Mozart was the first composer whose operas have never left the international repertoire, and for many he remains one of the finest vocal composers who ever lived. In a sense, all of his music is vocal music, depending as it does on arresting,...
In this book, Hurwitz takes the reader/listener through Mozart's chamber and orchestral music. This music doesn't sound like anyone else's – only Mozart could have written it. What makes it so special and how to enjoy it are explored. The CD...
In this comprehensive exploration of Puccini's most beloved operas, on the 150th anniversary of his birth, John Bell Young celebrates some of the most moving music ever composed. In clear-cut, concise, but also entertaining prose, the author conveys...
Includes full-length CD from the Bach Collegium Japan.J.S. Bach – A Listener's Guide to His Choral Music introduces the general listener to a genre of music that is mistakenly supposed to be “difficult.” A vivid biographical sketch...
Along with Beethoven's sonatas and the purely idiomatic works for piano of Chopin and Debussy, the solo keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach represents the heart of the pianist's repertory; in the more specialized field of music for the organ,...
Ludwig van Beethoven's chamber works are some of his most revered compositions. Victor Lederer guides the serious nonprofessional listener through this oeuvre in his new book Beethoven's Chamber Music: A Listener's Guide.Lederer shows how...
Beethoven's works for solo piano – the sonatas, variations, and bagatelles – and the five concertos for piano and orchestra stand at the heart of the repertory. Beethoven's Piano Music: A Listener's Guide, by Victor Lederer, will help...
The latest release in this value rich book/CD series brings us the great German composer who bridged the classical and romantic eras. In Beethoven's Symphonies – A Guided Tour, readers are treated to a detailed nuts-and-bolts description in...
In this survey of Brahm's music, John Bell Young explores in depth the composer's private world of musical intimacies that infuriated Wagner, but inspired Schumann, Schoenberg, and millions of music lovers for generations to come. He also addresses...
Frédéric Chopin died a famous man with his place in the musical pantheon secure. Yet the works that were once most popular tended to be his lightest and least challenging, leading many listeners and critics to view him as a miniaturist...
Composer, bon vivant, pianist, teacher, superstar showman, raconteur, writer, entrepreneur, ladies' man, philanthropist, and priest, Franz Liszt is widely viewed today not only as a great composer, but also as the greatest pianist of the 19th...
John Bell Young explores some of the richest and most memorable instrumental music ever written. How did this prolific musician compose more than a thousand masterpieces in a career that spanned less than two decades? Young's colorful analysis of a...
Ringer sheds new perspectives on Schubert's songs, focusing on their incomparable dramatic power, which often exceeds that of many a full-fledged opera. But Schubert's “stage” was not to be the public theaters of the repressive...
The fall of the Soviet empire has not diminished the popularity of Dmitri Shostakovich's great symphonies and concertos one bit, despite the fact that most literature on him neglects any substantive discussion of the music itself in favor of...
Since Gustav Mahler was rediscovered in the early 1960s, his symphonies have become arguably the most popular works in the modern orchestral repertoire. Mahler's Symphonies: An Owner's Manual is the first discussion of the ten completed symphonies...
