Music of Exile Michael Haas
Yale 400pp (hb) £25 This hugely important book explores the vast array of musical talent from Central Europe that was forced into exile after Hitler came to power in 1933. Inevitably, much of its focus centres around the experience that émigré composers faced in the United States and in Great Britian. But Michael Haas casts his net much wider, highlighting the stories of those musicians who relocated to completely unexpected parts of the globe such as New Zealand, China and South America.
Whether he is dealing with a relatively familiar composer, such as Kurt Weill or Erich Wolfgang Korngold, or someone, such as Richard Fuchs or Hans Winterberg who for the most part have been overlooked, Haas approaches each case study with fair-mindedness, insight and perspicacity. Given the vast amount of information at his disposal, it would have been all too easy to present us with a series of disconnected biographical studies. But Haas’s cogently argued yet wide-ranging chapters triumphantly avoid this trap, and his vivid descriptions of unfairly neglected works will hopefully inspire enterprising performers and record producers to bring them into the public domain. Erik Levi ★★★★★
Philip Glass Piano Etudes – The Complete Folios 1-20 & Essays from Fellow Artists Various Writers
Artisan 136pp (hb) £125 How’s this for itch-inducing tactility? Ease open the lusciously smart container to find inside, nestling in the bespoke packaging, sheet music for each of Philip Glass’s piano Études plus an accompanying volume, Studies in Time: Essays on the Music of Philip Glass. The cover of each of the (freshly engraved) Études features a facsimile page from Glass’s manuscript for that piece. Cute idea. So, a further boost to our awareness of these magical, highly personal Études which started life decades ago merely as private exercises via which Glass challenged himself to sharpen his keyboard skills.
The added genius of the concept for this publication (jointly overseen by Glass’s one-time tour manager, Linda Brumbach) was to gather essays from Glass aficionada in a variety of creative fields, not merely the world of music. Featured are the likes of film director Martin Scorsese, champion figure skater Nathan Chen, star chef Alice Waters and British artist Jenny Saville – all relating to (and using) Gl
