'A glorious plum-pudding of a book,to be consulted,with pleasure and profit,over and over again'Sir Jeremy Isaacs Michael Steen's'Great Composers'was originally published in 2003. A lifetime's work and almost 1000 pages long,it has since become'the'reference point and key read on the biographical backgrounds to classical music's biggest names.Authoritative and hugely detailed - but nonetheless a joy to read - this new edition will expand its readership further and capitalise on a newfound popular interest in classical music.Steen's book helps you explore the story of Bach,the respectable burgher much of whose vast output was composed amidst petty turf disputes in Lutheran Leipzig; or the ugly,argumentative Beethoven in French-occupied Vienna,obsessed by his laundry; or Mozart,the over-exploited infant prodigy whose untimely death was shrouded in rumour.Read about Verdi,who composed against the background of the Italian Risorgimento; or about the family life of the Wagners; and,Brahms,who rose from the slums of Hamburg to become a devotee of beer and coffee in fin-de-siecle Vienna,a cultural capital bent on destroying Mahler...and much,much more.
Publisher: Icon BooksISBN: 9781848311350Number of pages: 992Weight: 736 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 55 mm
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Hugely informative and deliciously gossipyA glorious plum-pudding of a book,to be consulted,with pleasure and profit,over and over againMichael Steen's beautifully illustrated book packs an astonishing amount of biographical and cultural detail into nearly forty subjects.
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