Short description
A brief history of the author's musical encounters with places and musicians.
Long description
A brief history of the author's musical encounters with places and musicians. Divided in two parts, ‘Before 1960’ and '1960 onwards' – which more or less coincides with he experiences before and since his encounter with South Africa – it tells of other conductors (Wilhelm Furtwangler, John Barbirolli, Adrian Boult, Arthur Fiedler, et al), composers (Igor Stravinsky, Donald Woods, et at), pianists (Gina Bachauer, Ingrid Haebler, John Lill, et al), guitarists (Niconor Zabaleta and Narcisco Yepes), singers (Kathleen Ferrier, Anna Russell, Birgit Nilsson, Victoria de los Angeles, Joyce Barker, Mimi Coertse, Marita Napier, Cecilia Wessels, et al), ballerinas (Alicia Markova, Beryl Grey, Margot Fonteyn) – even some famous critics. It also gives an eye-witness account of tumultous times: Berlin 1945-46 and the London College of Music 1947-51, and of the creation of the now defunct CAPAB Orchestra and the Natal Philharmonic. The title is, broadly speaking, chronologically structured around groups of performing artists, most of them receiving two or three pages of attention.