Britten: Essays, Letters and Opera Guides (Hans Keller Archive)

A selection of Hans Keller's writings on Benjamin Britten including previously unseen correspondence and reprints of long unavailable writings.

It was hearing an early performance of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes that turned the young emigré writer and musician Hans Keller from psychology to music. Thereafter he became the composer's most fervent advocate, devoting to him a whole issue of Music Survey (the journal he edited with Donald Mitchell) and the first comprehensive book on his music (again edited with Mitchell). This volume is a selection of the best of his writings, dealing withPeter Grimesthrough to Death in Venice and the Third String Quartet. It also includes an illustrated study by A. M. Garnham of the extensive correspondence between Britten and Keller (most of it hitherto unknown), areprint of the handbooks on The Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring (long out-of-print), and items from the Hans Keller Archive in the University of Cambridge. The book is illustrated with drawings from life by Milein Cosman.

The most important publishing event (of the Britten centenary year) AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW, November 2013 This splendid volume is a timely reminder of Keller's forensic intellect and pungent style of writing, and is likely to be the most important written contribution to the centenary cornucopia. GRAMOPHONE, December 2013