Jean Sibelius was not only Finland's greatest composer he was one of the most distinctive and appealing musical voices in the first half of the twentieth century especially renowned for his characterful handling of the romantic symphony orchestra. His example has led directly to an unprecedented cultural flowering in his homeland making this small country of five million people a powerhouse in the world of classical music composition and performance. Author David Hurwitz considers more than eighty of Sibelius's orchestral pieces from songs and choruses to symphonies tone poems overtures and theatrical music inviting readers to identify and enjoy the fascinating mix ofelements that make up Sibelius's colourful personal idiom. Hurwitz also features a representative selection of the best music of Sibelius's Finnish contemporaries and successors both in the text and in one of two accompanying full-length CDs. The other CD offers a rich selection of Sibelius's music including two complete symphonies and two of his most popular tone poems. Together the CDs and text allow readers to hear Sibelius in context and gain an understanding of what distinguishes him from his contemporaries how he influenced later generations and how he came to be viewed as the musical spokesperson of the Finnish nation.

He lived in the shadow of death painfully aware of the tuberculosis that would kill him prematurely. But Frédéric Chopin attained immortality with his Piano works which endure as pinnacles of the instrument's repertoire. This biography by one of the nineteenth century's foremost pianists--Chopin's friend and fellow artist Franz Liszt--offers a highly informed assessment of the Polish composer's musical legacy. It is further enlivened by the author's personal acquaintance with Chopin's other friends who constituted the very cream of Parisian intellectual and artistic society.Born a year apart Chopin andLiszt came of age in an era favorable to musical change when audiences as well as performers were receptive to Romanticism's innovations. Liszt surveys the technical brilliance as well as the poetry of Chopin's masterpieces including the 'Adagio' from Piano Concerto No. 2 and Polonaise in F-sharp Minor. He also chronicles Chopin's progress from child prodigy to the darling of Parisian salons. A source of rare and unparalleled insights into Chopin's world of private anguish and public triumph this memoir recounts the composer's loneliness as a Polish emigré his tempestuous romance with George Sand and his life among a glittering social set that included Balzac Hugo Berlioz Delacroix and Schumann.Reprint of the Oliver Ditson Company Boston 1880 edition.