Greetings from Amazon.com Delivers Classical Music Books and Scores This month we've gathered books together around several larger themes. Coming very soon is Teldec's monumental, 153-CD edition of all the known music of Johann Sebastian Bach (known as "Bach 2000"). Get ready by reading up on the master, of whom Malcolm Boyd paints an invitingly lucid portrait. Meanwhile, in case you think you've heard the last word on Maria Callas, don't overlook the intimate (and visually rich) recent biography by her personal friend Stelios Galatopoulos. Then, while enjoying one of Callas's interpretations of her signature role in "Norma," enter into Bellini's world via the Cambridge Opera Handbook's excellent study of the work. Finally, fans of chamber music can compare the real-life vicissitudes of quartet playing (as practiced in the former Soviet Union by the Borodin String Quartet) with the fictional account of music making envisioned in Vikram Seth's highly praised new novel about longing, love, and music. "Bach" by Malcolm Boyd http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0028648137/entertainmentsit Though he begins by bemoaning "the difficulty of writing anything on Bach remotely worthy of its subject," Malcolm Boyd goes on to do exactly that. This volume from the Master Musicians Series intermingles chapters on Bach's life with chapters on his music in a delightfully clearheaded way. Boyd is perfectly willing to say whether he finds a piece of music to be substandard and freely takes issue with the scholarship of earlier analysts. Taking nothing for granted, Boyd disproves common assumptions about relative dates of compositions. The section on cantatas begins with brief notes on the genre, a few antecedents, and the subtypes of secular and sacred. Boyd then briskly reviews the surviving works, dwelling on a few for some enlightening and representative details. Boyd's charts are very easy to follow (appropriate for a composer whose music is often compared to architecture), and his musical examples are spectacularly well chosen. A 22-page work list (revised in 1997), a life calendar, and a brief chapter on numerology round out a highly rewarding volume. "Maria Callas: Sacred Monster" by Stelios Galatopoulos http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684859858/entertainmentsit Maria Callas is a biographer's dream. Born into poverty, she turned herself from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, and in the process became the most celebrated diva of the 20th century. She breathed life, drama, and passion into an art form that had hitherto remained the preserve of an intellectual elite, and was single-handedly responsible for turning opera from an arts-page sideshow to front-page news. Her bust-ups with the New York Met and her disastrous love life were as enthralling as her voice, and there was a depressing inevitability about her mysterious, early death in 1977 at the age of 54. What separates Stelios Galatopoulos from the rest of her biographers is the wealth of previously unpublished material from which he draws. He is stronger than most on Callas's early years. Galatopoulos was a close personal friend of Callas; as such he was privy to her most private thoughts and he offers us some fascinating new insights. What he doesn't always do, though, is maintain a critical eye. Overall, Galatopoulos does a superb job in re-creating the opera world of the 1940s through to the 1970s, and he excels in his assessment of Callas's artistic achievements. "Vincenzo Bellini: Norma" by David Kimbell http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521485142/entertainmentsit This is the first time that the excellent series of Cambridge Opera Handbooks has put together a guide to a bel canto opera. The longest chapter gives a detailed synopsis of the plot, but the most helpful chapter gathers together sources for the libretto, information that is difficult to find elsewhere. (Librettist Felice Romani was a classical scholar, and the story has parallels with the Medea myth.) Also of interest is a selection of critical reactions from other composers. Mahler, we learn, was moved to tears by the work, and the impact on Wagner is given its due. Two of the analytical chapters concentrate almost entirely on the first scene, and more of this would have been welcome. The final chapter briefly discusses five interpreters of the title role. "Stormy Applause: Making Music in a Worker's State" by Rostislav Dubinsky http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555531199/entertainmentsit Though written remarkably well and full of brave, defiant flashes of wit and humor, this is a sad and haunting book. Dubinsky was the founder, and for 30 years the first violinist, of the Borodin String Quartet, one of the supreme ensembles of its kind. Here he describes a musician's life under a totalitarian regime: the soul-destroying restrictions and constant dangers, exacerbated by a pervasive anti-Semitism--officially illegal but actively encouraged and ruthlessly practiced by the authorities. The quartet's original players were all Jews, though the cellist was a half-Jew who passed as Russian; the second violinist and violist were eventually replaced by Russians. Dubinsky was the "artistic director" in charge of rehearsals and musical decisions, but the quartet's activities, including the members' personal interrelationships, were completely dominated by politics. And, indeed, so is the narrative: Dubinsky only rarely talks about music, though always movingly and with insight, and he never explains how the group attained its greatness. Ever present is the paralyzing fear of the mercenary, soulless Russian bureaucracy. "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767902912/entertainmentsit The violinist hero of Vikram Seth's third novel would very much like to be hearing secret harmonies. Instead, living in London 10 years after a key disaster, Michael Holme is easily irritated by his beautiful young girlfriend and by his colleagues in the Maggiore Quartet. In short, he's fed up with playing second fiddle in life and art. Yet a chance encounter with Julia, the pianist he had loved and lost in Vienna, brings Michael sudden bliss. Her situation, however-- and the secret that may end her career--threatens to undo the lovers. Seth offers up exquisite complexities, personal and lyrical, while deftly fielding any fears that he's composed a Harlequin for highbrows. In addition to the pitch of its love story, one of the book's joys lies in Seth's creation of musical extremes. This is a novel in which the length of Schubert's "Trout Quintet" matters deeply, the discovery of a little-known Beethoven opus is a miracle, and each instrument has its own being. ****** You'll find more great books, articles, excerpts, and interviews in Amazon.com's Classical Music Books section at Classical
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