Customer Reviews

Why Beethoven Threw the Stew: And Lots More Stories about the Lives of Great Composers

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My nine year old boy adore this book. I translate it to him to spanish and read every night.
The language is easy, yet not childish. Each composer is present in three parts, a portrait of the composer; a description of his music and finally some short biography.

I am a professional adult musician and still learned a lot by reading Steven Isserlis' book! He has a way to make you close to the composer. You feel that you really know what kind of person the composer was after you read the chapter about him. And Isserlis is VERY witty from his first line of About the Author: "I was born at an early age"(!), you know that this is going to be fun to read. I bought a few copies that I am passing among my students (and their parents). I highly recommend it to anyone, really. His second book is on another group of composers, written in the same style: true and checked facts about the composers, in a very entertaining style!

Fun book for any age about the personal lives of the great composers - what it was like living in those times.