The latest in Phaidon Press Limited's fine 20th Century Composers series, this biography plows ground that's already been gone over many times, but does so very well. Like the rest of the books in this series, it's aimed at the more-than-casual but less-than-expert reader, and puts the composer's life and art into perspective, assisted by assorted photographs. This is a particularly good starting place for someone captured by Puccini's music dramas who's interested in how it all came about. There are no musical examples, which can be a positive or a negative depending on one's point of view and whether one reads music. New listeners may find the overly brief discography in the back of the book a useful guide.

Giacomo Puccini (20th Century Composers)

Wilson, Conrad

Biographies & Memoirs

Phaidon Press

With works such as La Bohème and Madame Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) created some of the world s most popular and widely performed operas. His colourful orchestrations, beautiful melodies, rare theatrical sensibility, and daring choices of subject matter combined to produce timeless stage works that continue to appeal to a broad audience. In this powerful biography, Conrad Wilson examines this great composer s works and the ways in which they were influences by his many relationships with women and his contradictory personality. Giacomo Puccini is part of Phaidon s successful 20th Century Composers series, which presents authoritative and engaging biographies of the great creative musicians of our time, augmented by striking visual material and essential reference information. This edition of the book features a whimsical new cover by Jean-Jacques Sempé, the world-renowned illustrator and cartoonist.

Giacomo Puccini

Humor & Entertainment

Wilson considers Schubert’s complex personality, sexuality and inner conflicts, and the signs that he was entering a new, important phase of his life when he died.The first six volumes in a series about the life and key works of the world’s greatest composers.

Notes on Schubert: 20 Crucial Works

Arts & Literature

St. Andrew Press

Notes on Mozart: 20 Crucial Works

Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd

The author selects Beethoven's 20 most crucial works, tells you why he has selected them and why they are fundamental to our knowledge and understanding of the composer. He guides the reader through Beethoven's life, looking afresh at his status and exploding the myths. He also points the reader to the best recordings ever made of these crucial works.

Notes on Beethoven: 20 Crucial Works

Arts & Photography

Music

The first six volumes in a series about the life and key works of the world's greatest composers. The Victorians dismissed him, but he was the greatest child prodigy in the history of music and an adult genius whose work became even more intense in the troubled years of his life. Conrad Wilson revises his reputation.

Notes on Mendelssohn: 20 Crucial Works (Life & Key Works of the World's Greatest Composers)

In each 'Notes On...' volume, Wilson selects 20 crucial works of a given composer, discusses each masterpiece with insight, wit and verve and tells us why these works are fundamental to understanding the composer. Brahms was every inch the romantic who played the piano with fire. He was a summer composer inspired by sunshine and lakeside resorts, where he said that the air was so full of melodies that you had to take care not to tread on them.

Notes on Brahms: 20 Crucial Works (Life & Key Works of the World's Greatest Composers)

Saint Andrew Press

In this exploration of Schubert's rich music together with his complex personality and inner conflicts, Wilson considers Schubert's sexuality and also examines signs that Schubert was moving into a new, important phase of his output when he died.

Notes On Schubert: 20 Crucial Works

Eerdmans Pub.Co.

The "Notes on . . ." series by distinguished music critic Conrad Wilson illuminates the music of some of history's greatest composers in relation to their private lives. In each "Notes on . . ." volume Wilson selects twenty crucial works of a given composer, discusses these masterpieces with insight and verve, and explains why these particular works are fundamental to understanding the composer. 
Permeating these pages are Wilson's vast musical expertise and his colorful, succinct, polished prose style. As a bonus Wilson highlights choice recordings of the music he discusses. Meant for any general reader interested in music, these guidebooks are ideal for dipping into as well as reading straight through. 
Wilson's explication of Mozart in the present volume casts new light on this celebrated composer. Examining his finances, Wilson shows why Mozart's begging letters were less heartrending than they seem, and he explodes the supposed mystery surrounding Mozart's famous Requiem.

Notes On Mozart: 20 Crucial Works

In the course of elucidating Beethoven and his music in this volume, Wilson questions the traditional practice of dividing Beethoven's life into three periods, discerns his true attitude toward Napoleon, and probes the "heroic" side of Beethoven's music and its bearing on his work as a whole.

Notes On Beethoven: 20 Crucial Works

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