Publisher, Naxos AudioBooks (May 2007)

The first volume of Famous Composers written by Darren Henley and read by Marin Alsop, the American conductor, won a prestigious Audie in the US. Here, Henley and the Naxos AudioBooks team bring the combination of an entertaining but informative ‘life’ and numerous musical selections to a further set of six composers.

Marin Alsop presents six of the most important composers in Western music. Their music and their lives were very different: Handel was gruff but wrote the Hallelujah Chorus; Haydn was cheerful, Mendelssohn was a remarkable talent, Chopin was devoted to the piano, Rachmaninov was deeply Russian and John Williams is the most successful film composer of our time with Harry Potter, Jaws and Star Wars among his works.

Though they lived at very different times, they have all known what it was like to sit in a silent room with a pile of blank manuscript paper in front of them and compose symphonies, concertos and big choral works as well as songs and sonatas. As we hum their tunes and thrill to their sounds, it can only seem something of a miracle.

Who better to tell their stories than the award-winning conductor Marin Alsop who likes nothing better than to stand in front of a large symphony orchestra, her baton raised – and bring their music to life!