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Bezig met laden... Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century (origineel 2012; editie 2013)door Paul Kildea (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkBenjamin Britten: a life in the twentieth century door Paul Kildea (2012)
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. A readable, thorough, sympathetic and informative biography of Britten. Although his personal life is there it is a book that focuses very much on the music. Two thhings intrude slightly. In the early parts of the book there is a great deal of focus on Britten's homosexuality. It's an important part of his life, of course, but it's not everything. The other is the apparently incorrect attribution of syphillis as a contributing factor to the heart condition that caused his death. We get a comprehensive picture of Britten the musician but only a partial picture of Britten as a social being and little of his life beyong music, not that there was that much. As you would hope with a biography of a composer it stimulates you to want to listen to more of the subject's music. So that can't be a bad thing. ( ) geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Benjamin Britten was Britain's greatest twentieth-century composer - and in the eyes of many, the greatest since Purcell (a figure who often inspired him) 300 years earlier. Britten broke decisively with the romantic, nationalist school of figures such as Parry, Elgar and Vaughan Williams and recreated English music in a fresh, modern, European form. With Peter Grimes(1945) and Billy Budd(1951) and The Turn of the Screw(1954) he composed arguably the last operas - from any composer in any country - that have entered both the popular consciousness and the musical canon. He did all this while carrying two disadvantages to worldly success - his passionately held pacifism, which made him very suspect to the authorities in the years during and immediately after the Second World War - and his homosexuality, specifically his forty-year relationship with Peter Pears, for whom many of his greatest operatic roles and vocal works were created. One of the strengths of Kildea's book is the way it traces the development of this relationship - its frailties and anxieties as well as its centrality to them both - and portrays their life together. For Britten, that life was increasingly lived in and around Aldeburgh, whose atmosphere and personalities form another wonderful dimension to the book. Kildea shows clearly how Britten made this creative community, notably with the foundation of the Aldeburgh Festival and the building of Snape Maltings, but also how costly the determination that this required was in terms of his friendships and the lives of some of those around him. Above all, this book helps us understand the relationship of Britten's music to his life, and takes us as far into his creative process as we are ever likely to go. Kildea reads dozens of Britten's works with enormous intelligence and sensitivity, and always in a way which those without formal musical training can understand. It is one of the most moving and enjoyable biographies of a creative artist of any kind to have appeared for years. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)780.92The arts Music Music Biography And History BiographyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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