Intimate Letters - Tapa blanda

"'There is no more intimate and honest self-portrait of any composer.' The Times; 'Tyrrell is a splendid guide. Every intimate reference is unravelled and explained. The letters are linked by a narrative which amounts to a substantial biographical effort in itself. This correspondence makes compelling reading and lets the light into the secret love behind Janacek's late creative surge.' Opera Now; 'A beautiful and important book, which will be of interest to anyone who enjoys a good love story.' Humphrey Burton, Sunday Express"

In 1928 Leos Janacek completed 'Intimate Letters', his String Quartet No. 2, just a few months before he died at the age of seventy-four. This work encapsulated musically all his passionate feelings about Kamila Stoesslova, the married woman nearly forty years his junior to whom Janacek had written hundreds of letters in the past decade. John Tyrrell has compiled and translated a selection of these letters and presents them together with some mostly unknown photographs, a decoding of the erotic references in the letters and a diary of the couple's meetings.The result is a remarkable book which illuminates the inner life of one of the greatest opera composers of the twentieth century.