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THE INDISPENSABLE COMPOSERS

Name: THE INDISPENSABLE COMPOSERS
Author: Anthony Tommasini
ISBN: 978-1-59420-593-4

A PERSONAL GUIDE

by Anthony Tommasini ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2018

Also starring Schumann, Verdi, Debussy, Puccini, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and, briefly, some up-and-comers like Philip Glass...

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A spirited musical compendium to the best of the best.

New York Times chief classic music critic Tommasini (Opera: A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings, 2004, etc.) picks the “unfathomable achievements of indispensable—and indisputably great—composers.” His goal is to keep his assessments simple, insightful, and jargon-free, and he succeeds. The author draws on biographical and historical materials, revealing anecdotes, and his extensive personal exposure to innumerable musical performances and skill as a pianist to provide succinct, highly readable miniprofiles of the greats. Entertaining, highly enthusiastic, and very knowledgeable, he’s the perfect guide. Tommasini begins in the 16th century, with Monteverdi, the “creator of modern music,” and ends in the 20th with a “modernist master,” Bartók. The author is awestruck with the “staggering genius and superhuman achievement” of Bach’s “innate musical talents of astonishing depth.” For “all [of Handel’s] genius as a musical dramatist,” Tommasini suggests, he had his “show-biz side,” and “reaching the public was crucial to his aesthetic.” The author marvels that over a 75-year period, one city, Vienna, “fostered the work of four of the most titanic composers in music history”: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, that “uncanny…hypersensitive outcast (a gay outcast?).” Recalling an “extraordinary” performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto, Tommasini can’t help himself: “This is Beethoven! This is life!” If the author could go “backward in time to hear just one legendary composer in performance,” it would be Chopin, “for sure.” He encourages listeners to “see through the nastiness of Wagner the man to the beauty of his art.” And “if there is one word that gets at the core of Brahms’s music for me, it’s breadth.”

Also starring Schumann, Verdi, Debussy, Puccini, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and, briefly, some up-and-comers like Philip Glass and George Benjamin, all exuberantly presented for your edification and enjoyment.

Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-59420-593-4

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.