Stephen Walsh

A beautifully written and original biography of one of the greatest and most popular of modern composers--which also deeply investigates his much-loved music. Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was that rare creature, a composer who reinvented the language of music without alienating the majority of music lovers. The creator of such classics as La Mer and Clair de Lune, of Pell�as et M�lisande and his magnificent, delicate piano works, he is the modernist everybody loves, the man who drove French music into entirely new regions of beauty and excitement at a time when old traditions--and the overbearing influence of Wagner--threatened to stifle it. As a central figure at the birth of modernism, Debussy's influence on French culture was profound. Yet at the same time his own life was complicated and often troubled by struggles over money, women, and ill-health. Walsh's engagingly original approach is to enrich a lively account of this life with brilliant analyses of Debussy's music: from his first daring breaks with the rules as a Conservatoire student to his mature achievements as the greatest French composer of his time. The Washington Post called Stephen Walsh's Stravinsky "one of the best books ever written about a composer." Debussy is a worthy successor.

A Painter in Sound

Debussy

Widely regarded as the greatest composer of the twentieth century, Igor Stravinsky was central to the development of modernism in art, yet no dependable biography of him exists. Previous studies have drawn too heavily from his own unreliable memoirs and conversations, and until now no biographer has possessed both the musical knowledge to evaluate his art and the linguistic proficiency needed to explore the documentary background of his life--a life whose span extended from tsarist Russia to Switzerland, France, and ultimately the United States. In this revealing volume, the first of two, Stephen Walsh follows Stravinsky from his birth in 1882 to 1934. He traces the composer's early Russian years, laying bare the complicated relationships within his family and showing how he first displayed his extraordinary talents. Stravinsky's brilliantly creative involvement with the Ballets Russes is illuminated by a sharp sense of the internal artistic politics that animated the group. Portraying Stravinsky's circumstances as an emigré in France trying to make his living as a conductor and pianist as well as a composer, Walsh reveals the true roots of his notorious obsession with money. He also describes the nature of his long affair with Vera Sudeykina. While always respecting Stravinsky's own insistence that life and art be kept distinct, Stravinsky makes clear precisely how the development of his music was connected to his life and to the intellectual environment in which he found himself. But at the same time it demonstrates the composer's remarkably pragmatic psychology, which led him to consider the welfare of his art to be of paramount importance, before which everything else had to give way. Walsh, long established as an expert on Stravinsky's music, has drawn upon a vast array of material, much of it unpublished or unavailable in English, to bring the man himself, in all his color and genius, to glowing life.

A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934

Stravinsky

One of the most revered composers of the twentieth century, Claude Debussy (1862–1918) achieved the unheard of: he reinvented the language of music without alienating the majority of music lovers. Debussy drove French music into entirely new regions of beauty and excitement at a time when old traditions threatened to stifle it. Yet despite his profound influence on French culture, Debussy’s own life was complicated and often troubled by struggles over money, women, and ill health. Here, Stephen Walsh, acclaimed author of Stravinsky, chronicles both the composer himself and the unique moment in European history that bore him. Walsh’s engagingly original approach is to enrich a lively biography with analyses of Debussy’s music: from his first daring breaks with the rules as a Conservatoire student to his achievements as the greatest French composer of his time.

