In this magisterial volume, Harvey Sachs, author of the highly acclaimed biography Toscanini, takes readers into the heart of ten great works of classical music--works that have endured because they were created by composers who had a genius for drawing music out of their deepest wellsprings. These masters--Mozart and Beethoven; Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Verdi, and Brahms; Sibelius, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky--communicated their life experiences through music, and through music they universalized the intimate.

By expanding our perceptions of these ten pieces--composed in the years between 1784 and 1966--Sachs, in lush, exquisite prose, invites us to consider why music stimulates, disturbs, exalts, and consoles us. He has lived with these masterpieces for a lifetime, and his descriptions of them and the dramatic lives of the composers who wrote them bring a heightened dimension to the musical perceptions of readers who may be casual listeners, students, professional musicians, or anyone in between.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: 10/26/2021
ISBN: 9781631495182
Pages: 384

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 05/01/2021 pg. 29
Library Journal 07/01/2021 pg. 74
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2021