Basil Howitt delves into the love lives of a cluster of the great composers from Gesualdo to Wagner and finds much to delight, surprise, shock, and even appall his readers — but never bore them!
Review
About the Author
Talked out of becoming a professional musician when he left Cambridge University in 1963, Basil Howitt pursued a successful career in academia for 15 years. At the age of 38, Howitt finally hit the road as a freelance cellist, working with many orchestras and ensembles.
Writing is Howitt’s third career, which he began with a series of lighthearted pieces on the freelance lifestyle for Classical Music magazine. These led to his enthusiastically received first book Life in a Penguin Suit, published by the Manchester Camerata. At the same time he began steeping himself in the lives of the great composers for his popular pre-concert talks in Manchester UK, discovering that his audiences were sometimes more fascinated by noggins and nookie than ninth-cords and natural harmonics.
Howitt has also written for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and Private Eye.
- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Sound and Vision (October 1, 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0920151183
- ISBN-13: 978-0920151181
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
