Read more
b>''A glorious plum-pudding of a book, to be consulted, with pleasure and profit, over and over again'' Sir Jeremy Isaacs/b>br>br>Michael Steen''s ''Great Composers'' was originally published in 2003. A lifetime''s work and almost 1000 pages long, it has since become ''the'' reference point and key read on the biographical backgrounds to classical music''s biggest names.br>br>Authoritative and hugely detailed - but nonetheless a joy to read - this new edition will expand its readership further and capitalise on a newfound popular interest in classical music.br>br>Steen''s book helps you explore the story of Bach, the respectable burgher much of whose vast output was composed amidst petty turf disputes in Lutheran Leipzig; or the ugly, argumentative Beethoven in French-occupied Vienna, obsessed by his laundry; or Mozart, the over-exploited infant prodigy whose untimely death was shrouded in rumour.br>br>Read about Verdi, who composed against the background of the Italian Risorgimento; or about the family life of the Wagners; and, Brahms, who rose from the slums of Hamburg to become a devotee of beer and coffee in fin-de-siecle Vienna, a cultural capital bent on destroying Mahler...and much, much more.
