Music Behind Barbed Wire

Readable, often witty and informative. This book is completely successful in providing a significant introduction to a remarkable, but largely forgotten and ignored composer...an important addition to the music enthusiast's library. * SPIRITED *
Biographies have appeared over the years and performances help to focus what this new book's blurb correctly calls the 'distinctive voice' of a 'master craftsman,' here illustrated with a CD of strikingly graceful music. . . . The diary is fascinating, detailed, informative and indeed unique. * MUSICAL TIMES *
This is an important resource for musicians and historians [...] it is a welcome addition to the life and work of Hans Gal, who is finally being recovered as a lost master of the twentieth century. * TLS *
Hopefully, this volume will inspire someone to undertake a much needed full-length biographical study of an underrated composer. [Five Stars] * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *
[An] invaluable book ... A mine of information throughout, the core of the book is Gal's diary, written in a lively and eminently readable style. * GRAMOPHONE *
[Hans Gal's] diary is typically insightful, witty and richly detailed, written in a vivid and engaging style that translates well and grips the reader ... Eva Fox-Gal provides an excellent biographical essay of her father's life ... An essential volume on this fascinating composer, and actually the first to appear in English. Unreservedly recommended. [Five Stars] * CLASSICAL MUSIC *
A mine of information throughout, the core of the book is Gal's diary, written in a lively and eminently readable style. He emerges as a likeable and immensely capable character, aware of his own mettle yet wearing it lightly, and quite free from the pretensions of grandeur. * GRAMOPHONE *
'This remarkable book presents a fine translation of the diary kept by Austrian composer Hans Gal during his internment in the summer of 1940, after he had fled Nazi-occupied Europe with his family. . . . His diary is typically insightful, witty and richly detailed, written in a vivid and engaging style that translates well and grips the reader. [. . . ] one of the joys of this book is a free accompanying CD which presents fine recording of the works he created. . . . This is music of such optimism and invention, that it is scarcely credible it was created under such duress. It deserves wider currency. [. . . ] Unreservedly recommended. -- -- Brendan G Carroll, Classical Music Magazine