salzburg, showing him his behind. You will only find his insolence tucked away in a few defiant sentences in a letter, thickly covered by all the servile formulae that were expected of a courtier who ranked no higher than a footman. Neither will you find sycophantic ravings about Mozart's precocious talent. Though the works he produced at a young age were certainly exceptional, their flaws stand out clearly, and many of them also betray the hand of Leopold, as Gutman patiently points out. In fact, I noticed, the flow of great masterpieces only starts once your two-thirds through the book; before that lie the years of the child prodigy dragged all over Europe by his ambitious father, and those of the young composer struggling to find his voice and an audience. By the way, the description of Mozart's work strongly focuses on the opera's, and the sometimes over-extensive (psycho)analysis of the libretti struck me as the only weak aspect of this book. On the whole, however, this book is far more about the man and his world than about the music.
You will also look in vain for uncanny overtones in the visit of the masked messenger who ordered the Requiem, and neither is there the tragic end of the neglected genius dumped in a pauper's grave. Mozart had a standard third class funeral, Gutman tells us, as did most Viennese citizens, and the proceedings surrounding it were quite in keeping with those customary at the time. Nor was the composer a death-ridden derelict in his final year; on the contrary, he was in high spirits, and on the brink of the artistic recognition and ensuing financial success that allowed his widow to spend the many years she survived him in the greatest comfort.
So is this a boring book then? By no means! Gutman replaces the sensational but stale caricature with a flesh-and-blood human being, and a very likeable one at that, who almost jumps off the pages. His treatment of Mozart's psychology is highly refined and subtle. He was no divine spirit incarnate, he was a man like you and me, this book tells you.
But it tells you lots more. It delves deeply into the complicated politics of 18th century Europe, with all its competing rulers, many of them afflicted with strange personalities. Culture and customs are described in similar detail. The ample footnotes contain thumbnail-biographies, delightful anecdotes and musical details alike and almost form a book in themselves. The 800 pages are densely packed with information, not making for a relaxed bed-time read; this book demands your time and concentration, and deserves both! You will reap rich rewards from your investment.

Leopold's little boy
A definitive biography of history's greatest creative genius is of course an illusion. Nevertheless, two American writers have in recent years written large scholarly works which strive to achieve that distinction: Robert Gutman and Maynard Solomon. Gutman's book is greatly to be preferred.

Solomon's book should be read by any serious Mozartian for his interesting new material on and interpretations of issues such as the Mozart family finances and the complex varieties of late 18th century Freemasonry. But his biography is vitiated by his Freudianism and his relentless demonising of Leopold Mozart. In Gutman's book, by contrast, Leopold emerges as a much more interesting and complex character than Solomon's monster. Some of the best parts of the book are the extracts from Leopold's letters during his trips with the boy prodigy. Leopold was an intelligent, humane, tolerant and well-educated man, with shrewd powers of cultural and social observation. (His description of Naples in the 1760's is priceless.) But Gutman's Leopold is no saint either. Gutman convincingly portrays him as a man who was often socially out of his depth and whose maladroit plotting on his son's behalf did Wolfgang more harm than good. He also accuses Leopold of ultimately cheating his grown son out his boyhood earnings - a charge I felt Gutman did not quite prove.

In the early chapters of the book I also found it a bit tiresome how often Gutman felt he had register his disapproval of absolute monarchs. Personally, he prefers democracy. Thank you Mr Gutman, we get the point. For some Americans, it seems, it's always 1776.

Gutman's musical judgements do not quite accord with my own. I thought he was far too dismissive of the compositional skill of the young Mozart. But I must admit he did cast the famous Allegri Miserere and Padre Martini stories in very different light. Gutman also tended to damn with faint praise Mozart's great opera seria, La Clemenza di Tito. On the plus side, he showed an all-too-rare understanding of the aesthetic and religious seriousness of Mozart's church music.

As someone who has been reading Mozart biographies for over thirty years, I was constantly amazed at some new fact or anecdote Gutman had unearthed. Finally, his description of the young genius's death was almost unbearably moving.

