Description
Book SynopsisCritical essays and studies reflecting the latest thinking on two major figures in 20c music.In this
Festschrift for Donald Mitchell, the foremost authority on the life and works of Gustav Mahler and Benjamin Britten, distinguished composers, scholars, colleagues and friends from around the world have written on aspects of these two composers closest to Mitchell's heart, producing a volume which not only reflects some of the latest thinking on this pair of remarkable figures in the music of our century, but which also pays full tribute to the impact of Mitchell's own work on these composers over the last fifty years. The volume includes the fullest bibliography of Mitchell's writings yet compiled.
Table of ContentsPart 1 On Mahler: Mahler and Viennese Modernism, Paul Banks; Gustav Mahlers sprache, Herta Blaukopf; Mahler and the BBC, Asa Briggs; Gustav Mahler - memories and translations, Peter Franklin; Mahler and the New York Philharmonic - the truth behind the legend, Henry-Louis de la Grange; Vestdijk on Mahler, 1924-69, Eveline Nikkels; Mahler on Stamps, Gilbert Kaplan; Mahler and self-renewal, Colin Matthews; in search of Mahler's childhood, David Matthews; a new transition - pages from the Third Movement of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Edward R. Reilly; the song of the Earth - some personal thoughts, Peter Sculthorpe; Mahler the factual, Erwin Stein; Mahler and Pfitzner - a parallel development, John Williamson. Part 2 On Britten: from No to Nebuchadnezzar, Mervyn Cooke; Britten and his fellow composers, David Drew; a (Far Eastern) note on "Paul Bunyan", Somsak Ketukaenchan; the key to the parade, Oliver Knussen; notes on a theme from "Peter Grimes", Ludmila Kovnatskaya; the making of Auden's "Hymn for St Cecilia's Day", Edward Mendelson; Edinburgh diary 1968, Kathleen Mitchell; towards a genealogy of "Death in Venice", Christopher Palmer; Venice, 1954, Myfanwy Piper; on the sketches for "Billy Budd", Philip Reed; "Abraham and Isaac Revisited" - reflections on a theme and its inversion, Eric Roseberry; not all the way to the tigers - Britten's "Death in Venice", Edward W. Said; Donald Mitchell as publisher - a personal recollection, Peter du Sautoy; writing and copying - a superficial survey of Benjamin Britten's music, Rosamund Strode; along the knife-edge - the topic of transcendence in Britten's musical aesthetic, Arnold Whittall; a bibliography of Donald Mitchell's writings, Maureen Buja.
