Benjamin Britten is the greatest of our English composers and 2013 marks the centenary of his birth- Neil Powell s Benjamin Britten- A Life for Music is the landmark biography of this pioneering musician's rich life and work.
Neil Powell is a poet and biographer who has written extensively on literature and music. His previous books include Roy Fuller- Writer and Society (1995), The Language of Jazz (1997), George Crabbe- An English Life (2004) and Amis & Son- Two Literary Generations (2008), as well as seven collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Proof of Identity (2012). He lives in Suffolk.
Neil Powell is a poet, and it shows. Fluent… intimate…
psychologically adept… [Powell does] an exceptional job of bringing
this strange, neurotic and evasive man to life.
*Sunday Times*
A sensible, well-written book by an author who is a literary
scholar: this is the biography to choose if you are new to Britten
and want an introduction to his life.
*Country Life*
Powell carries the torch into the present, naming those singers now
performing the work anew, painting a portrait of the Aldeburgh
festival as it is today. His account has air and light, and brings
alive the sense of landscape – the East Anglian coast, the marshes,
the wind and waves – which have coloured so much of Britten's
music.
*Observer*
[A] fine biography... Powell has a more personal touch... takes a
more literary approach, and is good at relating the vocal pieces to
their sources.
*Daily Telegraph*
Tightly focused... sympathetic. Powell lives in Suffolk and has a
strong understanding of the composer’s cultural rootedness in that
part of the world.
*Economist*
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