Maestro Sergiu Comissiona’s biography reveals facts about his happy childhood in a Jewish petit bourgeois family in Bucharest – then, “the little Paris of Eastern Europe”, his adolescence under the Nazi specter, and his youth in repressive communist times behind the Iron Curtain. His life changes from the closed horizons of communist Romania to the broad ones of the Western world when he immigrates to Israel, later settling in England, then Sweden and, finally, the United States. His career path, from an ensemble violinist to an internationally-renowned conductor, is followed chronologically and analytically, based on his own accounts, extended research, and revealing testimonials. The Maestro’s rationale of having his biography written was, in his own words, “for the Westerners to understand my deep attachment to my Romanian roots, for the Romanians to know about my struggle for artistic affirmation in the Western world, and mostly for young conductors to realize that through passion, patience and persistence – and by not committing suicide after the first failure – the dedicated commitment to the profession bears fruit.”

The Burning Forest is an anthology of modern Polish poets, from Norwid to Bronislaw Maj, translated by one of the world's leading Polish translators and featuring large selections of poems, biographies and photographs. It includes major poets such as Herbert, Rozewicz and Szymborska, wartime writer-heroes like Stroinski, and young dissidents who have made their mark during the past ten years. The book's title is from a line by Juliusz Slowacki: 'No time to mourn roses, when forests burn.'The book begins with Cyprian Norwid (1821-1883), the great post-romantic poet, at first abused and neglected, but eventually recognised as the guiding spirit of modern Polish poetry. It then focuses on poetry written since the outbreak of the Second World War, including the late work of Leopold Staff, work by poets involved in the wartime resistance (Leon Stroinski, Tadeusz Rozewicz), poets who began to flourish after the demise of Stalinism (Zbigniew Herbert, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Wiktor Woroszylski, Wislawa Szymborska, Andrzej Bursa), exiles (Jan Darowski, Bogdan Czaykowski, Adam Czerniawski) and the new wave poets (Ryszard Krynicki, Stanislaw Baranczak, Anna Kowalska, Bronislaw Maj). However, Czeslaw Milosz is not included due to a disagreement.All anthologies provoke controversies over which writers they include or exclude. This book will be no exception, for Adam Czerniawski's selection is based not just on the established Polish canon but on a stipulation that to merit inclusion a translation must stand up as a poem in English. His choices are also personal: these are the poets he has translated over the years, the poets he has wanted to translate for English readers.

A new and wide-ranging collection of essays by leading international scholars, exploring the concept and practices of virtuosity in Franz Liszt and his contemporaries.