If you only buy one Mozart biography (and I suppose there are such people) this should be the one.

excellent bio and history
This book is a much more pleasing read than Maynard's "Mozart: A Life" - unless you like endless psychological analysis.
Gutman describes in detail historical events which influenced the lives of the Mozarts: wars, experiencing freedom in England, interacting with other musicians and philosophers, new outlooks on life and new developments in music.
The fine historical detail embellishes the thorough presentation of Mozart's life: for example, knowing his hometown of Salzburg was not part of Austria during his lifetime makes his eventual move to Vienna seem even more dramatic than otherwise.
The two reasons I don't give it 5 stars are: 1) it paints a more sanitized picture of Mozart than other sources, and 2) many writers seem to think it enhances their works if they include phrases in foreign languages. Gutman is no exception. For example, Mozart's father's thinking at one point is described as "Aut Ceasar, aut nihil." This is apparently a somewhat well-known phrase meaning "To Ceasar all or nothing." but I shouldn't have had to take time out of otherwise enjoyable reading to look it up on the Internet.

Worth the money
A great book for Mozart fans. If you liked Amadeus you'll surely enjoy this book by Gutman.

Unless New Information Requires Revision
This twelve-year effort by Mr. Robert W. Gutman to create a cultural biography around the core that was Mozart, should meet the needs of those educated in music, or those like myself who are fascinated with this genius of History. This work is massive by any measure and even the Author suggested certain passages could be passed over by less sophisticated students of Mozart's work, and music in general.

I read this work over a lengthy period of time as the material is very dense, and the book is more like a collection than a single volume. This is a Biography of Mozart, and also biographies of those who were Family, his peers, and The Monarchs who ruled during his short life. It is a work of History as well. For Mozart the person, throughout the book is always placed within the context of the events surrounding him. Politics would influence where he could play, as would religion, all forms of civil disobedience, and war. In this sense the work has as an element Political Science as well. The Author includes detailed economic facts from the smallest of costs that were included for a concert tour, to the largesse that was or was not handed to Mozart by a variety of Royal Courts. These latter two issues were obsessions with his Father. Mozart Sr. not only micro-managed the lives of his children, but also was constantly vying for the good graces of the wealthy, The Nobility, as well as The Royalty, and dealing with all manner of court intrigue in hopes of his personal advancement.

For any who became interested in Mozart after seeing, "Amadeus", this book, as others do, portrays the composer as at times a colorful individual, but not the debauched character that was seen in the film. His writings at times are colorful in the extreme; his ego and his expressions of his self-importance do not always commend him. However his genius cannot be denied, and while not as raucous as the movie version, Mozart would never be accused of being a bore at gatherings.

I am glad that I read this book, and it will certainly serve as a reference source. I would not recommend this as the first book to read on Mozart unless Music is your field of study. To truly appreciate what the Author has created, and to gain all the knowledge the book contains, an individual must have much more than a passing interest in Mozart. Mr. Gutman has created a scholarly work that would seem to set a standard that will be hard to surpass. ... Read more

Book Description

Bela Bartok, who died in New York fifty years ago this September, is one of the most frequently performed twentieth-century composers. He is also the subject of a rapidly growing critical and analytical literature. Bartok was born in Hungary and made his home there for all but his last five years, when he resided in the United States. As a result, many aspects of his life and work have been accessible only to readers of Hungarian. The main goal of this volume is to provide English-speaking audiences with new insights into the life and reception of this musician, especially in Hungary.

Part I begins with an essay by Leon Botstein that places Bartok in a large historical and cultural context. Lászlo Somfai reports on the catalog of Bartok's works that is currently in progress. Peter Laki shows the extremes of the composer's reception in Hungary, while Tibor Tallián surveys the often mixed reviews from the American years. The essays of Carl Leafstedt and Vera Lampert deal with his librettists Bela Balázs and Melchior Lengyel respectively. David Schneider addresses the artistic relationship between Bartók and Stravinsky.

Most of the letters and interviews in Part II concern Bartók's travels and emigration as they reflected on his personal life and artistic evolution. Part III presents early critical assessments of Bartók's work as well as literary and poetic responses to his music and personality. ... Read more

Book Description

The first lavishly illustrated document of Kurt Weill's extraordinary life and musical career ever published, marking the centenary of his birth

A musical iconoclast, the legendary Kurt Weill has become a figure central to the cultural life of the twentieth century, an artist known for his relentless mitigation of the tension between "high" and "low" art. He left behind a treasury of classical music and unforgettable songs like "Mack the Knife" and "Alabama Song" and, working with Bertolt Brecht and others, musicals like The Threepenny Opera to address the most serious of social and political issues. Now, David Farneth, Director of the Weill-Lenya Research Center and editor of the acclaimed Lenya: The Legend;has created an utterly unique and engaging document of Weill"s life and accomplishments through photos and the composer's own words.

