Discovering Berlioz: Essays, Reviews, Talks
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by David Cairns
Foreward by Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Extent: 400 pages
Size: royal octavo
Published: December 2019
ISSN 0264-6889
Musicians on Music, No. 12
The Berlioz revival of recent decades has brought about a radical reassessment of this most original and individual of all French composers: once regarded as an eccentric outsider, he is now seen as the very embodiment of the Romantic ideal, among the most vital figures in the history of western music. That change in his fortunes would not have been possible without the unceasing championship of David Cairns, one of the world’s pre-eminent Berlioz scholars, who translated Berlioz’s freewheeling memoirs and wrote a monumental biography of the composer that earned a procession of awards. But much of Cairns’ writing on Berlioz was intended for disparate audiences – essays for the Berlioz Society Bulletin, articles in books and journals, contributions to newspapers and lectures, which have never been collected between a single set of covers. Discovering Berlioz presents nearly 40 texts from the past five decades that even now throw unexpected light on this most quixotic and profound of composers – firebrand and philosopher almost in the same breath.
These articles follow the chronology of Berlioz’s life, examining the influences of his provincial childhood on his music, the revelations of Virgil, Gluck, Shakespeare and Beethoven, the tribulations of his professional life in Paris, when the pressure to earn a living as a reviewer and writer robbed him of the time he should have spent on composition, and finally focusing on the masterpiece that crowned Berlioz’s difficult life, the operatic epic Les Troyens. Discovering Berlioz also charts the history of Berlioz reception – a gradual rewriting of music history for which David Cairns himself deserves much of the credit.
David Cairns was music critic of The Sunday Times from 1983 to 1992, having written also for The Times Educational Supplement, The Spectator, The Evening Standard, The Financial Times and The New Statesman. In 1950 he co-founded the Chelsea Opera Group and sang solo roles under its first conductor Colin Davis. From 1967 to 1972 he was classical programme coordinator for Philips records. His books include Responses (1973), a two-volume Berlioz (1989 and 1999; Vol. 2 won the Whitbread Biography Award and Samuel Johnson Non-Fiction prize), and Mozart and his Operas (2006). He is a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2013), president of the City Music Society and Putney Music, board-member of International Musicians Seminar and founder-conductor of the Thorington Players. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of California, Davis.
Musical Opinion :
‘Full of reminiscences, rich in appreciation of the great Berlioz conductors and scholars of the past and present, Cairns’s book is a goldmine of analysis and memories.’
—Musical Opinion
Gramophone :
‘Interest and diversity are maintained throughout[…]crammed full of useful, relevant and readable insights. For readers both familiar and unfamiliar with the biographical and musical material that occupy Cairns’s first three Berlioz volumes, not to mention complete beginners with this composer, this should be an essential purchase.’
—Gramophone
MusicWeb International :
‘It’s a long time since I enjoyed a book about music so much. David Cairns knows his subject backwards yet his writings are never weighed down by misapplied excessive scholarship. The scholarship is there for all to see but it’s worn lightly; he is one of those authors whom one instinctively trusts to be right. Even after more than sixty years of writing abut the music of Hector Berlioz it’s evident that while his knowledge and wisdom have deepened over the years his enthusiasm for his subject has remained absolutely constant.
This generously filled volume is an indispensable treasure trove for Berlioz enthusiasts. […] The book is beautifully presented. The layout of the text is ideally clear and there are copious illustrations, all of which are relevant and enhance the text.’
—John Quinn, MusicWeb International
Brian Nilsson Blog :
‘You don’t need to have read the biography to enjoy these essays. In fact, Discovering Berlioz could serve as a very informative introduction to the composer, although Cairns’s style is charming enough that you may well feel compelled to seek out those two mighty volumes. However you come to it, you will come away much more appreciative of no-longer-neglected artistic genius.’
—Brian Nilsson, Brian Nilsson Blog
Studia Chopinowskie :
‘Jako książka zróżnicowana formalnie, zawierająca także wiele tekstów o mniejszym ciężarze gatun-kowym, recenzji czy popularyzatorskich odczytów, Discovering Berlioz staje się też bar-dzo pozytywnym doświadczeniem lekturo-wym dla wszystkich tych, którzy dopiero chcieliby poznać tego fascynującego kom-pozytora, jego epokę i liczne relacje kultu-rowe, w jakich został tu ukazany.’
English tranlsation:
‘As a formally diverse book, also containing many texts of a lighter genre, reviews and popularizing readings, Discovering Berlioz is also a very positive reading experience for all those who would like to learn more about this fascinating composer, his era and the numerous cultural relations in which he is presented here.’
—Studia Chopinowskie