Love Lives of the Great Composers

by Basil Howitt

Basil Howitt delves into the love lives of a cluster of the great composers from Gesualdo to Wagner and finds much to delight, surprise, shock, and even appall his readers -- but never bore them!

Genres: Music, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Brynnan Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

the content is fairly interesting but the awful way he talks about women and the frequent egregious grammar and editing errors made it really hard to get through

[Wayne]

There is only one review of this book.

"Tacky! I suspect overblown as well."

Hopefully, being about Love, it is bound to be interesting AND amusing, and tragic as well.We will all visit this Territory!!!

eg. poor ole Schubert whose life was cut short at 31 by syphilis,
the AIDS of his day.

Last night I was lucky to see the wonderful soprano Danielle de Niese,
singing Schubert's "Der Tod und das Madchen",(Death and the Maiden).
This was immediately followed by Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor,
No.14,D.810, written in 1824, 5 years after the song.
But now, Schubert,aged only 24, knew that he too was facing Death.
And we know that he had the Maiden in mind as he uses themes from this moving song in this much longer piece, about 40 minutes.
The quartet is naturally referred to using the same title as the song.
As Death is something we all have to come to terms with, our own and those we love, to see this sensitive young man attempt to do so in music is a crunching experience.

So I hold some hopes for this book.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tacky. I suspect overblown as well.

[Reba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insights on the relationships (both the usual and the dysfunctional) of some important historical figures). Each story is a short story/chapter, so it's easy to read in short increments.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the tone with which Howitt writes and the subject, particularly as so many people seem convinced that classical musicians and composers are conservative...