With pieces ranging from Vaughan Williams’s ‘The Lark Ascending’ and Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony to the scores for Avatar and Assassin’s Creed, every entry puts the piece of music into context, providing fascinating insights into the inspirations behind each work and enhancing your listening experience.

Organised into occasions and themes, the book features music to accompany you through your day, from getting up and getting dressed to running, reading, walking the dog, cooking, taking a bath, going to sleep and everything in between. You’ll also find expert curations of the world’s most romantic music and the greatest Christmas works as well as compositions that celebrate the natural world and mark births and marriages.

Perfect for classical music enthusiasts as well as anyone looking for an enjoyable introduction to this genre, this is the definitive modern guide to classical music.

‘We are doubly blessed that Beethoven should have led such an extraordinary life. Laura has combined the two – the genius of his music and the richness of his experiences – to shine a revealing light on our greatest composer’ John Humphrys
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Ludwig van Beethoven: to some, simply the greatest ever composer of Western classical music. Yet his life remains shrouded in myths.

In Beethoven, Oxford professor Laura Tunbridge cuts through the noise. With each chapter focusing on a period of his life, piece of music and revealing theme – from family to friends, from heroism to liberty – she provides a rich insight into the man and the music.

Revealing a wealth of never-before-seen material, this tour de force is a compelling, accessible portrayal of one of the world’s most creative minds and it will transform how you listen for ever.
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‘Tunbridge has come up with the seemingly impossible: a new way of approaching Beethoven’s life and music . . . profoundly original and hugely readable’ John Suchet, author Beethoven: The Man Revealed

‘This well researched and accessible book is a must read for all who seek to know more about the flesh and blood tangible Beethoven.’ John Clubbe, author of Beethoven: The Relentless Revolutionary

‘This book is really wonderful! … However many books on Beethoven you own, find the space for one more. This one’ Stephen Hough, pianist, composer, writer

‘In a year when everyone’s looking for a new take on Beethoven, Laura Tunbridge has found nine. Fresh and engaging’ Norman Lebrecht, author of Genius and Anxiety

‘Remarkable . . . she captures the essence of his genius and character. I’ll always want to keep it in easy reach’ Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the third Reich

Handel in London tells the story of a young German composer who in 1712, followed his princely master to London and would remain there for the rest of his life. That master would become King George II and the composer was George Frideric Handel.

Handel, then still only twenty-seven and largely self-taught, would be at the heart of musical activity in London for the next four decades, composing masterpiece after masterpiece, whether the glorious coronation anthem, Zadok the Priest, operas such as Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo and Alcina or the great oratorios, culminating, of course, in Messiah.

Here, Jane Glover, who has conducted Handel’s work in opera houses and concert halls throughout the world, draws on her profound understanding of music and musicians to tell Handel’s story. It is a story of music-making and musicianship, of practices and practicalities, but also of courts and cabals, of theatrical rivalries and of eighteenth-century society. It is also, of course, the story of some of the most remarkable music ever written, music that has been played and sung, and loved, in this country – and throughout the world – for three hundred years.

In this remarkable book, John Eliot Gardiner distils the fruits of a lifetime’s immersion as one of Bach’s greatest living interpreters. Explaining in wonderful detail how Bach worked and how his music achieves its effects, he also takes us as deeply into Bach’s works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.