The Bel Canto Violin
The Bel Canto Violin

Author: David Tunley

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-12-20

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 0429758790

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First published in 1999, this biography from David Tunley draws on newly researched documentary evidence to chart Campoli’s early success and his later struggle for recognition as a serious artist. Campoli’s early success and his later struggle for recognition as a serious artist. Campoli’s career emerges as one particularly shaped and directed by the great economic and social forces of the first half of the century, and the story here is as much that of his times, as of his life. Described by Szigeti as ‘one of the last great individualists among violinists’, Alfredo Campoli was a household name in the field of British light music prior to the Second World War. Having made his début at the Wigmore Hall in 1923 Campoli toured with Melba and Butt, then turned to light music during the Depression. He became one of Decca’s early recording artists and broadcast frequently for the BBC with his light music ensembles and pursued a long, successful career as a distinguished international performer.

Beethoven in Love; Opus 139
Beethoven in Love; Opus 139

Author: Howard Jay Smith

Publisher:

Published: 2018-04-03

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9780692087053

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Second Edition. A daring, compelling, and impeccably researched historical novel that offers dramatic new insight into the life of the greatest composer the world has ever known. Its fresh perspective and deeply felt understanding of Beethoven's motivations, passions, and challenges speak eloquently to us today, connecting us to our own successes, failures, and dreams, and ultimately to the true consequence of our lives. At the moment of his death on a snowy afternoon in March, 1827, Ludwig van Beethoven pleads with Providence to grant him a final wish¿one day, just a single day of pure joy. But first he must confront the many failings in his life, so the great composer and exceedingly complex man begins an odyssey into the netherworld of his past life. As he struggles to confront its ugliness, we encounter the women who loved and inspired him. In their own voices, we discover their Beethoven¿a lover with whom they savor the profound beauty and passion of his creations. And it¿s in the arms of his beloveds that he comes to terms with the meaning of his life and experiences the moment of true joy he has always sought.

Playing with Fire
Playing with Fire

Author: Elizabeth Wilson

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2022-01-01

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0300253931

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The first full biography of the fearless and brilliant Maria Yudina, a legendary pianist who was central to Russian intellectual life "Playing with Fire is a ground-breaking work--a phenomenal biography of a towering human spirit of everlasting relevance."--Norman Lebrecht, Wall Street Journal Maria Yudina was no ordinary musician. An incredibly popular pianist, she lived on the fringes of Soviet society and had close friendships with such towering figures as Boris Pasternak, Pavel Florensky, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Legend has it that she was Stalin's favorite pianist. Yudina was at the height of her fame during WWII, broadcasting almost daily on the radio, playing concerts for the wounded and troops in hospitals and on submarines, and performing for the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad. By the last years of her life, she had been dismissed for ideological reasons from the three institutions where she taught. And yet, according to Shostakovich, Yudina remained "a special case. . . . The ocean was only knee-deep for her." In this engaging biography, Elizabeth Wilson sets Yudina's extraordinary life within the context of her times, where her musical career is measured against the intense intellectual and religious ferment of the postrevolutionary period and the ensuing years of Soviet repression.