A rich and luminous biography of nineteenth century music. A New Yorker "Best Book of the Year" When one thinks of “great” classical music—music with the most emotional resonance and timelessness—we harken back to the nineteenth century and the Romantic tradition. We recall the sweet melody of a Schubert song, the heroine dying for love in an Italian opera, the swooning orchestration of a Tchaikovsky symphony. The emotional resonance of nineteenth century has moved generations muscians and resonated with countless listeners. It has inspired artists and writers. But no writer until how has adopted such a vividly insightful narrative approach as Stephen Walsh and he shows how there is more to Romantic music that meets the eye—and the ear. With authority, insight, and passion, The Beloved Vision, links the music history of this singular epoch to the ideas that lay behind Romanticism in all its manifestations. In this complete, entertaining, and singularly readable account, we come to understand the entire phase in music history that has become the mainstay of the twentieth and twenty-first century concert and operatic repertoire. We also come to understand Beethoven, Mahler, Schubert, Chopin, and Wagner anew. The narrative begins in the eighteenth century, with C.P.E. Bach, Haydn and the literary movement known as Sturm und Drang, seen as a reaction of the individual artist to the confident certainties of the Enlightenment. The windows are flung open, and everything to do with style, form, even technique, is exposed to the emotional and intellectual weather, the impulses and preferences of the individual composer. Risk taking—the braving of the unknown—was certainly an important part of what the composers wanted to do, as true of Chopin and Verdi as it is of Berlioz and Wagner. It's an exciting, colorful, story, told with passion but also with the precision and clarity of detail for which Stephen Walsh is so widely admired. The Beloved Vision is a cultural tour de force, by turns bold, challenging, and immensely stimulating.

A History of Nineteenth Century Music

The Beloved Vision

The German invasion of Russia was Hitler's biggest gamble in his quest for 'Lebensraum' in the East - and it was at Stalingrad that his gamble failed. The book begins with a study of the background to the battle, and a description of events on the Eastern Front before the German forces reached Stalingrad. The strategic importance of the city is considered, and the factors that caused it to become such a decisive battle. The rubble-strewn city gave rise to a bitter hand-to-hand struggle between both sides, and landmarks like the Mamaev Kurgan hill could change hands seventeen times a day. STALINGRAD moves on to discuss the Soviet forces' preparation for a counter-strike against the weak flanks of the German forces, and how the Sixth Army was quickly surrounded, and then squeezed into a smaller and smaller space. Accounts from soldiers on both sides, reveal the privations of the soldiers in the hellish inferno that the city had become. When Von Paulus refused to disobey Hitler's orders, the fate of the Sixth Army was sealed. The final chapter discusses the full implications of the battle for the Germans and Russians, and assesses the battle's impact on the war as a whole. STALINGRAD is a comprehensive account of the battle that bled the German army dry, and turned the war in the East decisively against the Germans.

The Infernal Cauldron

Stalingrad, 1942-1943

'My family business produces a range of jewellery, gifts and souvenirs crafted from our own Connemara Marble; this is the story of my love for Connemara and of how our uniquely Irish product became so admired and loved in America and around the world.' Stephen Walsh, Connemara Marble Beneath the beautiful, rugged landscape of Connemara lies Ireland's green marble. For centuries it has been brought to the surface, worked into jewellery and sought after to adorn fine buildings. This is the fascinating story of this iconic stone, and of the people and places it has touched.

Ireland's National Gem

Connemara Marble

A rich and luminous biography of nineteenth century music from the acclaimed author of Debussy: A Painter in Sound. When one thinks of “great” classical music—music with the most emotional resonance and timelessness—we harken back to the nineteenth century and the Romantic tradition. The emotional resonance of nineteenth century has moved generations muscians and resonated with countless listeners. It has inspired artists and writers. But no writer until how has adopted such a vividly insightful narrative approach as Stephen Walsh. With authority, insight, and passion, The Beloved Vision, links the music history of this singular epoch to the ideas that lay behind Romanticism in all its manifestations. And through this we understand Beethoven, Mahler, Schubert, Chopin, and Wagner anew. Walsh moves deftly from composer to composer, musician to musician, and crafts a brilliant intellectual biography of the period that helps both the expert musician and music lover to appreciate the aesthetics and poetics of the Romantic era that reshaped music and art. The Beloved Vision is a cultural tour de force, by turns bold, challenging, and immensely stimulating.

