"Arthur Benjamin, May Brahe, Percy Grainger and Alfred Hill are writing their last compositions. Peggy Glanville-Hicks is gaining an international reputation while Don Banks and Ron Grainer escape penury by writing music for films and television in Britain. Back in Australia, the two most dominant composers of a new generation produce their earliest compositions. Guess who? Find out about this and a great deal more in Volume III."

Volume II (1921-1939) of A Chronological Encyclopaedia of Australian Classical Music continues the exploration of Australian composers, focusing particularly on the early works of female composers who would go on to make significant national reputations, such as Margaret Sutherland, Mirrie Hill, Miriam Hyde, and Dulcie Holland, as well as those who achieved international recognition, including Peggy Glanville-Hicks and May Brahe.

This Encyclopaedia is the most comprehensive account of Australian Classical Music EVER WRITTEN. It has some 900 composers and details 40,000+ compositions. Included are performers, ensembles, orchestras, opera & ballet companies, philanthropists, instrument makers, critics, venues, institutions, festivals, touring artists etc. The 6 volumes are in 20-year periods and altogether amount to 6,287 pages with 4,522 photographs therein.

This book is a perceptive and critical account of the first 75 years of The Royal Ballet, tracing the company's growth, and its great cultural importance - an indispensable book for all lovers of ballet.In 1931, Ninette de Valois started a ballet company with just six dancers. Within twenty years, The Royal Ballet - as it became - was established as one of the world's great companies. It has produced celebrated dancers, from Margot Fonteyn to Darcey Bussell, and one of the richest ...

Richard Gill is one of Australia's best-known - and best-loved - musical figures. His career has taken him from teaching music in Sydney's western suburbs to Music Director of the Victorian Opera, and along the way an involvement with almost every major opera company and orchestra in Australia.What truly distinguishes Richard is his passion and enthusiasm for spreading not just the joy of music, but its myriad benefits. He is our greatest musical educator, and his life's work - alo...

INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEARThis completely new edition of the Penguin Guide reviews the 1000 best classical albums issued and reissued over the past five decades, many of which dominate the catalogue because of their sheer excellence, irrespective of recording dates. More comprehensive than ever before, it indicates key recordings on CD, DVD and enhanced SACD, including those in surround sound. If you want the finest available version of any major classi...

The internationally acclaimed, widely beloved flutist reflects on his storied careerSir James Galway is one of the top musicians of our time, with a dazzling career that has spanned five decades and many genres of music. Now he celebrates his seventieth birthday with a look back on his incredible career, during which he has traveled around the world many times over and made countless friends, including legends from the worlds of classical and popular music. He refl...

The Beethoven Obsession tells the story of how the greatest piano music ever written acquired a unique Australian voice, played on a revolutionary grand piano that shook up the conservative music establishment.It is a fast-paced drama of frustration, envy, rivalry, struggle and success, starring a self-taught child prodigy who sold condoms and contraband to advance his studies; a fanatical inventor who took apart pianos as a child to examine their 'gizzards'; and a TV came...

Britten's Children confronts the edgy subject of the composer's obsessional yet strangely innocent relationships with adolescent boys. One of the hallmarks of Benjamin Britten's music is his use of boys' voices, and John Bridcut uses this to create a fresh prism through which to view the composer's life. Interweaving discussion of the music he wrote for and about children with interviews with the boys whom Britten befriended, Bridcut explores the influence of these unique ...

Extracted from five hundred years of musical history, this is a fascinating collection of stories about classical music's most unusual concerts and characters.Tales such as that of the organist caught with his trousers down or the orchestra that played faster and faster so that its members could catch the last train home, the sad story of the composer who committed suicide while conducting, the completely silent piece of music and the stone deaf composer who insisted on conducting ...

The BBC Proms is the world's biggest and longest-running classical musical festival and one of the jewels in the crown of the BBC. Held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London and across the UK, it is one of the strongest brand names in the music world and attracts a glittering array of artists and orchestras from the UK and around the world. Whether you're a first-time visitor or an experienced Prommer, watching at home or listening on radio or online, the BBC Proms Guide is an ex...

The BBC Proms is the world's biggest and longest-running classical music festival and one of the jewels in the crown for the BBC. Held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London and across the UK, it is one of the strongest brand names in the music world and attracts a glittering array of artists and orchestras from the UK and around the world. Whether you're a first-time visitor or an experienced Prommer, watching at home or listening on radio or online, the BBC Proms Guide is an exc...