Gift Guides, Christmas Gift Ideas for Readers

Often 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. This iconoclastic biography re-examines the relationship between his music, personal life, and politics, his support of Tsars Alexander II and III, and his engagement with the cultures of the imperial margins, giving us a vivid new appreciation of Russia’s most popular composer.

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Part biography, part memoir, part travelogue, this book draws on Suchet's own life and career as a foreign correspondent and news anchor to show how Beethoven’s music has accompanied him through the best and worst of times. He traces Beethoven’s footsteps from his early years in Bonn to his dying days in Vienna, taking us on a journey both literal and symbolic, as he uses his own experience as a Beethoven aficionado to demonstrate the life-changing power of great music.

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Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn't exist. Who was this titan of world culture? Through 100 recordings, this book, now available in paperback, brings to life the composer as we've never seen him before. Unruly, offensive and hopeless in so much of his life, yes, but driven to a fault and devoted to his art, conquering deafness to compose some of the towering works of our culture. Along the way, we encounter the great musicians who have taken on the challenge of Beethoven.

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At thirteen years old, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who had captured the hearts of northern Europe, but his father Leopold was determined to conquer Italy also. Together, they made three visits there, travelling from the theatres and salons of Milan to the church-filled streets of Rome, Naples, and Venice. Now available in paperback, this evocative book reveals how his experiences during these Italian journeys changed Mozart and his music for ever.

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This absorbing, wide-ranging and incisive biography unfolds the life and work of Sergei Prokofiev, revealing a surprisingly optimistic spirit amidst a tumultuous backdrop of geopolitical chaos and ever-shifting musical landscapes. The narrative weaves through Prokofiev's intricate existence, depicting a life coloured by pathos and intersecting with a myriad of characters.

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Now available in paperback, this book surveys the major works of Gustav Mahler, presenting them not just as artworks but as vivid journeys, and offering the non-specialist a general introduction into works that redefined the symphonic genre. In addition to the standard nine symphonies, it discusses Das Lied von der Erde, the three most commonly heard song cycles (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder, and Rückert-Lieder), and the unfinished Tenth Symphony (in Deryck Cooke’s edition).

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This biography offers fresh perspectives on the life, ideas and music of composer, organist and ornithologist Olivier Messiaen. Drawing on previously unexplored sketches and archival material, it seamlessly combines elements of biography, musicology, theology, philosophy, psychoanalysis and aesthetics to present a nuanced perspective on Messiaen’s work. Unlike previous biographies, it also considers the perspectives of Messiaen’s contemporaries and students, providing a comprehensive understanding of his life and artistic legacy.

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In 1969, decades before he was chosen to conduct the music at the Coronation of King Charles, Antonio Pappano was a ten-year-old boy accompanying his father's singing lessons. This memoir tells the moving tale of a conductor who, nurtured in childhood by his parents and their dedicated work ethic, went on to conduct at many of the most influential opera houses of the world. Pappano skilfully evokes an extensive selection from his wide-ranging repertoire and makes a compelling case for the potential classical music has to captivate new and wider audiences.

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A compilation of letters between composer-pianist John McCabe and eminent composers and performers from across the world, including letters home from his various foreign tours. They range from the scholastically interesting to the frivolous and the emotionally moving. Correspondents include Britten, Barbirolli, Ursula Vaughan Williams, Previn, Beryl Bainbridge, David Bintley and Richard Rodney Bennett.

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Now available in paperback, 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 (just announced as the winner of the Storytelling prize at the 2024 RPS Awards) recounts their lives of rebellion, heartbreak and ambition, and celebrates their musical masterpieces.

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This first major biography since Ella Fitzgerald's death draws on archival research, family interviews and newly-available recordings and footage to show how she fused a Black vocal aesthetic with mainstream repertoire to revolutionise American music. From Fitzgerald’s first audition at the Apollo Theatre to swing-era success at the Savoy, it shows how this “girl singer” broke new ground: as a female bandleader, a groundbreaking improviser, and the arbiter of the American canon with her Song Book recordings.

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This book, now available in paperback, reveals the fascinating musical and social history behind our favourite Christmas carols. From the Annunciation to Epiphany, the episodes of the Christmas story link the tales behind twenty-seven carols from a variety of traditions and places of origin: those that come from folk song; those we owe to Victorian moralists, and those that are, in fact, French. This rich musical treat gives us an unique insight into our Yuletide traditions and customs.

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Pull on your mittens and follow our heroes Arthur and Holly as they explore beautiful scenes inspired by some of the best-loved Christmas carols. Original illustrations capture the story of the carols, while ten sound clips bring the iconic pieces to life. Every spread features fascinating facts about each carol and its origins, and is guaranteed to delight and inspire.

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Der Ring des Nibelungen is one of the most epic and compelling stories of the nineteenth century. But the story of how Wagner created the work is one full of intrigue, triumphs, and controversy. This book combines cultural history and biography to offer an insightful introduction to The Ring and its mythology, telling the story of how and why this extraordinary masterpiece came into being, why it takes the form it does, why it fascinates and obsesses so many and horrifies others, and why it matters.

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One of the late twentieth century’s most celebrated and influential public intellectuals, Edward W. Said was also a critic of astonishing range. This book presents his insightful and elegant analyses of four major operas, originally delivered as the Empson Lectures at Cambridge University in 1997. In close readings of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Berlioz’s Les Troyens, and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Said explores how each opera engages with the social and political questions of their own eras, and how they might speak to the present.

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This book looks at two remarkable yet neglected operas - Janáček’s Osud and The Excursions of Mr Brouček. It describes their difficult compositional process using a wealth of sources revealing the composer’s inspirations, the themes he considered for operas, his often fraught dealings with writers, the encounters with music which opened Janáček’s eyes, and also his coming to terms with the loss of his beloved daughter, Olga.

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As a singing therapist, teacher, and performer, Julia Hollander is in an unique position to consider singing's importance to our well-being, charting its extraordinary influence on all aspects of our emotional and physical lives. In so many walks of life, people of all ages and backgrounds are waking up to the joys of singing and its power to give hope and connection in a fragmented world. Now available in paperback, this book offers inspiration to anyone who loves to sing.

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Now available in paperback, this book makes a case for the power of music as culture's memory, an art form uniquely capable of carrying meaning from the past. It shows how four towering composers - Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Britten, and Shostakovich - lived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving works of music that carry forward the echoes of lost time.

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Women are an essential part of the history of the piano - but how many women pianists can you name? Susan Tomes traces fifty women across the piano’s history, from Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn to more overlooked women such as Hélène de Montgeroult, Leopoldine Wittgenstein, and Hazel Scott. Including interviews with women performing today, this is a much-needed corrective to our understanding of the piano.

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Have you ever wondered why music is so powerful? This book explores music, how it is all around us, and how it can be used to spark change, inspiring young minds with photographs, illustrations, funny comic strips, and the stories of music heroes. Meticulously researched and authoritative but written in simple language by experts, curious readers will quickly get to grips with the basic principles and terminology.

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