In a lavish style suitable to its topic, Weill covers the composer's entire life, from his German-Jewish heritage and early political experiences, tohis legendary relationship with Lotte Lenya and his late-life experiments with the "concept musical." There is not an event--or a song--untouched. Farneth brings together text and photos from public and private archives in five different countries to assemble the most extraordinary of biographical documents. Weill is an essential addition to any music lover's collection. ... Read more

Book Description

Many music lovers find Wagner's operas inexpressibly beautiful and richly satisfying, while others find them revolting, dangerous, self-indulgent, and immoral.The man who W.H. Auden once called "perhaps the greatest genius that ever lived" has inspired both greater adulation and greater loathing than any other composer.

Bryan Magee presents a penetrating analysis of Wagner's work, concentrating on how his sensational and deeply erotic music uniquely expresses the repressed and highly charged contents of the psyche.He examines not only Wagner's music and detailed stage directions but also the prose works in which he formulated his ideas, as well as shedding new light on his anti-semitism and the way in which the Nazis twisted his theories to suit their own purposes. Outlining the astonishing range and depth of Wagner's influence on our culture, Magee reveals how profoundly he continues to shock and inspire musicians, poets, novelists, painters, philosophers, and politicians today. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Worth Reading, But Not Essential
Some of the reviews here imply that this is a comprehensive study of Wagner, and the best of its kind ever written. Wrong on both accounts. As the title says, the book, which contains five essays, is about ASPECTS of Wagner, not a full-blown study (it's also barely more than 100 pages long).

Of course, Magee is one of today's most insightful and provocative commentators on Wagner, and anyone interested in the composer will certainly want to check out this book, because it's a short, easy read, yet is filled with some interesting points about the obsessiveness of Wagnerites and the psychological reasons behind it, among other things.

On the other hand, not only does the chapter on Wagner's anti-semitism strikes me as half-baked (he does it much better in his full-length study of Wagner, THE TRISTAN CHORD), the book was written over 30 years ago, before Magee came to his his more mature and brilliant insights about Wagner which he outlines so majestically in the TRISTAN CHORD.

Overall, Magee's TRISTAN CHORD is one of the greatest books about Wagner ever written. His ASPECTS OF WAGNER is certainly worth reading, but not essential.

Brilliant
This penetrating essay on Wagner's works is deceptively brief. Magee's analysis is brilliant and right on target. He manages to say in a few well chosen words what other books ramble on about for pages. This book is well written, authoritative, and masterful. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Best wee book on Wagner
The kind of book you buy several of to give away to friends. Short, to-the-point, lucid, wide-ranging. The author has a readable style and, well, knows what he's talking about. Good job.

A Concise, Lucid Approach to Richard Wagner
Despite the fact that this book was first published in 1969, it is so well written in such reasonable language that it still stands as one of the most cogent introductions to the genius of Richard Wagner. The bookstore shelves are full of volumes on the man many consider one of the most important composers ever. But many of those books are biased by quirks of each writer who preach either a love-him-or-hate-him agenda. Magee goes to the source, addressing the writings of the composer during his musical hiatus between Lohengrin and the Ring of the Niebelungen, a period (1848 - 1851) when Wagner withdrew into the works of the great German philosophers and gradually formed his world view of Opera as Drama, or, a religous happening - quite a different stance from the 'Opera as Entertainment' that was the popular consensus of the time. Magee offers translations of Wagner's words that clarify the messages that so often are lost in the verbiage that Wagner labored as he responded to the importance of mythology as a universal language, to Shakespeare as the perfect man of words, to the music of Beethoven as the writer of music that ALMOST didn't need poetry ( even though he granted that Beethoven's 9th Symphony which includes poetry was the gold standard of his time and indeed opened all the Bayreuth Festivals with that Beethoven work before presenting his own operas), and to the writings of Karl Marx, et al. Magee's essays include notes on the claims of AntiSemitism, on the influence of Wagner on the other artists of his time and after his time, and even on performance standards of his works. All this, in a book just over 100 pages in length! An invaluable tool for those who want to better understand why Wagner's music continues today to cause such profound emotional responses. Beautifully written and informative.

