BBC Proms 2021


Book Description

The BBC Proms is the world's biggest and longest-running classical music festival and one of the jewels in the crown for the BBC. Held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London, it is one of the strongest brand names in the music world and attracts a glittering array of artists and orchestras. Whether you're a first-time visitor or an experienced Prommer, watching at home or listening on radio or online, the BBC Proms Guide will be an excellent companion to a remarkable summer of music, which you can treasure and return to in years to come. Filled with the latest programme details and illuminating articles by leading experts, journalists and writers, the BBC Proms Guide gives a wide-ranging insight into the performers and repertoire, as well as thought-provoking opinion pieces about audiences, music and music-making. The contents for 2021 include a specially commissioned short story by award-winning author Chibundu Onuzo; an exploration of music and silence by author, commentator and broadcaster Will Self; a celebration of the history and influence of the iconic Royal Albert Hall 150 years after its opening by historian, author, curator and television presenter Lucy Worsley; a tribute to anniversary composer Igor Stravinsky; and an article spotlighting the remarkable Kanneh-Mason siblings (spearheaded by royal-wedding cellist Sheku).




BBC Proms 2021


Book Description

The BBC Proms is the world's biggest and longest-running classical music festival and one of the jewels in the crown for the BBC. Held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London, it is one of the strongest brand names in the music world and attracts a glittering array of artists and orchestras. Whether you're a first-time visitor or an experienced Prommer, watching at home or listening on radio or online, the BBC Proms Guide will be an excellent companion to a remarkable summer of music, which you can treasure and return to in years to come. Filled with the latest programme details and illuminating articles by leading experts, journalists and writers, the BBC Proms Guide gives a wide-ranging insight into the performers and repertoire, as well as thought-provoking opinion pieces about audiences, music and music-making. The contents for 2021 include a specially commissioned short story by award-winning author Chibundu Onuzo; an exploration of music and silence by author, commentator and broadcaster Will Self; a celebration of the history and influence of the iconic Royal Albert Hall 150 years after its opening by historian, author, curator and television presenter Lucy Worsley; a tribute to anniversary composer Igor Stravinsky; and an article spotlighting the remarkable Kanneh-Mason siblings (spearheaded by royal-wedding cellist Sheku).




The Life of Music


Book Description

Nicholas Kenyon explores the enduring appeal of the classical canon at a moment when we can access all music—across time and cultures Immersed in music for much of his life as writer, broadcaster and concert presenter, former director of the BBC Proms, Nicholas Kenyon has long championed an astonishingly wide range of composers and performers. Now, as we think about culture in fresh ways, Kenyon revisits the stories that make up the classical tradition and foregrounds those which are too often overlooked. This inclusive, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic guide highlights the achievements of the women and men, amateurs and professionals, who bring music to life. Taking us from pianist Myra Hess’s performance in London during the Blitz, to John Adams’s composition of a piece for mourners after New York’s 9/11 attacks, to Italian opera singers singing from their balconies amidst the 2020 pandemic, Kenyon shows that no matter how great the crisis, music has the power to bring us together. His personal, celebratory account transforms our understanding of how classical music is made—and shows us why it is more relevant than ever.




The Firebird, 1919 Suite


Book Description

Stravinsky's ballet score for The Firebird launched his career as a composer after its Paris premiere in 1910. Although he extracted an orchestral suite the following year, the large orchestra required limited performances in the concert hall. World War I, the Russian Revolution and a move to Switzerland intervened before he was able to arrange a suitable concert suite for a normal-sized orchestra, which was given its premiere by Ernest Ansermet and the newly founded Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in April of 1919. Offered here is the first definitive newly engraved publication of the concert-hall staple in the near-century since its first publication by Chester in 1920 - in a notoriously error-heavy edition. Thoroughly researched and edited by Clark McAlister and Clinton F. Nieweg, this new study score will be a most welcome addition to the libraries of conductors, music students and fans of the great Russian master's music everywhere.




