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Composer, pianist, author, television teacher, Harvard lecturer, cultural icon, humanist and conductor without peer, Leonard Bernstein's versatility was legendary. He captivated Broadway with such hits as On the Town and West Side Story and introduced middle America to classical music with his Young People's Concerts on television. He composed three symphonies and a full-length opera, and he inspired the world's leading orchestras to give some of the most memorable performances of the twentieth century.Humphrey Burton was given exclusive access to Bernstein's rich legacy of letters and papers, and the book draws on hundreds of interviews with family, friends and colleagues to reveal Bernstei...
Since 2000, when this biography was first published, Menuhin's name has not faded from public attention, as often happens in the decades after the death of a popular performing artist. Far from it: the centenary of his birth, April 22, 1916, is being marked by celebrations around the world.Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York of Russian Jewish immigrants. Prodigiously gifted, the 'Miracle Boy' gave his first solo recital aged eight and within five years was world-famous. Menuhin was a visionary individualist, who didn't mind shocking the establishment. His post-war support for the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, and his determination to build bridges with the defeated German nation, brought him into sharp conflict with the Jewish establishment and DPs in Berlin. Later he spoke out against apartheid in South Africa and denounced the Soviet Union's oppressive policy towards writers and dissidents.Drawing on contemporary sources, unpublished family correspondence and radio interviews, Burton creates a compelling portrait of an extraordinary human being - one of the best-loved classical musicians of the twentieth century.
“With their intellectual brilliance, humor and wonderful eye for detail, Leonard Bernstein’s letters blow all biographies out of the water.”—The Economist (2013 Book of the Year) Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician—a brilliant conductor who attained international superstar status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they offer into the passions...
Sir Humphrey Burton is one of Britain's most influential post-war music and arts broadcasters. Witty, humorous and full of humanity, Burton's account presents us with never before recorded perspectives on the world of British cultural broadcasting and classical music. Burton worked with such outstanding directing talents as Ken Russell and John Schlesinger, before becoming the BBC's Head of Music and the Arts. Already in the 1960s, in conversations with Glenn Gould for instance, Burton helped to create innovative ways of presenting music to new audiences. Following Sir David Frost's call to LWT/ITV, Burton rose to prominence with presenting the award-winning arts series Aquarius (1970-1975)....
Almost two decades after his death Walton's reputation is higher than ever - many of his masterworks remain firm favourites in the concert repertoire, notably his eloquent concertos for violin, viola and cello, his dramatic cantata Belshazzar's Feast, his vivid film scores (such as Henry V), his powerful First Symphony (the creative outcome of a tempestuous love affair) and the sparkling entertainment Facade, a brilliant divertissement based on Edith Sitwell's poems and composed before hewas twenty. Born in the cotton town of Oldham, young Billie's life was transformed when he won a boy chorister's scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford. He soon lost his Lancashire accent but never his innate ...
“A brilliantly inventive account of the evolution of consciousness, the best yet” (Paul Broks, Prospect). “Consciousness matters. Arguably it matters more than anything. The purpose of this book is to build towards an explanation of just what the matter is.” Nicholas Humphrey begins this compelling exploration of the biggest of big questions with a challenge to the reader, and himself. What’s involved in “seeing red”? What is it like for us to see someone else seeing something red? Seeing a red screen tells us a fact about something in the world. But it also creates a new fact—a sensation in each of our minds, the feeling of redness. And that’s the mystery. Conventional sci...
A pioneering examination of history, current affairs, and daily life along the RussiaÐChina border, one of the worldÕs least understood and most politically charged frontiers. The border between Russia and China winds for 2,600 miles through rivers, swamps, and vast taiga forests. ItÕs a thin line of direct engagement, extraordinary contrasts, frequent tension, and occasional war between two of the worldÕs political giants. Franck Bill and Caroline Humphrey have spent years traveling through and studying this important yet forgotten region. Drawing on pioneering fieldwork, they introduce readers to the lifeways, politics, and history of one of the worldÕs most consequential and enigma...
This book studies women's language use in bilingual or multi-lingual cultural situations. The authors - social anthropologists, language teachers, and interpreters cover a wide variety of geographical and linguistic situations, from the death of Gaelic in the Outer Hebrides, to the use of Spanish by Quechua and Aymara women in the Andes. Certain common themes emerge: dominant and sub-dominant languages, women's use of them; ambivalent attitudes towards women as translators, interpreters and writers in English as a second language; and the critical role of women in the survival (or death) of minority languages such as Gaelic and Breton.