This book provides a survey of the styles and tendencies in 20th-century new music, presenting the most important composers from Schoenberg to Rihm in a series of essays that will appeal to connoisseurs and non-specialists alike by putting music in the context of the social and psychological background of its time.
With this study the author -opened up a previously locked door of Beethoven research- (Martin Geck). The book presents conclusive answers to questions that had occupied critics for more than a century. It makes clear what exactly Beethoven and his contemporaries meant by the term -heroic-. It proves that the -heroic-allegorical ballet- <I>The Creatures of Prometheus is a key work for an understanding of the Eroica, and shows that Beethoven associated the First Consul of the French Republic, Napoleon Bonaparte, with the mythical figure of the Titan Prometheus. The book draws on interdisciplinary researches in the areas of Greek Mythology, Napoleonic History and Comparative Literature."
In 1976, letters by Alban Berg, renowned composer, were discovered in the posthumous papers of Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, wife of a Prague industrialist. In the 1920s, Berg gained international notoriety with his opera Wozzeck and the "Lyric Suite", which was inspired by his relationship with Fuchs. This work tells the story behind the "Lyric Suite".
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky remains to this day one of the most-performed Russian composers. Based on recent studies and source editions, this book demonstrates the close interrelationship between Tchaikovsky’s life and his work. The author portrays the versatility of the musician who died at the mere age of 53 under controversial circumstances in St. Petersburg. About the German edition of this book: «[…] Constantin Floros devotes himself initially to the biography and then to the compositional oeuvre, divided according to genre and supplemented by concrete illustrations, thus giving greater significance to the music.» (Forum Musikbibliothek 27, 2006) «[…] the music gets more weight of its own in the more detailed analyses – illustrated with revealing note citations – which yet always remain readily accessible.»
With the terms «visionary» and «despot», the author seeks to circumscribe the multilayered personality of Gustav Mahler. Opening up a terra incognita, he draws a comprehensive map of the various aspects of Mahler’s inner biography: his unshakable belief in the «sacredness of musical art» and strongly developed sense of mission, his double life as conductor and composer, his inexorability and refusal to compromise vis-à-vis himself and others, his discomfort with the world in which he lived, the complex facets of his psyche and his enormous energy potential. The result is the disclosure of new and unexpected connections between Mahler’s personality and his œuvre.
While unappreciated and controversial during most of his life, Anton Bruckner is today regarded as the greatest symphonist between Beethoven and Gustav Mahler - in terms of originality, boldness and monumentality of his music. The image of Bruckner the man, however, is still extreme instance of the tenacious power of prejudice. No less a figure than Gustav Mahler coined the aperçu about Bruckner being «a simpleton - half genius, half imbecile». The author is out to correct that misperception. His thesis in this study is that contrary to what has hitherto been asserted, there is an intimate relation between Bruckner's sacred music and his symphonies from multiple perspectives: biographical data, sources and influences, the psychology of creation, musical structure, contemporary testimony and reception history. Additional chapters assess important Bruckner recordings and interpreters and the progressiveness of his music.
Exploring the profound emotional depth and innovative structures of Mahler's symphonies, this book delves into the composer's unique approach to orchestration and thematic development. It highlights the interplay of personal experience and broader cultural influences that shaped his work. Through detailed analyses and historical context, readers gain insight into Mahler's artistic vision and the significance of his contributions to classical music, making it an essential resource for music lovers and scholars alike.
(Amadeus). Mahler's 10 symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde are intensely personal statements that have touched wide audiences. This survey examines each of the works, revealing their programmatic and personal aspects, as well as Mahler's musical techniques.
Exploring the duality of Mozart's personality reveals the complexities within his music, which oscillates between joy and profound seriousness. The study delves into how this ambivalence manifests in his operatic compositions, blending comic elements with tragic undertones. By examining the unique characteristics of his musical language, the work aims to illuminate the connections between Mozart's multifaceted personality and his diverse body of operatic work.
The present autobiography sets out from the contrast between „establishment“ and „outsiders“ in science and scholarship. It portrays a number of prominent composers, conductors and musicologists and seeks to illuminate the nature of the phenomenon of music from diverse vantage points, centering on cultural, biographic, psychological, philosophic, critical, aesthetic and axiological questions. Lutz Lesle (Das Orchester, 2018): At the price of being deemed an outsider, Floros has devoted a major part of his life's work to the semantic dimension of music, from the Viennese Classics to Postmodernism. His endeavor has been to preserve for music the dignity of manifold meaning that the school of bean counters were stripping from it by reducing musical scores to structure-analytical databases. „To simply ignore the spiritual depth dimension of important musical art works,“ the author bluntly proclaims, "and to limit oneself to the investigation of the 'tonal body': to me there is no greater aberration."