Winter 2001

Guest editorial

Beyond Britten: To mark the 25th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death, Arnold Whittall argues Britten’s standing is more than just ‘clever promotion’.

Online excerpts

Sad tales for winter In the 25th anniversary year since Britten’s death, Wilfred Meller revisits a classic English song cycle, ‘Lyrics and ballads of Thomas Hardy’. We present an excerpt online here.

Puffett’s progress Kathryn Puffett introduces excerpts from her husband’s diary, with an online selection reproduced here.

Review article

‘The Invasion of America by the Great Musicians: We Suddenly Find Ourselves the Custodians of the Musical Culture of the World.’ So ran a 1925 Vanity Fair headline in what represents an American declaration of newly won musical self-confidence. David Wright considers two new books on America’s musical tradition: Making music modern: New York in the 1920s and America’s musical life: a history.

Books reviewed this issue

The music and thought of Michael Tippett: modern times and metaphysics, by David Clarke

Music of the baroque, by David Schulenberg

Music of the baroque: an anthology of scores, by David Schulenberg

Bach: the Goldberg variations, by Peter Williams

The possessor and the possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the idea of musical genius, by Peter Kivy

Fauré and French musical aesthetics, by Carlo Caballero

A dictionary-catalog of modern British composers, by Alan Poulton

In memoriam

Isaac Stern 1920–2001

Jeanne Loriod 1928–2001

Ernest Warburton 1937–2001

Articles in print

Perahia’s musical dialogue John Rink and Murray Perahia discuss aspects of Chopin interpretation

Redeeming Rubbra John Pickard explores generic fusion in the Ninth Symphony

Unfinished business Frans Bouwman surveys the publication history of Mahler 10

Write to reply Jeffrey Kurtzman responds to Peter Holman