Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great icons of Western music. An amazing prodigy--he toured the capitals of Europe while still a child, astonishing royalty and professional musicians with his precocious skills--he wrote as an adult some of the finest music in the entire European tradition.
Julian Rushton offers a concise and up-to-date biography of this musical genius, combining a well-researched life of the composer with an introduction to the works--symphonic, chamber, sacred, and theatrical--of one of the few musicians in history to have written undisputed masterpieces across...

Each entry in this New Grove series of composers and their operas is based on articles in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, that feature information on the lives of individual composers, their works, their librettists and interpreters, and the places where they performed. These unique books compile the meticulously researched articles into organized narratives, designed to make finding information as easy as possible without sacrificing readability. Each volume is completely up-to-date, and includes a suggested listening guide and an eight-page glossy insert containing relevant...

Bach's spectacular Goldberg Variations represent a high point in the repertory of keyboard music, particularly for the harpsichord. This book takes a detailed look at how these variations originated, especially in relation to all Bach's ClavierUbung volumes and late keyboard works, what their exceptionally intricate plan is, what kind of impact they have had, and how their mysterious beauty has been created. This guide to what was at the time the largest and most carefully conceived single work of keyboard music will appeal to students, performers and listeners.

This book is a study of Mozart's Don Giovanni, his second opera to a libretto by da Ponte. Although it is one of the handful of best-known and most often performed operas of the last two hundred years, Don Giovanni is seldom given in an authentic form and arguments persist as to its nature. Julian Rushton takes the view that, notwithstanding the tragic nature of certain scenes, it must be regarded as an opera buffa. He gives a brief summary of its history and life in the theatre, but the chief historical essay (by Edward Forman) concerns the subject-matter before it reached da Ponte. The book...

Berlioz's "dramatic symphony" Romeo et Juliette is regarded by many as his finest work; it is certainly among the most original. This book summarizes the complex genesis of the work before examining the music closely and always with a view to understanding its dramatic implications. Julian Rushton quotes and discusses the early and later critical reception and concludes by suggesting a way of hearing the work that recognizes the value of its mixed genre. The complete libretto is provided in both English and French.

The Brandenburg Concertos represent a pinnacle in the history of the Baroque concerto, as well as being among the most universally admired of all Bach's works. This fascinating new guide places the concertos in their historical context, investigates their sources, traces their origins and discusses the changing traditions of performance that have affected the way listeners have understood them since Bach's time. The work's rich instrumentarium is carefully described, and a substantial chapter considers each concerto individually, revealing those aspects of their style and structure that make...

The Mass in B Minor is arguably Bach's greatest single work. This short guide considers the work from many angles, offering the reader basic information in a concise and accessible form. John Butt gives an absorbing account of the work's genesis, its historical context, and its reception by later generations. One chapter considers the work movement by movement, providing the text in both Latin and English, and the final group of chapters on the music itself suggests some new approaches to the work--its forms, style and overall structure. This is an informative and lucid guide, providing an...

The Glagolitic Mass, written between 1926 and 1927, is not only one of Jana DEGREESD&cek's most important works: it is also a masterpiece of the twentieth-century choral repertoire. In this fascinating description of the Mass and its history, Paul Wingfield brings together information on all significant aspects of the work, including much that is new. In particular, he quotes important letters from and to the composer that have never previously been published. Chapters on the music itself offer a full synopsis of the work, the first in-depth study of the musical organization, and key...

Verdi's Requiem is one of the most frequently performed works of the choral repertoire, and one of Verdi's most important nonoperatic works. In this new handbook, David Rosen discusses the work's composition and performance history, and analyzes each of the seven movements, considering Verdi's interpretation of the liturgical text, with reference to settings by Mozart and Cherubini. Rosen also considers the work's coherence and the controversial issue of its generic status--the degree to which it is "operatic."

Schumann's Fantasie, Op. 17 is one of the finest examples of Romantic piano music. In a rounded picture of this major keyboard work, Nicholas Marston first traces the fascinating history of its composition, drawing on many of Schumann's letters to Clara Wieck and to his publisher, and examining the few surviving sketches: To whom was the work really dedicated? Was the celebrated opening movement perhaps intended as an independent composition? Schumann's own critical writings provide vital insights into his ideas on genre and the relationship between the Fantasie and the many generic and...