Just in the middle of the target
This small book speaks about Wagner's aspects that are the very most important in his real profile. And best of all, it follows (or he, Magee), the most adviceable use in Southern Europe, not to make a mixture between the genius personality and private life with his splendorous and unique art. We do not see Wagner as a relative or friend but as the most spectacular intuitive artist of the history of art. ... Read more

Book Description

From her debut recital at Carnegie Hall to performing with the orchestras of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, oboist Blair Tindall has been playing classical music professionally for twenty-five years. She's also lived the secret life of musicians who survive hand to mouth, trading sex and drugs for low-paying gigs and the promise of winning a rare symphony position or a lucrative solo recording contract.In Mozart in the Jungle, Tindall describes her graduation from the North Carolina School of the Arts to the backbiting New York classical music scene, a world where Tindall and her fellow classical musicians often play drunk, high, or hopelessly hung-over, live in decrepit apartments, and perform in hazardous conditions. (In the cramped confines of a Broadway pit, the decibel level of one instrument is equal to the sound of a chain saw.) Mozart in the Jungle offers a stark contrast between the rarefied experiences of overpaid classical musician superstars and those of the working-class musicians. For lovers of classical music, Mozart in the Jungle is the first true, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on backstage and in the Broadway pit. ... Read more

Book Description

Through hundreds of letters, family papers, anecdotes, and records, the Bach Reader established a new approach to biography by offering original documents in impeccable translations. In The New Bach Reader, Christoph Wolff has incorporated numerous facsimiles and added many newly discovered items, reflecting the current state of scholarship about the composer's life and music. The readings in this volume provide an accurate and vivid picture of Bach's world and of his far-reaching influence. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Comprehensive collection
A wonderful collection of letters by and articles about Bach, both from his own era and afterwards.

Some of his letters have even been set to music! Amazon also has available Peter Schickele's [a k a PDQ Bach] "1712 Overture and other Musical Assaults" which includes his parody on Copland's Lincoln Portrait, in which, instead of reciting The Gettysburg Address, he reads 2 of Bach's many letters complaining about his lack of money.

These are among the best known of Bach's letters, and are a fairly good indication of the general tone of many of his letters.

In one letter he complains to a relative that the cask of wine he had sent was half empty by the time it arrived, and that he had had to pay so many taxes as it passed through various districts of Germany that receiving it was rather expensive!

He concludes by saying something like "Please don't send me any more gifts ... I can't afford it!"

In the second letter, he writes warmly of his very musical family, but also whinges about his pay being less than he expected. He says that he had been promised a certain amount of money per funeral, but unfortunately the winter was so mild very few people died!

Highly recommended for lovers of Bach.

A superb introduction to Bach (and very entertaining)
This is a wonderfully well arranged collection of letters, testimonials, court records and other contemporary documents by and relating to Johann Sebastian Bach. The editors have selected items which paint a picture of a man who knew his own worth, (he argues for, and gets, a higher salary than his predecessors in most of his jobs)didn't tolerate fools gladly, and who had exactly the same problems church musicians today face.

Incidentally, it made me laugh frequently. Some of his testimonials for former students show him damning with faint praise. His argument over who should appoint school prefects leaves you wondering who was lying. And his begging letters to his employers are masterpieces of not-very-obsequious charm.

A great book to dip in and out of, and a resource every musician should own. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

" "
David Revill's book presents cage in a far more accessible manner than some previous biographies, not accessible in the aesthetic sense, but as ease of reading. Cage's work is frequently presented with lots of Cagean technical jargon. In other words, unless you've done a scholarly study and analysis of "Silence," they are difficult to understand. Revill brings Cage as a human being to the reader, without too much theory. Moreover, this book seems to show more intimately, Cage as a man-- not as name. I would highly recommend this book to both those seeking information for research, and understanding of Cage's complex aesthetic philosophy.

