Shocking Music

6 hrs. 57 min.

Language Russian

Author Christopher Lawrence

Narrator Nina Gurkova

Description

“Every personality has darkness in it,” says the author of the book, Christopher Lawrence—and great composers and musicians are no exception. The story of classical music and the lives of famous musicians are full of murders, adultery, bigamy, fraud, wealth, poverty, gluttony, nervous breakdowns, strange behavior, and terrible, terrible bathroom humor (Mozart was the main master of the latter). Classical music—pleasant? You only think so. Shocking music documents the whole backstage of great composers, revealing their deepest secrets.

The book consists of stories, each corresponding to a particular musical lapse: love, lust, excess and obsession, triumph and joy. Among the musician-heroes of “Shocking Music” are Mozart, Wagner, Berlioz, Puccini, Granger, and others. 10 entertaining, sometimes shocking stories, including:
• Hector Berlioz and two wings of the soul
• Percy Granger and his only interest
• Richard Wagner and why the world owed him life
• Emmanuel Chabrier and the entire depth of frivolity
• Ludwig van Beethoven and the incident with the plate
• Peter Tchaikovsky and the beauty of tears
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and “a kick in the ass”
• Ross Edwards, a police sergeant, and the court in England
• Hildegard of Bingen and a flying feather