The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn

About the Author Richard Wigmore is a distinguished musicologist, specialising in the Viennese Classical period and Lieder, and he has written many CD notes, concert programme notes, newspaper and magazine articles on Haydn. He writes regularly for Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and the Daily Telegraph, and is a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radio 3. His previous publications include Schubert: The Complete Song Texts. Product Description Joseph Haydn is one of the greatest and most innovative of all composers, yet in some ways he is still curiously misunderstood. This engaging new Pocket Guide assesses what Haydn's music means to us today, and challenges some of the myths that have grown up around the composer. With suggestions for further reading and recommended CD recordings, Richard Wigmore's crisp and concise guide presents you with all you need to listen to and enjoy Haydn's music. It explores each of his key works, from his symphonies to his quartets, from his choral works to his sonatas, and invites a new generation of listeners to discover the depth and dazzling ingenuity of this most humane and life-affirming of composers. Review `The latest in Faber's excellent Pocket Guide series celebrates the life and work of the composer Joseph Haydn on the 200th anniversary of his death. The epitome of classical structure and restraint, this is an excellent guide to Haydn's music.' -- Choice 'A browsable pleasure in every way.....excellent layout and print quality too.' -- Classic FM Magazine 'Richard Wigmore manages to insinua te an elegant sentence of evocative adjective about virtually every significant item in [Haydn's] catalogue...vividly knits together the available evidence, judiciously assessing Haydn's character and motivation...One of the virtues of this useful handbook is to stimulate interest in lesser-known works'. -- BBC Music Magazine 'What makes [The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn] invaluable is the fact that [Richard Wigmore] comments on virtually all the music, genre by genre, with a remarkably judicious blend of insight and judgement...With this book to hand every listener will be able to navigate his way safely through one of the most prodigious compositional outputs ever committed to paper...his music is life-enhancement made manifest.' -- Gramophone `With each new release, Faber's enterprising pocket guide series is growing into an invaluable library. Compact, concise, and crammed with information, these conveniently sized volumes offer more than mere introductions to their subjects. Both these new offerings are models of rich but lightly worn scholarship. Richard Wigmore may stretch to breaking point the notions of `compact' and `concise' with his near-400 pages but it seems unlikely that a better or more readable one-volume book on Haydn will appear in this 200th anniversary year of his death. Edward Blakeman's Handel is an eloquent example of pouring quarts into pint pots and underpinned by an obvious enthusiasm for the subject. ... While the tone is approachable and jargon-free, the arguments are commendably well researched and argued, achieving a reach that is comprehensive and encyclopaedic - surprisingly, but satisfyingly so, given the limitations of space. What especially appeals here is how often Blakeman and Wigmore send the reader scuttling off to his record collection to test a particular claim, to be reminded in sound as well as words of a marvellous work, or to encounter something new. In that, both authors deliver in happy abundance. ... These are perfect concert companions and will please the novice and aficionado alike.' -- Michael Quinn, Classical Music Review 'Richard Wigmore manages to insinua te an elegant sentence of evocative adjective about virtually every significant item in [Haydn's] catalogue...vividly knits together the available evidence, judiciously assessing Haydn's character and motivation...One of the virtues of this useful handbook is to stimulate interest in lesser-k