Steen - Steen The Lives and Times of the Great Composers

The Lives and Times of the Great Composers by Michael Steen is a comprehensive and well-researched biographical history of classical music. The research is painstaking it should keep you absorbed for a long time. The Lady

Splendid and entertaining a comprehensive and meticulously researched biographical history of the giants of classical music and the societies in which they lived. It is a fascinating tour of 350 years of European history and should appeal as much to the fan of lively history as to music aficionados. Open it and youre hooked! Eastern Daily Press

It would seem that the great composers of the past had more in common with todays rock stars than stuffy old music teachers would ever want you to know. Steen relates hundreds of fascinating tales that offer a sensitive understanding of the passionate lives that engendered such creativity and provides a rich new dimension to the enjoyment of classical music and opera and a vital new facet to 350 years of European social history. Ink

Steen weaves together the tumultuous strands of the great composers lives to reveal a rich tapestry of European music. Looking in detail at the beginnings and development of such superior masters as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Haydn, he offers readers an intellectual, scholarly, fascinating insight. Good Book Guide

Michael Steens beautifully illustrated book packs an astonishing amount of detail into nearly 40 subjects, starting with Handel and running through to Britten, with a cautionary word on historys assessment of greatness. The chapter on Schumann is heartbreaking Independent on Sunday

What a treat this is. This immense book is a labour of love and learning. Steen seems to know everything, not just about music but everything else. The Age, Australia

Theres something for everyone in this book, whether interested amateur or enquiring student. Michael Steen is a good storyteller, and wears his learning lightly. The times in which these composers lived and worked are brought vividly to life, because of the range of social and historical detail from which the author weaves his tales. Dame Janet Ritterman, former Director of the Royal College of Music

It can be enjoyed by the scholar and general reader alike, and ought to be required reading for all those intending to study music at degree level. Oriel Record

The Lives and Times of the Great Composers proves to be an absolute delight. For lovers of musical biography with a penchant for the kind of minutiae one normally associates with Brewers Dictionary of Phrase andFable, Michael Steens compendious volume is required reading. Covering 350 years of European musical history, Steen sketches his canonic figures with Dickensian flair, providing a bona fide cross-over title that is also a literary achievement in its own right.
Times Literary Supplement

The author sets about his chosen composers with zest and learning. You wont go wrong with Steen.
Opera

A glorious plum-pudding of a book to be consulted with pleasure and profit, over and over again
Sir Jeremy Isaacs

Hugely informative and deliciously gossipy
Spectator

THE LIVES AND TIMES OF

THE GREAT
COMPOSERS

MICHAEL STEEN

This revised edition published in the UK in 2010 by Icon Books Ltd,
Omnibus Business Centre, 2941 North Road, London N7 9DP
email: info@iconbooks.co.uk
www.iconbooks.co.uk

Original edition published in 2003 by Icon Books

Sold in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Asia
by Faber & Faber Ltd, Bloomsbury House,
7477 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DA
or their agents

Distributed in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Asia
by TBS Ltd, TBS Distribution Centre, Colchester Road,
Frating Green, Colchester CO7 7DW

This edition published in Australia in 2010
by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, PO Box 8500,
83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest, NSW 2065

Distributed in Canada by
Penguin Books Canada, 90 Eglinton Avenue East,
Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2YE

ISBN 978-184831-135-0

Text copyright 2003, 2010 Michael Steen
The author has asserted his moral rights.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any
means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Typesetting by Wayzgoose and Marie Doherty

Printed by Gutenberg Press, Malta

For all who want to know more

The sources, upon which this book is wholly dependent, are generally quoted in the section entitled Sources and Further Reading. I cannot overstate the extent to which I have depended on them.

I am grateful for assistance at the City of London Libraries and the Royal College of Music Library. I have also been helped by the Bodleian Library and the Library of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Whereas the content of libraries may be different, their staff seem to share the same sense of dedication and to display a degree of courtesy, helpfulness and speed of response which is both exceptional and exemplary.

Others to whom I am most grateful for pointing me in the right direction, advice, information, or just help and support, are Dr Roland Aubrey, Nigel Blackwell, Nicholas Boggis-Rolfe, Jenny Brown, Peter Byrom, The Rev. Anthony Chambers, Sophie Chessum, Paul Collen, Peter Collett, Christopher Collier, Sarah Dodgson, Miles Emley, Alex Findlater, Dr Brian Gilmore, Jenny Haimes, Geoffrey Hodgkins, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Nigel Jaques, many of my former partners at KPMG, Richard Macnutt, Dr Robert Manning, Robert Meekings, Dr Janet Morgan, Roger Munnings, Provost Nicholson and his colleagues at Oriel, Dr Caitrona Dochartaigh, Christopher Paterson, Sir Joseph Pilling, Dame Janet Ritterman and her colleagues at the Royal College of Music, Clive Ryder Runton, Dr Amar Sabberwal, Yvonne Scott, Daniel Snowman, Sue Sturrock, Pamela Thompson, Nicholas West, Paul Whitfield and Peter Willett. These are just some of those with whom I have corresponded.

I am deeply grateful to those who commented on specific excerpts and early drafts, in full or in part: Dr Guy Deutscher, Dr David Maw, Andrew Robinson, Dr Esther Schmidt and Dr Janie Steen. Jonathan Price and David Vaughan gave me unstinting help and support. Because I did not act on all their suggestions, they cannot be assumed to agree with the final text, and responsibility for any errors that remain is entirely mine. But without their input, whatever shortcomings the book may have would have been more considerable.

The team at Icon, led by Peter Pugh and Jeremy Cox, has been tremendously helpful, and I must especially thank the editors Duncan Heath and Ruth Nelson, Jenny Rigby, and the designer Christos Kondeatis.

This book could not have been written without considerable effort by, and encouragement from, Professor Robert and Mrs Elizabeth Steen, and Sir Stanley Cochrane, Bart. I owe Rosemary my wife a special word of thanks for her skill, for reading drafts and for unswerving support. She is now expert in locating a Geburtshaus, a Casa Natale, a museum or a ruined house.

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was an organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and then spent 30 years in a successful career in the City of London. He is Treasurer of the Open University, and has been chairman of the Royal College of Music Society and the Friends of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is also the author of