Read this to hear differently
An essential book for anyone interested in John Cage's music or post-war classical music. It gives a comprehensive view of Cage's entire life as well as his thoughts on music, covering his time both before and after discovering Zen. David Revill writes in a matter of fact, straightforward manner, without infusing the book with his personal opinions, although his percussion background comes through when he describes the rhythmic details of Cage's compositions. Overall a fine introduction to Cage's thought, but be sure to hear his music as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Mahler's 10 symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde are intensely personal statements that have touched wide audiences. This survey examines each of the works, revealing their programmatic and personal aspects, as well as Mahler's musical techniques. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Absolutely Indispensable for the Mahlerite.
The symphonies of Gustav Mahler can be listened to on more than one level. As complex and forward-looking as they are, they nonetheless can connect at an elemental, "visceral" level for many listeners.

However, for a fuller appreciation of both the details and the profundity which are in these works, as well as for insight into Mahler's creative processes, some outside help is required, and this help is usually not forthcoming from the liner or booklet notes that accompany recordings, or from the program notes that accompany performances. This is precisely where this excellent book by Constantin Floros fits in.

First, a few words on what this book is not, and does not purport to be. It is not a comparative discography of available performances; in fact, it neither lists nor recommends recordings. Second, it is not a critical biography of Mahler; the interested reader is referred to the outstanding (but much more expensive) volumes by Henry-Louis de la Grange, available elsewhere at Amazon.com. Third, it is not a psychological study of Mahler, relating, as such a study might, such connections between the man and the music; an excellent small volume by Theodor Adorno, "Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy" covers that territory very well, and is also available elsewhere at Amazon.com. Fourth, and finally, it is not a set of musical scores of the symphonies; those as well, published by Dover in inexpensive paperback editions, can be found at Amazon.com

So, just what is this Floros book? It is the perfect companion for the serious Mahlerite in understanding the genesis and the thematic, harmonic and interpretational details of each of Mahler's ten symphonies, and the interrelationships and comparisons among them. It has just enough of the material covered in the references noted above, along with detailed analyses of the symphonies, for each of them to be better understood and placed in historical and musical context by the listener. Its greatest insight into these symphonies comes largely from Floros' remarkable scholarship in tracking down all of the score notes that Mahler provided in his sketches, short scores and long scores, his correspondences with his wife, friends and interpreters, and their comments and observations as well. By piecing all of this research together, relying particularly heavily on Mahler's own notes, Floros has come up with a near-definitive look into Mahler's creative and interpretational processes (a term for such a look based on scholarship that Floros describes as "hermeneutics").

The book's publication date (1985 in the original German) means that it is the beneficiary of a series of events in the 1960's that opened the door to greatly improved accuracy in the study of this complex man and his equally complex music. First was the passage into the public domain of much of Mahler's own private writings, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Second was the agreement on the part of his widow, Alma Mahler-Werfel, to release other materials, particularly related to his unfinished 10th Symphony, for public scrutiny. Third was the availability of this material to the Englishman Deryck Cooke, and others, who provided performing versions of this final 10th Symphony so that the public at large could better judge the direction in which Mahler had been heading when his work was cut short by premature death. Floros pays great respect to, and provides excellent insight into, the work of Cooke in his (Floros') plan to describe the full symphonic output of Mahler.

This book is very liberally annotated, with briefly-scored examples as reference marks for understanding the interrelationships among the various musical themes, as well as end notes for each symphony and a detailed bibliography for further reading. While it helps to be able to read these brief bars of music, even those who cannot will benefit immensely from Floros' scholarship and fine, but nonetheless dense, writing in providing extramusical background and values for a better understanding of these remarkable symphonies which moves so many of us.

Without question, the single most valuable reference source for a fuller understanding of the Mahler symphonies. And a compact and inexpensive companion for the Mahlerite.

Outstanding
If you want to know how a Mahler symphony is put together and why it works, this is the only book that does it. Reading it with a score at hand is useful, but not necessary. Technical but worth it.

It gave a good background on why each symphony was composed.
The book was translated very well. It broke each symphony down by movement and gave its history, as well as a breif analysis. I definite must for Mahler fans! ... Read more

Book Description

"One of the great artists of our time."
––Luciano Pavarotti

"A treasure in the world of opera."
––Plácido Domingo

"We are fortunate to have this book abo