An intimate, moving, dramatic story about the musicians in a great orchestra who make music come alive in performance and recording. The musicians here are members of the fabled Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Seiji Ozawa, during a season highlighted by Mahler's Second Symphony, The Resurrection.

A rare case among history's great music contemporaries, Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Richard Strauss (1864-1949) enjoyed a close friendship until Mahler's death in 1911. Unlike similar musical pairs (Bach and Handel, Haydn and Mozart, Schoenberg and Stravinsky), these two composers may have disagreed on the matters of musical taste and social comportment, but deeply respected one another's artistic talents, freely exchanging advice from the earliest days of professional apprenticeship through the security and aggravations of artistic fame. Using a wealth of documentary material, this book reconstructs the 24-year relationship between Mahler and Strauss through collage-"a meaning that arises from fragments," to borrow Adorno's characterization of Mahler's Sixth Symphony. Fourteen different topics, all of central importance to the life and work of the two composers, provide distinct vantage points from which to view both the professional and personal relationships. Some address musical concerns: Wagnerism, program music, intertextuality, and the craft of conducting. Others treat the connection of music to related disciplines (philosophy, literature), or to matters relevant to artists in general (autobiography, irony). And the most intimate dimensions of life-childhood, marriage, personal character-are the most extensively and colorfully documented, offering an abundance of comparative material. This integrated look at Mahler and Strauss discloses provocative revelations about the two greatest western composers at the turn of the 20th century.

Although most people agree that Mozart's music sparkles brilliantly, no one knows for sure how Mozart created those majestic glimmering sounds. Today, scholars are investigating Mozart's life and work, not only to assess and admire how great a composer he was, but also to find why his music is so outstanding and intricate on one hand and so appealing to all including the common man at the same time. Mozart's best music has a natural flow and irresistible charm, and can express humor, joy or sorrow with both conviction and mastery. His compositions, especially his later efforts, are brilliant examples of a pure art form; even his lesser compositions and juvenile works feature much attractive and often masterful music. Despite such fervor and brilliance, Mozart's life was tormented by many difficulties and mysteries which have not yet been completely revealed. This work aims to offer some reflections about the most debated aspects of his intense existence.

LUCA ANDREA GIORDANO lives in Italy. He holds doctorate degrees in Foreign Languages, Modern Philology, Vocal Performance (Opera and Chamber music) and Oboe. He dedicates his time equally as a linguist and interpreter assisting professional departments at various Italian Music Conservatories in English and French, and as author of extensive analytical works in musicology, linguistics and composition for important publishing houses. He has been associated with the Opera House "Giuseppe Verdi" in Salerno, as chorus member, since 1999. He also performs frequently as classical singer and oboist at national and international levels.