Compulsively readable interviews with the great American composer and his friends and colleagues, including Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Leontyne Price.
Samuel Barber is one of America’s most popular classical composers. His widely beloved works include ‘Adagio for Strings’ and
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 .
The main source for
Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute is a panoply of vivid and eminently readable interviews by Peter Dickinson for a BBC Radio 3 documentary in 1981. The interviewees include Barber’s friends, fellow composers, and performers, notably Gian Carlo Menotti, Aaron Copland, William Schuman, Virgil Thomson, soprano Leontyne Price, and pianist John Browning. The book also includes three of the very few interviews extant with Barber himself. Dickinson contributes substantial chapters on Barber’s early life and on Barber’s reception in England. The book has a foreword by the distinguished composer and admirer of Barber, John Corigliano.
Peter Dickinson, British composer and pianist, has written or editednumerous books about twentieth-century music, including
Cage Talk: Dialogues with and about John Cage (University of Rochester Press) and three books published by Boydell Press:
The Music of Lennox Berkeley;
Copland Connotations; and
Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter.
Mục lục
Foreword by John Corigliano
About the 1981 BBC Interviews by Arthur Johnson
Acknowledgements
The Formative Years
Reception in England
Samuel Barber Interviewed by James Fassett (1949)
Samuel Barber Interviewed by Robert Sherman (1978)
Samuel Barber Interviewed by Allan Kozinn (1979)
Gian Carlo Menotti: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Yester House, Gifford, Scotland, April 6, 1981
Charles Turner: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
Aaron Copland: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Rock Hill, Peekskill, NY, May 11, 1981
William Schuman: Interview with Peter Dickinson, 888 Park Avenue, New York City, May 14, 1981
Virgil Thomson: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Chelsea Hotel, New York City, May 12, 1981
Leontyne Price: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 14, 1981
John Browning: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
Robert White: Interview with Arthur Johnson, London, February 1981
H. Wiley Hitchcock: Interview with Peter Dickinson, 1192 Park Avenue, New York City, May 10, 1981
Hans W. Heinsheimer: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
Edward P. Murphy: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 12, 1981
Postscript 2005: Orlando Cole: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Philadelphia, October 13, 2005
Selected Bibliography
General Index
Index of Works by Samuel Barber