A beautifully designed celebration of the 40th birthday of the Barbican Arts Centre, in the heart of the City of London. It is the largest multi-arts centre in Europe, encompassing an art gallery, theatres, concert halls, cinemas and a much-loved conservatory, and regular collaborators include the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Shakespeare Company.Compiled by Nicholas Kenyon, the Barbican Centre's Managing Director 2007-2021, this is an in-depth exploration of the centre, drawing on the vast array of material available in its archives, much of which has never been seen before. It includes plans and photographs from the centre's design and construction, original signage and branding, and brochures and programmes. All this is accompanied by a wealth of photographs of the huge range of performances and exhibitions that have taken place over the years, from early RSC performances to the popular Rain Room installation of 2012 to today's impressive programme of events put together in conjunction with schools and the local community. The book's authoritative and evocative text includes: *Foreword by Fiona Shaw *Introduction by Sir Nicholas Kenyon *Cultural historian Robert Hewison on how the centre came into being *Architectural historian Elain Harwood on its architecture *Music critic Fiona Maddocks on music *Writer and theatre critic Lyn Gardner on theatre *Editor and creative director Tony Chambers on visual art *Author and film critic Sukhdev Sandhu on filmWith listings of Barbican events from 1982 to the present day, and snippets of oral history from some of the many people associated with the centre over the years, this sumptuous book is an invaluable companion to one of the world's most important cultural spaces.

The Barbican Centre in the City of London is the largest multi-disciplinary arts centre in Europe. Designed by Chamberlin, Powell & Bon as part of the Barbican Estate and to provide homes for both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Shakespeare Company, the building is internationally renowned not only as an example of radical, visionary architecture in the Modernist tradition, but also for its outstanding programme of more than 2,000 cultural events each year: plays, concerts, films, exhibitions and more. A new title in the Pocket Photo Books series of immersive visual guides to the experience of place, this compact album of more than one hundred photographs by Harry Cory Wright presents the dramatic spaces, rich textures and carefully selected materials of the Barbican Centre in all their detail. From the flowing, multi-level space of the foyer and the calm wooden-panelled concert hall to the surprising intimacy of the theatre and the soaring jungle of the conservatory, the Barbican Centre offers the visitor an extraordinary variety of experiences within a single building. This book captures their full range, providing exceptional insights into one of the most significant and exciting modern buildings in Britain and a thriving cultural hub in the heart of London.

Nicholas Kenyon explores the enduring appeal of the classical canon at a moment when we can access all music-across time and cultures "Nicholas Kenyon is an amiable and enthusiastic guide to a thousand years of classical music."-Neil Fisher, The Times "A wonderfully engaging survey. . . . It is what every music lover needs close by. . . . We are left in no doubt about music's extraordinary power."-Ian Thomson, Financial Times Immersed in music for much of his life as writer, broadcaster, and concert presenter, former director of the BBC Proms Nicholas Kenyon has long championed an astonishingly wide range of composers and performers. Now, as we think about culture in fresh ways, Kenyon revisits the stories that make up the classical tradition and foregrounds those that are too often overlooked. This inclusive, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic guide highlights the achievements of the women and men, amateurs and professionals, who bring music to life. Taking us from pianist Myra Hess's performance in London during the Blitz, to John Adams's composition of a piece for mourners after New York's 9/11 attacks, to Italian opera singers singing from their balconies amidst the 2020 pandemic, Kenyon shows that no matter how great the crisis, music has the power to bring us together. His personal, celebratory account transforms our understanding of how classical music is made-and shows us why it is more relevant than ever.

The BBC Proms Guides provide all the background and information you need about some of the most exciting works in the repertory. This volume provides an accessible and authoritative guide to some of the greatest symphonies. From Haydn and Mozart to the masters of the twentieth century, including the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Sibelius, these are works which have shown their continual power to move and engage audiences, and which have remained central to our concert-going, broadcasting and record listening over generations.

