Showing results for "Composers" in Biographies & Memoirs

Profiles offer revealing insights into what drove each individual to create the musical masterpieces - symphonies, concertos and operatic scores - that changed the direction of classical music and are still celebrated as masterpieces today. The audiobook introduces the key influences, themes and working methods of each individual, setting their works within a wider historical and cultural context. 

An exploration into the question of greatness from the Chief Classical Music Critic of the New York Times When he began to listen to the great works of classical music as a child, Anthony Tommasini had many questions. Why did a particular piece move him? How did the music work? Over time, he...

In John Williams: A Composer's Life, the first biography of the composer, author Tim Greiving offers an engaging account of a man whose body of work is well-known but whose personal life has consistently remained very private.

Set against the music we know and love, Mozart, Beethoven, and many more come alive through their correspondence. Poignant, funny, revealing, informative and so often direct and honest, these letters offer a fascinating insight into the personalities that created our Western musical tradition.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a figure that is cemented in the annals of history as one of the greatest composers of all time. A fascinating and enigmatic character, Mozart was hailed in his own lifetime as a child prodigy and a musical genius. His travels throughout Europe exposed him to art, music, and education, offering plentiful opportunities for his gifts as a composer and musician to evolve and thrive. Despite his preternatural talents, the artist struggled significantly throughout his life, and he died in his prime.

Discover the remarkable life of Johann Sebastian Bach... During his lifetime, Johann Sebastian Bach was a Konzertmeister who played eloquent music for the masses at church, but his unique, free-flowing style was not always appreciated when his day job called for him to play traditional church standards. He was jailed by a duke, passed over for promotions, and told repeatedly to tone it down. Yes, for most of his life, Bach was more akin to an unsung hero than the celebrated genius we know him as today. That recognition would come, but not until long after he was gone.

If any of the great composers have a staying power that defies genre and time period, Frédéric Chopin was most certainly one of them. You can find his work being played with cherished delight by any budding pianist, and his music serves as a constant backdrop and mainstay for piano concertos worldwide. But what do we really know about Frédéric Chopin? A child prodigy, Frédéric Chopin was a transplant from Poland who took the artistic world of Paris by storm.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Musikalisches Ausnahmetalent. Der erfahrene Autor und Herausgeber Bert Alexander Petzold nimmt uns mit auf eine faktenreiche Kulturreise und erläutert verständlich, unterhaltsam und strukturiert Basiswissen zum bis heute weltweit einzigartigen Komponisten Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) zeigt seine außergewöhnliche Begabung bereits als Kind, als ihm sein Vater, ein renommierter Geiger, zusammen mit seiner Schwester Musikunterricht erteilt.

The Great Gate of Kiev resounds to the tumultuous bell rings that end Pictures an an Exhibition, one of the most magnificent and virtuosic of all piano pieces. However, to some of his contemporaries, Modest Mussorgsky was ‘insane’ and ‘a perfect idiot’. Born into a wealthy land-owning family, what drove this tormented man and why did he suffer psychological breakdowns and alcoholism? How did he achieve his command of the realist idiom in his stage works? d, of course, Pictures at an Exhibition.

Tchaikovsky is famous for all the wrong reasons. Portrayed as a hopeless romantic, a suffering melancholic, or a morbid obsessive, the Tchaikovsky we think we know is a shadow of the fascinating reality. It is all too easy to forget that he composed an empire's worth of music, and navigated the imperial Russian court to great advantage. In this iconoclastic biography, celebrated author Simon Morrison recreates Tchaikovsky's complex world. 

A concentrated study of Johann Sebastian Bach's creative output and greatest pieces, capturing the essence of his art.

A comic book character is born, the youngest of 16, into a war-torn country. Facing extreme brutality at school and on the streets, not to mention the oppression of the Catholic Church, he finds music. Armed with a violin and a burning passion, he escapes the madness and sets off to pursue his dreams.

Der Müllner-Peter von Sachrang ist eine Legende. Er war Arzt, Apotheker und ein ausgezeichneter Musiker, dessen Werke heute noch gespielt werden. In dem kleinen Dorf im Aschauer Tal an der Grenze zwischen Bayern und Tirol erlebt er die napoleonische Besatzung. Als junger Mann soll er Priester werden. Er entschließt sich gegen diesen Weg und bringt damit die ganze Gemeinde gegen sich auf. Aber stets hilft ihm seine Begabung einen Weg in die Herzen der Menschen zu finden. Ebenso schwer hat er es mit der Frau an seiner Seite.

Following on the success of The Story of Classical Music, Darren Henley and Aled Jones combine forces again to tell, in more detail, the lives of six key composers: Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvořák, and Shostakovich. Their colourful lives and their love of music is told against the backdrop of some of their finest works - an ideal combination.

This audiobook analyzes the themes and progression of the composers' most famous works, comparing and contrasting them to each other and other composers' great works.

From the silence of a Turin Institute for Infants to the unfolding symphonies of a life in music, The Unknown Composer is a deeply personal memoir of identity, transformation, and creative devotion. John A. Carollo—born Giovanni Baudino—was adopted from Italy and raised in Pennsylvania, a child caught between languages, cultures, and selves. Through music and poetry, he forged a life of meaning beyond abandonment, beyond acclaim. With candor and lyricism, he traces his evolution from a solitary child to a prolific composer whose works span piano, orchestra, choir, verse, and chamber music.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) stammt aus einer angesehenen Musikerfamilie in Bonn. Der talentierte Junge wird Meisterschüler des Hoforganisten Christian Gottlob Neefe und vertritt ihn bereits im Alter von 11 Jahren an der Orgel. Neefe lobt seinen Schüler im "Magazin der Musik" als zweiten Mozart. Beethoven reist nach Wien, um Kompositionsschüler bei Mozart zu werden. Joseph Haydn, bei dem er vorspielt, bestärkt Beethoven darin, 1792 erneut nach Wien zu reisen.

Beethoven, génie de la musique à l'esprit insoumis, se lie d'une amitié touchante avec Eduard, le fils de son mécène et ami le Prince Alois von Lichnowsky. Ce dernier lui impose de jouer à un dîner donné en l'honneur d'officiers français, dont les troupes conquérantes occupent l'Autriche. Pour Beethoven, c'est hors de question.

John Cage was a giant of American experimental music - composer, writer, and artist. He is most widely known for his 1952 composition "4'33", whose three movements continue to challenge the definition of music by being performed without playing a single note. In questioning fundamental tenets of Western music, Cage was often at the center of controversy, and is regarded as an important contributor to many facets of American culture.

What kind of a man could create the dreaming melodies of the "Moonlight Sonata"? Give birth to the dramatic voice of the "Fifth Symphony"? Compose the "Ode to Joy"? Meet Ludwig van Beethoven, the musical genius, the passionate artist, the incorrigible man, the composer from whose soul music breathed.