Beethoven's ten violin sonatas, time-honored favorites of violinists, pianists, and their audiences, reflect the great composer's determination to make the interrelationship between the violin and the piano a more intimate one, and to create a more even and intricate balance between the two instruments than had previously existed in the genre. Ranging in mood and style from the brilliant and virtuosic "Kreutzer" Sonata to the pastoral, lyrical "Spring" Sonata, they include: Sonata No. 1 in D Major, Op. 12, No. 1; Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 12, No. 2; Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 12, No. 3; Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 23; Sonata No. 5 in F Major ("Spring"), Op. 24; Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 30, No. 1; Sonata No. 7 in C Minor, Op. 30, No. 2; Sonata No. 8 in G Major, Op. 30, No. 3; Sonata No. 9 in A Minor ("Kreutzer"), Op. 47; Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96. All ten of these beautiful and challenging masterworks are reprinted here from the authoritative edition prepared by Breitkopf & Hartel. Beautifully printed and sturdily bound, this handsome volume offers violinists, pianists, and music lovers the opportunity to study and enjoy the scores in one convenient, inexpensive source. "

Revised edition: Adolf Busch (1891-1952) was an all-round musician and a moral beacon in troubled times. As first violin of the Busch String Quartet, founded in 1912, he was the greatest quartet-player of the last century and he led a famous conductorless orchestra, the Busch Chamber Players. He was also the busiest solo violinist of the inter-War years, regularly performing major concertos with such conductors as Nikisch, Toscanini, Weingartner, Walter, Furtwängler, Boult, Wood, Barbirolli and his elder brother Fritz. He was, moreover, an outstanding composer whose works enjoyed performances in Germany and further afield. Frequently he appeared as soloist and composer in the same concert. His courageous decision to boycott his native country from April 1933 - despite Hitler's efforts to persuade 'our German violinist' to return - drastically reduced his income and damaged his career as soloist and composer. In 1938, because of Mussolini's race laws, he imposed a similar boycott on Italy, where he was wildly popular. The following year he emigrated with his quartet colleagues to the United States, where he was not fully appreciated, although he had many successes with a new chamber orchestra and founded the Marlboro summer school. This biography, based on more than thirty years' research, examines Busch's exemplary behaviour in the context of a tumultuous era. Volume One traces his progress from childhood in Westphalia, through friendships with Fritz Steinbach, Donald Tovey and Max Reger, early triumphs in Berlin, London and Vienna, years of maturity and fulfilment, rejection of Hitler's Germany and close bonds with British musicians and concert-goers in the 1930s. It ends just before his move into American exile. Volume Two follows Busch through the Second World War, his return to give concerts in Europe in the late 1940s and his founding of the Marlboro summer school in Vermont shortly before his untimely death. A series of appendices consider Busch as violinist, violist and teacher, his taste and repertoire, his interpretations, his colleagues, his celebrated recordings and his compositions.

Who’s Afraid of Classical Music? For years Joan Kennedy, at home, on the campaign trail, and in concert, has shared her love of classical music with adults and children. Now she uses her experience as a teacher and musician to show how you and your family can make music an enriching part of your lives. In this easy-to-understand and reassuring guide, Joan Kennedy explains: • How to start listening to classical music and enjoying what you hear—with a minimum of effort and expense • Creative, fun ways to bring music to your children—both at home and in school • All you and your family will need to enjoy a musical performance: a brief history of classical music, a user-friendly guide to concert rituals, and advice on how to bring your children to concerts—choosing the performances they will enjoy and making sure they get the most out of the experience Also: a glossary of musical terms • lists of the most popular classical pieces and Joan Kennedy’s personal favorites • a guide to further reading • sixteen pages of photographs • foreword by John Williams, former conducter of the Boston Pops and Academy Award–winning composer of the classic film scores for Star Wars, E.T., and Schindler’s List.

First published in 1969, The Sisters d' Aranyi traces the careers, personalities and musical development of Jelly d’ Aranyi and Adila Fachiri, outstanding violinists in Britain and Hungarian great nieces of Josef Joachim, with insight and a wealth of anecdote and description. The book contains fresh lights on figures such as Joachim himself, Elgar, Ravel and Vaughan Williams, Casals, Suggia, and Myra Hess, Aldous Huxley, Einstein and Schweitzer, Balfour, Asquith and Neville Chamberlain. There are illuminating comments on music from Bach to the present day, and also a chapter on the mysterious affair of the Imprisoned Schumann Violin Concerto, and how it was found and liberated. These two consummate musicians were, however, part of a movement towards greater sincerity in music- a tendency not yet sufficiently recorded by musicologists. To set them in their time, this biography contains a most readable history of music in Britain with some original observations on the nature of music itself in performance. This book is an essential read for students of music, music history, literature, performance studies, for violin players and also for general music lovers.