The music of J.S.Bach has a unique power and attraction some 300 years after it was written. From annual performances of the great Passions and BBC Radio 3's hugely successful Bach Christmas, to its use in adverts, films and popular arrangements, the imaginative strength of Bach's music continues to draw listeners to explore its mysteries. This new Pocket Guide looks at all Bach's music, sacred and secular, and explores why he speaks so profoundly to our age about both the spiritual and the sensual in life. Among the features of this easy-to-use book: The Bach Top Ten Bach: The music work by work Performing Bach today Bach: The life year by year What people said about Bach

The BBC Proms Guides provide all the background and information you need about some of the most exciting works in the repertory. As one of the world's leading music festivals, the BBC Proms has over the years published unrivalled, highly praised programme notes by today's leading writers on music. This volume provides an accessible guide to the some of the most familiar and best-loved concertos in the repertory. From Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', through Mozart's glorious piano concertos and the great virtuoso display-pieces of the nineteenth century by Brahms, Tchaikovsky and many others, this volume brings us musically right up to date with the modern masterpieces of Prokofiev and Britten, Lutoslawski, Ligeti and John Tavener. The thrilling duel between soloist and orchestra which is at the heart of concerto form has remained constant through centuries of change and many different musical languages. If you want to know more about how the great concertos were written and what to listen out for as you encounter these remarkable pieces, this is the place to start.

Why is Mozart the best known and most popular of all the great Western classical composers? More than 250 years after his birth, his reputation stands higher than ever before. It also provides all you need to listen to and enjoy Mozart's music, and will also introduce a new generation of concert-goers and record-listeners to his life and key works, from opera to symphony, concerto to song. In a crisp, sharp style, with recommendations of good recordings, Nicholas Kenyon shows how Mozart's music has communicated with unique power across many generations.

Nicholas Kenyon explores the enduring appeal of the classical canon at a moment when we can access all music―across time and cultures

Immersed in music for much of his life as writer, broadcaster and concert presenter, former director of the BBC Proms, Nicholas Kenyon has long championed an astonishingly wide range of composers and performers. Now, as we think about culture in fresh ways, Kenyon revisits the stories that make up the classical tradition and foregrounds those which are too often overlooked. This inclusive, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic guide highlights the achievements of the women and men, amateurs and professionals, who bring music to life.

Taking us from pianist Myra Hess’s performance in London during the Blitz, to John Adams’s composition of a piece for mourners after New York’s 9/11 attacks, to Italian opera singers singing from their balconies amidst the 2020 pandemic, Kenyon shows that no matter how great the crisis, music has the power to bring us together. His personal, celebratory account transforms our understanding of how classical music is made―and shows us why it is more relevant than ever.

"It does all one could ask, and more, of a pocket guide."-The Times Literary Supplement "One of the newest and most recommendable Mozart books is the Pocket Guide to Mozart. Written in a beautifully lucid and enthusiastic style."-The Independent on Sunday To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, an easy-to-use guide to Mozart's life and music, including: symphonies, concertos, operas, a seventy-five-page biography, and a poignant assessment of what the composer means to us today.

"Too frequently a multi-author work on a composer obscures rather than illuminates its subject. This volume casts a genuinely prismatic light upon it."R.J. Stove, The New Criterion "An Anniversary Portrait succeeds in offering a sufficient yet panoramic view of Elgar's life and music. The impressive list of authors and concise nature of their contributions make this book an easily digestible and enjoyable read."Muso Edward Elgar was a man of many contradictions. He was born an outsider, into a family of lower-middle class, Catholic, origins. Yet his fame, and ability to write music that struck a chord in the national consciousness, led him to adopt a sycophantic attitude towards the Royal Family and high society, even though he always felt ill at ease with them. Elgar was a depressive with a problematic marriage, who craved recognition, but in many ways he regretted the piece of music which made him famous. 'Pomp and Circumstance' made him the leading English composer of his age, but also contributed to the jingoism which he so disliked during the First World War. Yet, unquestionably, he was the greatest musical genius that England had produced in centuries. This Portrait, by some of the scholars and musicians that understand him best, offers new light on a wide range of aspects of Edward Elgar's life and work. >

No change has had a more profound influence on the development of music-making over the last two decades than the growth of the historical performance movement. The notion that we can - and indeed should - perform music in the manner its composers intended has led to a search for original methods and styles of performance. At first this was the pursuit of a small coterie, but in recent years the explosion of popular interest in what has been called the 'authenticity' movement has led to a sea-change in our listening habits. Performances on period instruments are now supplanting those on modern instruments in some central areas of the classical repertory, and by many this is perceived as a threat. For the first time, this book explores the thinking behind the search for so-called authenticity in musical performance, and questions some of the received opinions about its worth and purpose. The contributors include critics Nicholas Kenyon of Early Music and Will Crutchfield of the New York Times, alongside Howard Mayer Brown, Philip Brett, Robert P. Morgan, Richard Taruskin, and Gary Tomlinson, all of them experts in their field. The variety of views expressed is sure to provoke wide discussion and to stimulate new thought among both scholars and performers about the future of the historical performance movement.