Music History

[allegroamabile]

Which stories or accounts on a composer's life have interested you the most? I personally love hearing the backround behind Brahms and Richard Muhlfeld. He was the clarinettist who inspired Brahms to start writing again. You can find more on Muhlfeld by clicking the Wikipedia link on my signature to the page I wrote on him.

I also love the stories on Alexander Glazunov's early life. He was the son of a wealthy family in St. Petersburg. Mily Balakirev introduced Rimsky-Korsakov to Glazunov and the young prodigy started taking composition lessons from him. Rimsky-Korsakov stated that he was not only improving day by day but hour by hour. He finished his First Symphony in E major in 1881 at the age of 16! Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the premiere of the piece which was a major success. Glazunov took an awkward bow in his school uniform after the performance which shock many because they were surprised to see a teenager come up with something that magnificent and brilliant. Rimsky-Korsakov even acknowledged Glazunov as one of his peers, not his pupil. He wrote letters to Tchaikovsky about the talent this young man had. Tchaikovsky bought a full score of his First String Quartet (which has not been recorded and I would really like to get a recording of it ) and replied that he was impressed with him as well. Glazunov and Tchaikovsky became close friends and Glazunov dedicated his Third Symphony to him.

Do you have any more you would like to share?

[Yagan Kiely]

Shostakovich: A Life - Laurel Fay.
and (for reference only)
Testimonu - Volkov

[sbeckmesser]

Among autobiographical accounts, I recommend the Berlioz Memoires (the Cairns translation) and Antheil's Bad Boy of Music. Both are unusually good reads by any standard and both vividly portray the musical environment in the times they were written. There are also various collections of letters and essays by Berlioz that all are fascinating documents through which his personality is always visible.

A much tougher slog would be Wagner's My Life, but it is required reading for anyone deeply interested in this most fascinating of 19th century composers (the Whittall/Gray translation is to be preferred). Cosima Wagner's diaries are even more difficult to go through, but they too are essential. Much easier to get through is the large (1000+ pp), but exceedingly well-selected and annotated collection of Wagner letters edited by Spencer and Millington. It can almost be read as an autobiography that extends through the end of Wagner's life (My Life only gets up to 1864 and is often inaccurately self-serving).

For the Mahler lover, Alma Mahler's Memories and Letters (edited by Donald Mitchell, and Knud Martner) is likewise essential reading, though not strictly autobiographical. Unfortunately, it seems to be out of print at the moment. Natalie Bauer-Lechner's Recollections of Gustav Mahler often records Mahler's thoughts and opinons that are not found elsewhere among Mahler's letters. There is a good English translation (Newlin) though it too may be hard to track down.

The various Igor Stravinsky/Robert Craft volumes (both the books and the collections of letters) are, to some extent, entertaining. But it is often difficult to deconvolve the Craft from the Stravinsky, and I'm far more interested in the latter.

--Sixtus

[Lyle Neff]

Rimsky-Korsakov's ???????? ???? ??????????? ????? (Chronicle of My Musical Life).