Pictures of an Exhibitionist


Book Description

Keyboard legend Keith Emerson is one of the most important figures to emerge from the thriving rock scene of the sixties and seventies. Fusing rock ‘n' roll with classical, jazz, and world music, he has set a standard by which others are judged. With Greg Lake and Carl Palmer, he formed the hugely successful Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who, between 1970 and 1977, released six platinum albums. Now in this insightful and irreverent memoir, Emerson tells uproarious tales of life on the road, tales of the high lifestyle that goes with being a rock star, and of course, tales of the outrageous, barrier-shattering music he produced.




Mozart's Women


Book Description

Mozart was fascinated, amused, aroused, hurt, and betrayed by women. He loved and respected them, composed for them, performed with them. This unique biography looks at his interaction with each, starting with his family (his mother, Maria Anna and beloved and talented sister, Nannerl), and his marriage (which brought his 'other family', the Weber sisters). His relationships with his artists are examined, in particular those of his operas, through whose characters Mozart gave voice to the emotions of women who were, like his entire female acquaintance, restrained by the conventions and structures of eighteenth-century society. This is their story as well as his -- and shows once again that a great part of the composer’s genius was in his understanding and musical expression of human nature. Evocative and beautifully written, Mozart’s Women illuminates the music, the man, and above all the women who inspired him. 'Jane Glover has pulled off a coup des livres with her fresh take on Mozart's life and work’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Readable, informative and moving...Her passion for the music shines through this touching, vividly told story' Sunday Times




The Pathetick Musician


Book Description

Baroque oboists Bruce Haynes and Geoffrey Burgess established reputations as authorities on the history of their instrument with their co-authored book The Oboe, voted an outstanding achievement by the American Music Instrument Society. Haynes' writings, notably The End of Early Music, are known for pioneering new approaches in historical performance practice and inspiring healthy debate among scholars and performers of early music. Burgess, an instructor at the Eastman School of Music, recently published Well-Tempered Woodwinds: Friedrich von Huene and the Making of Early Music in a New World, which combines the biography of a leading manufacturer of historic instruments with a history of the emerging early music scene in America. Bruce Haynes passed away in May, 2011.




Recording Orchestra and Other Classical Music Ensembles


Book Description

Recording Orchestra and Other Classical Music Ensembles explores techniques and methodologies specific to recording classical music. Whether a newcomer or a seasoned engineer looking to refine their skills, this book speaks to all levels of expertise and covers every aspect of recording symphonic and concerto repertoire, opera, chamber music, and solo piano. With a focus on the orchestra as an instrument and sound source, this book features sections on how to listen, understanding microphones, concert halls, orchestra seating arrangements, how to set up the monitoring environment, and how to approach recording each section of the orchestra. Recording Orchestra provides concise information on preparing for a recording session, the role of the producer, mixing techniques, and includes a "quick-start" reference guide with suggested setups aimed at helping introduce the reader to the recording process. A companion website, featuring audio examples of various techniques, reinforces concepts discussed throughout the book. The content of the book includes: Clear, practical advice in plain language from an expert in classical music recording, multiple Grammy award winning recording engineer, and university professor The "secret of recording": a collection of practical recording techniques that have been proven to be highly successful in the field, on many occasions Never before published information written by an industry veteran with over twenty five-years of experience in classical music recording Specific techniques and strategies for recording orchestra, opera, wind symphony, chorus, string quartet, and other common classical music ensembles.




Music and Instruments of the Elizabethan Age


Book Description

Uses the rare depictions of musical instruments and musical sources found on the Eglantine Table to understand the musical life of the Elizabethan age and its connection to aspects of culture now treated as separate disciplines ofhistorical study.




Chymical Wedding


Book Description

Soon after moving to the secluded Norfolk village of Munding, Alex Darken has a disturbing encounter with the ageing poet Edward Nesbit and his young lover Laura. They are obsessively researching the lives of Sir Henry Agnew and his daughter Louisa who lived in Munding in the nineteenth century and were deeply engaged in alchemical practices. By recovering the lost secret of the hermetic mysteries, Edward and Laura hope to find an alternative to the destructive materialism of the post-industrial world. Once drawn into their fervent quest for knowledge, Alex finds himself entangled in a passionate and intense intrigue that reaches across two centuries. A beautifully written, ambitious and captivating novel, which takes a profound look at issues of nature, human existence and forgotten knowledge, The Chymical Wedding, which won the 1989 Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, is already considered a classic for its stylistic prowess and philosophical resonances.