From Berlioz to Boulez

Awards:   Winner of Book of the Year - Presto Music 2022
Author:   Roger Nichols ,  Jeremy Sams
Publisher:   Kahn & Averill
ISBN:  

9780995757479


Pages:   392
Publication Date:   01 August 2022
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

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From Berlioz to Boulez


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Awards

  • Winner of Book of the Year - Presto Music 2022

Overview

Awarded the legion d'Honneur by the French government in 2006 for his services to French culture, acclaimed writer and broadcaster Roger Nichols invites the reader to accompany him on his journey through the century-and-a-half turbulent and fertile period in the history of French music from Berlioz to Boulez. In compiling his collection of articles, interviews, radio plays and talks, Nichols begins with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and ends with his obituary of Pierre Boulez. Along the way, he includes in-depth studies of Debussy and Ravel, connecting the two by a comparison of their operatic masterpieces, Pelleas et Melisande and l'Enfant et les sortileges. Twenty other significant composers from this fascinating period come in for Nichols' hallmark combination of erudition and wit.

Full Product Details

Author:   Roger Nichols ,  Jeremy Sams
Publisher:   Kahn & Averill
Imprint:   Kahn & Averill
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.820kg
ISBN:  

9780995757479


ISBN 10:   099575747
Pages:   392
Publication Date:   01 August 2022
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jeremy Sams, Preface by Roger Nichols, 1. Hector Berlioz - fantasy and fury, 2. ... and beyond ..., 3. Frederic Chopin - a difficult genius, 4. Charles Gounod, 5. Edouard Lalo, 6. Camille Saint-Saens, 7. Leo Delibes, 8. Jules Massenet - a man of pleasure, 9. Chabrier - selected letters, 10. Heap, heap, Hurrah! - a review, 11. The Angel of Laughter, 12. Gabriel Faure - Pelleas et Melisande, 13. Debussy - the reception of his music in Britain up to 1914, 14. Debussy as man and artist, 15. Debussy and Degas - beyond Impressionism, 16. Debussy, Ravel and an orchestra for the 20th century, 17. Debussy, d'Annunzio and Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien, 18. Pelleas et Melisande / L'Enfant et les sortileges, 19. Pelleas et Melisande - reviews by d'Indy, Dukas and Willy, 20. Who was Melisande? 21. Pelleas et Melisande - interview with Irene Joachim, 22. Alberic Magnard, 23. Florent Schmitt, 24. Erik Satie, 25. The Trouble with Satie, 26. Parade - a mix of extraordinary talents, 27. Le Groupe des Six - 100 years on, 28. Reynaldo Hahn, 29. Raveliana - new insights, 30. Ravel and the 20th century, 31. Ravel and the Dance, 32. Ravel and Spain, 33. Ravel, Dreyfus and Sex, 34. Ravel and the critics, 35. The Chatelet Ballet Gala of 22 April 1912, 36. Music and Impressionism, 37. Jean Cocteau and Igor Stravinsky, 38. Arthur Honegger - Incantation to the fossils - a documentary, 39. Francis Poulenc, French ballet, and the pleasure principle, 40. Francis Poulenc - and the road to La Voix humaine, 41. Maurice Durufle, 42 Messiaen and the journey to a world beyond, 43. Messiaen - ornitheology and all that, 44. Messiaen at 70 - an interview, 45. Debussy and Messiaen, 46. Ravel and Messiaen - accords and discords, 47. Messiaen - Interview with Pierre Boulez, 48. Messiaen - Interview with Dame Gillian Weir, 49. Music in Paris in the 1940s, 50. Henri Dutilleux at 75 - Conversations, 51. Henri Dutilleux at nearly 90, 52. Henri Dutilleux - Obituary, 53. Pierre Boulez and Andre Schaeffner - a review, 54. 30 years of IRCAM, 55. Adieu, Pierre Boulez - Obituary, Index.

Reviews

'This is a book to be savoured slowly like a fine wine. A work to relish and to linger over for a lifetime. It can be dipped into rewardingly but read from cover to cover it is an enthralling chronicle of a turbulent and fertile period in the history of French music, from Berlioz to Boulez.' - Jeremy Sams


'..an engagingly-written style combined with authoritatively-researched content that is both entertaining to read and highly informative..' - Book of the Year, Presto Music. 'Throughout, love for the music, combines with an insatiable curiosity for the culture that nurtured it. Nichols's clear-sighted empathy for composers, complete with (often comical) foibles and flaws, brings their humanity to the fore while prompting a desire to listen anew to their music.' - Christopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine. 'This is a book to be savoured slowly like a fine wine. A work to relish and to linger over for a lifetime. It can be dipped into rewardingly but read from cover to cover it is an enthralling chronicle of a turbulent and fertile period in the history of French music, from Berlioz to Boulez.' - Jeremy Sams; 'From Berlioz to Boulez truly takes you over a span of some 150 years - from the late Romantic to the Modern - all through the work of the greatest composers in France. Roger Nichols tracks trends, he follows friendships, notes where enemies were made, and places us in the middle of the most exciting periods in the development of music in France. We cannot recommend this book highly enough.' - Maureen Buja, Interlude.hk


'Throughout, love for the music, combines with an insatiable curiosity for the culture that nurtured it. Nichols's clear-sighted empathy for composers, complete with (often comical) foibles and flaws, brings their humanity to the fore while prompting a desire to listen anew to their music.' - Christopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine. 'This is a book to be savoured slowly like a fine wine. A work to relish and to linger over for a lifetime. It can be dipped into rewardingly but read from cover to cover it is an enthralling chronicle of a turbulent and fertile period in the history of French music, from Berlioz to Boulez.' - Jeremy Sams; 'From Berlioz to Boulez truly takes you over a span of some 150 years - from the late Romantic to the Modern - all through the work of the greatest composers in France. Roger Nichols tracks trends, he follows friendships, notes where enemies were made, and places us in the middle of the most exciting periods in the development of music in France. We cannot recommend this book highly enough.' - Maureen Buja, Interlude.hk


Author Information

After studying music at Oxford with Edmund Rubbra and Frederick Sternfeld, Roger Nichols taught in schools and universities until 1980, when he became a freelance author, reviewer, translator, editor, lecturer, broadcaster and pianist. He began broadcasting for BBC Radio 3 in 1976, mainly on French music since 1820. His radio series The Harlequin Years, on music in Paris from 1917 to 1929, formed the basis of a book of the same title. Other publications include biographies of Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc. His editions of French music with Peters Edition of London include most of Ravel's piano music and the complete Duparc songs. In 2006 he was appointed Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur for services to French culture. Since 2007 he has contributed articles and reviews to BBC Music magazine.

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