About the Book
In Composers' Letters, the voices of the great figures of classical music come alive through their correspondence.
Set against the music we know and love, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and many more talk openly about their music, their hopes and fears, their love, their sadness, and their struggles in realizing their artistic hopes in a commercial world.
Poignant, funny, revealing, informative, and so often direct and honest, these letters offer a fascinating insight into the personalities that created our Western musical tradition.
About the Author :
Jeremy Nicholas is an award-winning broadcaster, Olivier-nominated actor, a respected writer, and classical music critic. He is a busy voice-over artist, regular reviewer for Gramophone magazine, author of two biographies and four music reference books, and composer of several published works. In his spare time he runs a church choir and is president of the Jerome K Jerome Society.
Daniel Philpott trained at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and, after success in the prestigious Carleton Hobbs Award for Radio Drama, has been prolific in BBC Radio and the Spoken Word industry. His theater work includes numerous productions on the London fringe. As an audiobook narrator, he has read George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and numerous others.
Edward de Souza has narrated Don Quixote, The Canterbury Tales, The Island Race, The New Testament, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and The Life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. He has played leading roles in over a dozen West End plays and in several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford, at the Old Vic, and the National Theatre. His film credits include The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Spy Who Loved Me.
Anton Lesser has, as an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company, played many of Shakespeare's most demanding roles, including Troilus (Troilus and Cressida), Edgar (King Lear), Petruchio, Romeo, and Richard III. He is a frequent radio contributor and has recorded many audiobooks, including much of the work of Charles Dickens. Lesser's narration has won him seven AudioFile Earphones Awards.
Benjamin Soames trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He has appeared in the popular TV series Sharpe and toured worldwide in Measure for Measure with Cheek by Jowl. A former Royal Marine Commando, serving in Kosovo and Iraq, he teaches Hostile Environment Security Training for the European Union and is still active as a close protection officer in the UK and abroad. Some of his narrations include Tales from the Greek Legends, Tales from the Norse Legends, The Tale of Troy, The Adventures of Odysseus, Venus and Adonis, Great Inventors and their Inventions, Great Scientists and their Discoveries, and Afghanistan: In a Nutshell.
Review :
"In a perfect and perfectly delightful use of the audio format, this offering pairs accomplished and well-cast actors with letters written by famous composers. The letters are given chronologically, from J. S. Bach's writing about career and money difficulties in the seventeenth century through the letters of Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and others up to Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky in the twentieth. A brief and helpful historical note precedes each composer's section, and, best of all, the music he's writing about accompanies and illuminates the words. Age-appropriate actors voice composers writing in old age while lighter, boyish voices bring us young Mozart or Chopin as a determined and very broke youth writing home from Paris...Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."
-- "Audiofile"
