Benjamin Britten by Paul Kildea - ISBN: 9781846142338
Paperback
Genius composer, passionate pacifist, complex love: Britten’s extraordinary life revealed.

Benjamin Britten

A Life in the Twentieth Century

$45.18

  • Paperback

    720 pages

  • Release Date

    11 April 2014

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Summary

Benjamin Britten was Britain’s greatest twentieth-century composer, who broke decisively with figures such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams and recreated English music in a fresh, modern, European form.

Paul Kildea’s biography is now the definitive account of Britten’s extraordinary life, exploring his passionately held and controversial pacifism; his complex forty-year relationship with Peter Pears; and his determined - sometimes ruthless - making of an artistic community in Aldeburgh. …

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781846142338
ISBN-10:1846142334
Author:Paul Kildea
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Penguin Books Ltd
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:720
Release Date:11 April 2014
Weight:480g
Dimensions:194mm x 131mm x 34mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Indispensable … This is a masterly, highly readable account and the most comprehensive to date of the life and work of one of the 20th century’s great musical figures

Indispensable … This is a masterly, highly readable account and the most comprehensive to date of the life and work of one of the 20th century’s great musical figures – Barry Millington * Evening Standard *
[A] wise, cautious, challenging book … Kildea’s verbal explorations of the music are done with level-headed sensitivity leavened by a quirky lightness of touch – Alexandra Harris * New Statesman *

About The Author

Paul Kildea

Paul Kildea holds an honours degree in piano performance and a masters degree in musicology from The University of Melbourne - where he is now an Honorary Principal Fellow and where in 2016 he was Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellow - and a doctorate from Oxford University. His books include Selling Britten and Britten on Music. In January 2013 Penguin published Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century to enormous critical acclaim; it is now widely recognized as the best book on its subject, the Financial Times calling it ‘unquestionably the music book of the year.’ In June 2018 Penguin published Chopin’s Piano: A Journey Through Romanticism, which is currently being developed as a feature film. In October 2019 he succeeded Carl Vine as Artistic Director of Musica Viva, Australia.

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