Berlioz: The Making Of An Artist

In Berlioz: The Making of an Artist Cairns describes with unprecedented intimacy, affection and respect the early years of one of France's greatest artists. In researching his life, Cairns has had access to a wealth of family papers. He is able to portray all the people close to Berlioz in his boyhood and to evoke a detailed picture of their existence in and around La Cote St Andre in the foothills of the French Alps. No artist's achievement connects more directly with early experience than that of Berlioz, whose passionate sensibility began to absorb the material of his art long before he had heard any musical ensemble other than the local town band. The story is as gripping as a great novel. This volume ends on the afternoon of 9 December 1832 when Berlioz has organised the concert which will launch him on his professional career. Thirty years of struggle lay ahead, and the transformation of a romantic dream into the reality of marriage; but the man facing that future was fully made, and the absorbing experience of watching that making has been ours.