Meurig and Rachel Bowen's Reading List

"Meurig : I first came across this when it was offered to me as an event at the Cheltenham Festival a few years ago. The story was beautifully transformed into an hour-long musical event for children and families. This is a book that introduces children to music, to Vivaldi, to Mozart, to a virtuoso violinist, and to a horrific chapter in 20th century history, the Holocaust and the effect it had on the Jewish diaspora. It’s a beautiful piece of storytelling and the music is completely embedded and entwined in the story. It’s a real tear jerker, especially when you’re listening to the music at the same time as reading the book. It pulls you into music through emotionally powerful writing. Rachel : The subject matter is very sensitively handled. Music is an expressive art, it is about feeling and emotion – and encompasses all aspects of humanity. The Mozart Question beautifully captures all this in a compact and beautifully told story."

"Rachel : I love these books. Apart from the fact that James Mayhew is a wonderful illustrator and can bring these stories to life visually, he retells the stories of the ballet in a way that inspires. “ James Mayhew puts music centre stage in his books” Meurig : In each story a music box plays a piece of music at the beginning and this is the trigger for the storytelling to begin. In this way music is referred to directly at the beginning and at the end of the stories – at the end there is a one page precis that tells the story of not just the ballet but also of the composer. This is another way of bringing music into people’s lives slightly indirectly. With Morpurgo it is through the emotive storytelling and with these books it is via the wonderful stories of the ballet – The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty. It also draws kids into music through the world of dance and ballet. I love the fact that James Mayhew puts music centre stage in his books. Music is very important to him, and his events for children that combine storytelling, live illustration and live music are wonderful."

"Meurig : Steven Isserlis is one of the most important cellists in the world at the moment. This book is made up of the biographies of six of his favourite composers. It’s basically a chapter on each: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Stravinsky. I’d say the ideal age group is around 9-13 years old. These books are full of anecdotes and humour. Steven Isserlis brings, what could be perceived as dusty museum like, figures completely to life in a really engaging and entertaining way. “These composers were living, breathing, passionate, flawed and entertaining people who drank, laughed and loved like the rest of us. ” Rachel : His books are full of his personality. There is something very warm about these portraits of composers. His passion for the music and his knowledge of it shines through completely. Meurig : These composers were living, breathing, passionate, flawed and entertaining people who drank, laughed and loved like the rest of us. That is something we all need to be reminded about when we listen to their music. If you know about their life stories, the times they lived in, the great political events they experienced, it helps their music come to life."

"Britten takes a tune from one of his musical forebears, Henry Purcell – it’s a simple tune that was written in about 1690 – and writes a series of orchestral variations on this piece and hands out those separate variations to different sections of the orchestra to play as a means of introducing individual section of the orchestra. I’d say this piece is ideal for listeners of about 9 upwards. It a springboard for further listening. It’s such a pompous buttoned-up title from another age. Which could be off-putting – especially if you look at the original film with Sir Malcolm Sargent introducing each piece – it’s really dated. But if you take that out of the equation this is an incredible piece of music. It’s a simple idea and if it hadn’t been done by a genius like Britten it would have fallen flat on its face. Britten did amazing things with that simple tune. He made it entertaining and vigorous and incredibly engaging. If you imagine a drone camera flying around and honing-in really closely on different parts of the orchestra as you listen to it. Rachel : That’s a great idea! Essentially, it’s a brilliant piece of music. Get The Children’s Book of Music out in front of you (and our book!) and hear – in quite a compact period of time – what all those instrumental sections sound like. You really can’t do any better than listen to the Britten. Meurig : When the Purcell tune comes back at the end it is just a glorious moment. I always turn the hi-fi up to maximum and just bathe in that. Rachel : For under 9s, we would recommend Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf , for a similar experience. Meurig: The holy trinity of orchestral music for children is the Britten, Saint Saens’s Le Carnaval des Animaux and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf . These pieces have just never been bettered yet. Rachel: In Peter and the Wolf , Prokofiev attached particular instruments and musical motifs to individual characters and animals. It’s pictorial music for children. Meurig : I’m not sure enough children are hearing these amazing pieces in their primary schools today – so I hope that recommending them here will be a way of getting these pieces into their heads and their imaginations. FROM SPOTIFY:"