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Even if much of Ontario and the rest of the world is re-opening, reading is a highly enriching way to stay COVID-free. Here are five titles to occupy the month of August.<\/p>\n
This month is the fifth anniversary of the death of the prolific and wise M.D. whose insights and perceptions about COVID-19 would be so valuable were he with us today. His memoir is the most candid of his books, describing the reckless behaviour, substance abuse and other more constructive and equally passionate pursuits, including for music, that helped him overcome an extremely adverse childhood.<\/p>\n
Readers of Ludwig Van Toronto<\/em> are familiar with the weekly column Lebrecht Listens<\/em> and Slipped Disc<\/em>, the world\u2019s most-read cultural website, founded by Lebrecht in 2007. They owe it to themselves to read his superb novel, the Whitbread First Novel Award winner, The Song Of Names<\/em>. The gripping depiction of the Anglo-Jewish community during and after World War II, including its role in classical music, and their desperate attempts to save Jews on the other side of the English Channel, offers fascinating vantage points on diverse characters and communities struggling with their inconceivable losses, in part, through music.<\/p>\n Though largely forgotten today, Marcia Davenport was at the epicentre of pre- and post-war American classical music. The daughter of Alma Gluck, one of America\u2019s first classical music recording artists, (and whose recording of Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny<\/em> for the Victor Talking Machine Company went viral by the standards of the day), Davenport was also the stepdaughter of Efram Zimbalist and stepsister of Efram Zimbalist Jr. She was a regular guest on Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, and wrote the first American biography of Mozart, along with several bestselling novels that were made into films you\u2019ll find on Turner Classic Movies. Too Strong for Fantasy<\/em> is her memoir of the musical, literary, and political titans she knew, including Arturo Toscanini, Maxwell Perkins, and Jan Masaryk.<\/p>\n 2020 is the hundredth anniversary of the first performance of the Theremin, an early electronic instrument named after its inventor, Leon Theremin. The remarkable endurance of this inventor, who survived the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, Stalin\u2019s Gulag, and lived until age 97, is the subject of this Giller Prize winning novel. A timely read about withstanding seemingly insurmountable challenges.<\/p>\n If you tell yourself that you\u2019re too busy to practice a musical instrument, Alan Rusbridger\u2019s memoir of tackling Chopin\u2019s Ballade No 1, Op. 23<\/em> while also being the editor of The Guardian<\/em> will obliterate that excuse. Dedicated to his mother, who told Rusbridger that learning music would bring him companionship, this is a portrait of an amateur pianist as a lifelong high achiever. His quest to learn a piece that makes virtuosos quail results in encounters with major pedagogues and performers, including Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, and Canadian Stewart Goodyear, who assist him in mastering the daunting score.<\/p>\n Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us\u00a0on <\/em>Facebook<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span>, <\/em>Instagram<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> <\/b>or <\/em>Twitter<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here are five titles to occupy the month of August with reading in a musical theme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":68775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33451,7,20834],"tags":[37241,4704],"yst_prominent_words":[8676,6767,6715,37262,37238,28214,7006,37237,7280,6616,22933,13757,11034,13014,22925,15208,37236,37239,37235,12016],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/07\/Aug-Reading-List-header.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-hTe","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68772"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68785,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68772\/revisions\/68785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68772"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Too Strong for Fantasy by Marcia Davenport<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Us Conductors by Sean Michaels<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Play it Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible by Alan Rusbridger<\/h3>\n
#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/h3>\n