Gluck & his operas

Description:

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was equally prominent as composer and author. According to Harold Schonberg, he was the "foremost music critic of his time, possibly of all time." A Travers Chants is the collection of writings he himself selected from his thirty-odd years of musical journalism. These essays cover a wide spectrum of intellectual inquiry: Beethoven's nine symphonies and his opera, Fidelio; Wagner and the partisans of the "Music of the Future"; Berlioz's idols - Gluck, Weber, and Mozart. There is an eloquent plea to stop the constant rise in concert pitch (an issue still discussed today), a serious piece on the place of music in church, and a humorous and imaginative account of musical customs in China. But Berlioz's writings also contain biting satire and ridicule - of opera singers, of the Academy, of dilettantism. This new translation, phrased in lively, idiomatic English and annotated for the twentieth-century reader, is illustrated with lithographs and drawings from Berlioz's lifetime. Berlioz's writings are a treasure-house of information on nineteenth-century musical life, performance practice, and taste.

subjects: Criticism and interpretation,  France,  History and criticism,  Music,  Musical criticism,  Opera,  Symphony,  Music, history and criticism,  Gluck, christoph willibald, ritter von, 1714-1787,  Opera, france,  Beethoven, ludwig van, 1770-1827,  Music, history and criticism, 19th century,  Music, history and criticism, 18th century,  Composers,  Biography

People: Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826),  Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787),  Christoph Willibald Gluck Ritter von (1714-1787),  Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827),  Richard Wagner (1813-1883),  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Times: 18th century,  19th century