Widely regarded the greatest composer of the twentieth century, Igor Stravinsky was central to the development of modernism in art. Deeply influential and wonderfully productive, he is remembered for dozens of masterworks, from The Firebird and The Rite of Spring to The Rake's Progress, but no dependable biography of him exists. Previous studies have relied too heavily on his own unreliable memoirs and conversations, and until now no biographer has possessed both the musical knowledge to evaluate his art and the linguistic proficiency needed to explore the documentary background of his life--a life whose span extended from tsarist Russia to Switzerland, France, and ultimately the United States. In this revealing volume, the first of two, Stephen Walsh follows Stravinsky from his birth in 1882 to 1934. He traces the composer's early Russian years in new and fascinating detail, laying bare the complicated relationships within his family and showing how he first displayed his extraordinary talents within the provincial musical circle around his teacher, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Stravinsky's brilliantly creative involvement with the Ballets Russes is illuminated by a sharp sense of the internal artistic politics that animated the group. Portraying Stravinsky's circumstances as an émigré in France trying to make his living as a conductor and pianist as well as a composer while beset by emotional and financial demands, Walsh reveals the true roots of his notorious obsession with money during the 1920s and describes with sympathy the nature of his long affair with Vera Sudeykina. While always respecting Stravinsky's own insistence that life and art be kept distinct, Stravinsky makes clear precisely how the development of his music was connected to his life and to the intellectual environment in which he found himself. But at the same time it demonstrates the composer's remarkably pragmatic psychology, which led him to consider the welfare of his art to be of paramount importance, before which everything else had to give way. Hence, for example, his questionable attitude toward Hitler and Mussolini, and his reputation as a touchy, unpredictable man as famous for his enmities as for his friendships. Stephen Walsh, long established as an expert on Stravinsky's music, has drawn upon a vast array of material, much of it unpublished or unavailable in English, to bring the man himself, in all his color and genius, to glowing life. Written with elegance and energy, comprehensive, balanced, and original, Stravinsky is essential reading for anyone interested in the adventure of art in our time. Praise from the British press for Stephen Walsh's The Music of Stravinsky "One of the finest general studies of the composer." --Wilfrid Mellers, composer, Times Literary Supplement "The beautiful prose of The Music of Stravinsky is itself a fund of arresting images. For those who already love Stravinsky's music, Walsh's essays on each work will bring a smile of recognition and joy at new kernels of insight. For those unfamiliar with many of the works he discusses, Walsh's commentaries are likely to whet appetites for performances of the works." --John Shepherd, Notes "This book sent me scurrying back to the scores and made me want to recommend it to other people. Above all, it is a good read." --Anthony Pople, Music and Letters

“In ultima analisi, a Debussy toccò definire la propria musica praticamente ex novo, dettaglio per dettaglio, mentre la creava, dovendo giudicare coerenza e continuità, saldezza strutturale ed equilibrio per ogni pezzo. Fu la modalità che sarebbe a poco a poco diventata la norma nel Novecento. Ma Debussy fu il primo: dopo di lui nessuno l’ha più fatto con uguale abilità, o con risultati di simile bellezza”. In questo libro, Stephen Walsh, uno dei più acuti e rispettati critici e storici della musica della scena inglese, intesse con grande abilità la biografia e l’opera del compositore, per raccontare un’altra storia. Quella di un Debussy “pittore dei suoni” non tanto per le qualità immaginifiche della sua opera o per la vicinanza alle atmosfere degli impressionisti, quanto per il modo in cui lavora ai suoi soggetti, ai loro sviluppi e alle loro cornici, creando la forma musicale dalla sua pura necessità interna, senza curarsi di una sintassi o di una tecnica narrativa preconfezionata, classica o wagneriana che sia.

