Beverly Nichols once said of Britain's three writing Sitwells—Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell—that they had genius enough for two. If Sacheverell's latest book does not show the full two-thirds that is his family share, it does reveal him as a conscientious, able biographer who has brought back to life one of music's grandest, most glittering figures—Franz Liszt.*
Musically the first part of the 19th Century was an age of virtuosity. Berlioz, writing for the orchestra, mysteriously made instruments sound as they had never sounded before. And not...
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