Music Matters

10 November 2007

Saturday 10 November 2007 12:15-13:00 (Radio 3)

The spotlight falls on four new books about music, including a major biography of Robert Schumann, and Oliver Sacks's hot-off-the-press Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.

Petroc Trelawny talks to the authors and is joined by critic Hilary Finch, violinist Paul Robertson and musicologist Tess Knighton.

Duration:

45 minutes

In this programme

This week's Music Matters is a book special; four new publications considered by an expert team of reviewers: Hilary Finch, Tess Knighton, and Paul Robertson.

Schumann Biography
Petroc Trelawny will be talking Schumann with John Worthen, author of a magisterial new biography. In it, Worthen aims to confront the traditional perception of Schumann as a doom-laden Romantic, forced by depression into a life of helpless sadness. It's a real page turner; gripping and filled with really interesting material, much of it seemingly new. Worthen has strived to free Schumann from centuries of myth-making, but there is little in terms of musical analysis here; not a note of printed music - but will that worry Hilary Finch, music critic of the Times?

John Worthen's: Robert Schumann: Life and death of a musician pub. Yale Uni. Press h/b £25


'Musicophilia'
Oliver Sacks first came to fame with 'The Man Who Mistook his Wife for his Hat'. His latest book looks at music's extraordinary hold over the human brain. Sacks touches on everything from 'ear worms' -those annoying lines from a song that get stuck in your head, to a man who goes deaf in one ear whose brain creates a sort of artificial stereo. Petroc talks to Sacks from New York, and then Paul Robertson, Professor of Music and the Mind at the Peninsula Medical School will give his thoughts on the book.

Oliver Sacks': Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain Pub. Picador £17.99


'Warrior, Courtier, Singer'
Richard Wistreich tells the story of Giulio Cesare Brancaccio, a Neapolitan nobleman with a distinguished military career, first in the service of Charles V and later as both soldier and courtier in France. He was also a virtuoso bass singer whose performances were praised by both Tasso and Guarini. This is an academic book - but one that tells a compelling story. We hear what Tess Knighton, Editor of Early Music Journal thought of Wistreich's telling of the Brancaccio story.

Richard Wistreich's: Warrior, Courtier, Singer: Giulio Cesare Brancaccio and the Performance of Identity in the Late Renaissance Pub. Ashgate h/b £55


'Bach's Solo Violin Works'
Long admired for his interpretation of Bach's six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin, Jaap Schroder offers a detailed but informal guide to their performance. Paul Robertson, also a violinist and founder leader of the Medici Quartet is the perfect reviewer of this performer's guide. It may not sound like a riveting read, but the book is filled with fascinating and surprising moments.

Jaap Schroder's: Bach's Solo Violin Works A Performer's Guide Pub. Yale Uni. Press h/b £25

Music Matters

Episode and Playlist Information

• 17 Nov 07 Chick Corea
• 10 November 2007
• 3 Nov 07
• 20 Oct 07 John Eliot Gardiner
• 13 Oct 07 Luigi Nono
• 6 Oct 07 Anniversary Special
• 22 Sep 07 Portugal Special

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