Il pittore dei suoni

Claude Debussy

"Great, beautiful little studies of unspoken fear and longing and love, told with a sure-footed delicacy rare in a debut" Sarah Moss, Irish Times "An exciting, original, and very welcome new voice" Donal Ryan "These are startling, adventurous and often wonderful stories. I loved this collection" Roddy Doyle A sharp and insightful debut short story collection about the pitfalls of ordinary life A wife yearns to escape the tight-fisted confines of a package holiday. A boy dreams of footballing greatness as his mother mourns a loss. A man tries to assemble an absent child's playhouse, with impossible instructions and too much beer. A woman seeks clarity from automated voices. A father is distracted from Christmas tree shopping with his son by the looming pressure of quarterly sales targets. Shine/Variance captures the tiny crises and wonders of daily life with warmth, wit and decisive clarity. Ordinary people - commuters, call centre workers, children and parents - struggle for stability while craving more, and the schism between expectation and reality is only rarely bridged. Yet, amidst the faltering, recognition and bright moments of hope still illuminate their days. Fresh, tender and darkly funny, these stories are a window into the longings, frustrations and painfully human connections of ordinary life from a remarkable new voice in fiction. "The most powerful new collection I've read in some years" John Boyne "Brilliantly bats, staggeringly compelling, and ferociously funny. Stephen Walsh rips the concreteness of reality straight from us and reflects back a more wobbly version of our turbulent lives... Completely unique" June Caldwell "Full of assured originality and freshness - a new writer much to be welcomed" Bernard MacLaverty

Shine/Variance

The German invasion of the Soviet Union was Hitler's biggest gamble in his quest for Lebensraum in the East - and it was at Stalingrad that his gamble failed. With battle maps, 170 photographs, and appendices, this is a fascinating account of the battle that bled the German army dry, and turned the war in the East decisively against Germany.

Stalingrad

The German invasion of Russia was Hitler’s biggest gamble in his quest for ‘Lebensraum’ in the East – and it was at Stalingrad that his gamble failed. Stalingrad 1942-1943: The Infernal Cauldron is a comprehensive history of the greatest battle of World War II, a defining moment in the struggle on the Eastern Front, which has been called the Verdun of World War II. From an About.Com review of the illustrated print edition: "[Anthony Beevor’s] Stalingrad is wholly worthy of its fame. Fortunately for publishers, there are many ways to write history and Stephen Walsh's account of Stalingrad offers a strong alternative: a military history. Walsh may cover the same ground … but his is a narrative of logistics and tactical planning, an account of where troops moved and fought, why plans were conceived and what they meant militarily. There's a large overlap between Beevor and Walsh - both include the same basic detail - but Beevor's prose is more personal … while Walsh's text considers the limits of German national power and the nature of Vernichtungschlacht warfare. Where Beevor discusses the difficulty of providing exact figures Walsh just gives them and where Beevor's writing is ceaselessly gripping Walsh is more sedate, educational and discursive. In short, these books are aimed at different audiences: anyone who likes reading will enjoy Beevor, but someone who wants the military specifics and contexts will benefit more from Walsh. Another bonus is a chapter on Army Group A and their campaign in the Caucasus, an event presumably omitted from Beevor's Stalingrad on grounds of relevance, but one which helps place the siege on context. Walsh's book is an excellent military history, but Beevor's is better suited to a broader audience: in terms of text, neither is more wrong nor right than the other, but Walsh feels like a documentary and Beevor like a feature film. It might seem unfair to constantly compare The Infernal Cauldron to Stalingrad, but I urge everyone who reads one to study the other too. No one should miss out on Beevor's style and treatment of both history and humanity, while The Infernal Cauldron is a superb, maybe even essential, companion to Stalingrad.”

Stalingrad 1942–1943

Walsh Stephen

This clear and concise guide is the first ever to be written on this work and it describes the music and its staging in close detail.

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex

Narracion sin concesiones de la cruda realidad de una guerra que cambio el curso de la historia. Se analiza la batalla de Stalingrado, sus precedentes y consecuencias de la mano de un experto en historia militar sovietica y se acompana de un documento grafico con fotografias ineditas.

Stephen Walsh

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