Awards,
Books of the Year - Winners 2023
We are very pleased to announce the winning book publications for the annual Presto Music Awards! With so many high-quality tomes to choose from, it was extremely hard to narrow it down to just five selections. However, common to all five winners is an engagingly-written style combined with authoritatively-researched content that is both entertaining to read and highly informative about the person or topic in question.
Find out our chosen book publications for the Presto Music Awards 2023 below.
Winning Book Publications
Ever since Alfred Brendel bid farewell to the concert stage after six decades of performing, he has been passing on his insight and experience in the form of lectures, readings and master-classes. This reader distils his musical and linguistic eloquence, and will prove invaluable to anyone with an interest in the technique, history and repertoire of the piano. Erudite, witty, enlightening and deeply personal: rarely has the instrument been described in such an entertaining and intelligent fashion.
Available Format: Book
This book resurrects the forgotten voices of four women: Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell, and Doreen Carwithen. In their time, these women were celebrities, composing some of the century's most popular music, but today they are ghostly presences, surviving only as footnotes to male contemporaries. This biography recounts their lives of rebellion, heartbreak and ambition, and celebrates their musical masterpieces.
Available Format: Book
Having served with distinction in the Great War, in which he was both injured and gassed, Arthur Bliss set the musical world alight with ultra-modern works, and before long became the most performed British composer abroad. He served as Director of Music at the BBC from 1942–4, and was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music. Bliss stated that the only way to get to know him was through his music. Paul Spicer takes this as his starting point for a pioneering biography which underlines the importance of a reappraisal of the composer’s music.
Available Format: Book
Refiner's Fire: The Academy of Ancient Music and The Historical Performance Revolution
Elliott & Thompson; Richard Bratby
When Christopher Hogwood and Peter Wadland founded the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, their mission was to create Britain’s first orchestra devoted to recording baroque and classical music on period instruments. They went on to change the musical world. This book tells the story of this trailblazing orchestra and the people who shaped it: fifty years of innovation, exploration and musical adventure, from the pioneering days of the early 1970s to new directions in the twenty-first century.
Available Format: Book
The Pursuit of Musick: Musical Life in Original Writings & Art c1200-1770
Clink Street Publishing; Andrew Parrott
This encyclopedic and generously illustrated anthology of original written sources explores some 600 years of musical activity in Europe, from the first troubadours to the emergence of the pianoforte. Throughout, it presents an extraordinary treasure trove of material documenting myriad ways in which our recent ancestors engaged with music. Arranged in three main parts (Society, Ideas, Performance), its principal chapters are supplemented by shorter ones exploring related and intriguing byways.
Available Format: Book
Ellena Taylor - Sheet Music and Books Manager
