The Musical Life of Joseph Martin Kraus: Letters of an Eighteenth-Century Swedish Composer

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) led an illustrious, if brief, career as an acclaimed composer in the age of Haydn and Mozart. At 26 he embarked on a four-year European grand tour that secured his reputation as musician and composer. Like Mozart, Kraus was a prolific correspondent. His letters to his family give an unusually intimate picture of the private man, showing a slice of domestic life in the 18th century among the emerging middle class. These letters include one of the few descriptions of the great Handel Centenary Festival from an outsider, critiques of the operas performed in Paris by Piccinni, the first mention in history of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and descriptions of the art and archeology of Pompeii. These documents are as crucial to understanding Kraus’s life and works as they are revelatory of a composer’s milieu in the 18th century.