Berlioz

This first volume of David Cairns's biography of Berlioz, first published a decade ago (when it won the Royal Philharmonic Society's Music Awards, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year and The British Academies Derek Allen Prize) and now re-issued in a revised and corrected second edition, transforms our view of the composer of the Fantastic Symphony and has established itself as one of the outstanding biographies of any musician in English: "It is already clear," wrote one critic, "that Cairns is doing for Berlioz what Ernest Newman did for Wagner." In Berlioz: The Making of an Artist Cairns describes with unprecedented intimacy, affection and respect the early years of one of France's greatest artists. In researching the life Cairns has had access to a wealth of family papers. He is able to portray all the people close to Berlioz in his boyhood and to evoke a detailed picture of their existence in and around La Cote St. Andre in the foothills of the French Alps. No artists achievement connects more directly with early experience than that of Berlioz, whose passionate sensibility began to absorb the material of his art long before he had heard any musical ensemble other than the local town band, and few artists have had to fight their way through a more intense family drama in order to follow their vocation. To be given an authentic sense of the place and the people involved, and of Berlioz's response to them, is to be taken to the heart of the man. The same is true of Berlioz's student years in Paris, where he tried to please his father by attending medical school but soon found the pull of music irresistible. He immersed himself in the works of Gluck and Spontini; studied with Jean-Francois Le Sueur, at first privately, then at the Conservatoire; won the Prix de Rome at his fifth attempt; and spent the obligatory year in Italy. Those simple statements cover a turmoil of commitment, defiance, experiment, frustration and achievements, all of which Cairns brings to life. - Jacket flap.