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.

    " In Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life, Robert Spaethling presents "Mozart in all the rawness of his driving energies" (Spectator), preserved in the "zany, often angry effervescence" of his writing (Observer). Where other translators have ignored Mozart's atrocious spelling and tempered his foul language, "Robert Spaethling's new translations are lively and racy, and do justice to Mozart's restlessly inventive mind" (Daily Mail). Carefully selected and meticulously annotated, this collection of letters "should be on the shelves of every music lover" (BBC Music Magazine).

    Reason? His music lasts.With penetrating philosophical and spiritual insights Stockhausen describes, in this collection of lectures and interviews conducted in English, a whole new universe of sounds and events."Stockhausen's uncompromising attitude to conventional aesthetics has made him one of the world's most admired musicians."?The Independent"Let there be no doubt that he is a giant, a monster cartographer of massive new spaces."?Tempo"The great innovator of the 1950s and 1960s is still a fountain of ideas. Stockhausen on Music shows the extrordinary range of his mind."?The Sunday Times

    Noted accompanist Graham Johnson provides repertoire guides to the work of over 150 composers--the majority of them from France but including British, American, German, Spanish, and Italian musicians who have written French vocal music. The book contains major articles on Faur�, Duparc, Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc, as well as essays on Bizet, Chabrier, Gounod, Chausson, Hahn, and Satie, and important reassessments of such composers as Massenet, Koechlin, and Leguerney.The book combines these articles with the complete texts in English of over 700 songs, all translated by Richard Stokes, making it also a treasury of French poetry from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. The translations alone will prove invaluable to music lovers and performers; combined with the biographical articles, they become the ideal map for exploring this exciting and diverse repertoire.

    Whether discussing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Schoenberg, or other pianists, his reflections will prove invaluable to serious piano players and listeners alike.

    The gifted violinist gave his first solo recital at the age of eight and within five years rose to international fame. In addition to his enduring career as a performer and conductor, Menuhin was a tireless champion of humanitarian causes, ran the Bath Festival, founded a renowned music school, and served as cultural ambassador to the United Nations. While the familiar image of Menuhin is that of a saintly, philosophizing guru, this compelling biography reveals that he was also a complex individualist who often sparked controversy. Humphrey Burton draws on his own radio interviews with Menuhin, unpublished family correspondence, and a wealth of primary sources to trace his extraordinary life from child prodigy, to mature artist, to musical diplomat. He relates in vivid narrative Menuhin's considerable achievements and wide-ranging interests, discussing his political activism, devotion to yoga, and treasured musical partnerships with sitarist Ravi Shankar and jazz violinist Stephane Grappeli. Burton delves into Menuhin's conflicts with the Jewish establishment over his postwar support of conductor Wilhelm Furtwaengler and his efforts to build bridges with the defeated German nation. He describes his two marriages, first to an Australian heiress and then to ballerina Diana Gould, and chronicles the unhappy period characterized by Menuhin's father as "the War of the Wives." The work also includes Gould's satirical essay, "A Day in the Life of Yehudi Moshevich," which originally appeared in the program book of the 1965 Bath Festival. This captivating and in-depth portrait of Yehudi Menuhin will stand as the definitive work on an exceptional musician and human being.

    His compositions, many of which are today recognized masterpieces of musical art, usually evoked either genuine bewilderment or sharp criticism when first performed. Prokofiev's music is performed today all over the world; his works are studied at music schools everywhere. The first two parts of this book are devoted to the composer's own writings (his autobiographical notes, articles and reviews), the rest to articles about Prokofiev by prominent Soviet musicians, artists, and others who were associated with him at one or another period of his life.

    This is a comprehensive biography of the French composer Gabriel Faure for the general reader, placing his work in the context of his times.