Quartet How Four Women Challenged the Musical World

*WINNER OF THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY STORYTELLING AWARD*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2023*

The lives, loves, adventures and trailblazing musical careers of four extraordinary women from a stunning debut biographer.

‘Fabulous.’ Sunday Times ‘A rare gift.’ Financial Times ‘Passionate … Vivid … Timely.’ Telegraph ‘Readable and inspiring.’ Guardian ‘Compelling … Ambitious … Poignant.’ Spectator ‘Magnificent.’ Kate Mosse ‘Riveting.’ Antonia Fraser ‘A breath of fresh air.’ Kate Molleson ‘Fascinating.’ Alexandra Harris ‘Wonderful.’ Claire Tomalin ‘Splendid.’ Miranda Seymour ‘Remarkable.’ Fiona Maddocks ‘Pioneering.’ Andrew Motion ‘Brilliant’ Helen Pankhurst

Ethel Smyth (b.1858): Famed for her operas, this trailblazing queer Victorian composer was a larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller and committed Suffragette.

Rebecca Clarke (b.1886): This talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty was one of the first women ever hired by a professional orchestra, later celebrated for her modernist experimentation.

Dorothy Howell (b.1898): A prodigy who shot to fame at the 1919 Proms, her reputation as the ‘English Strauss’ never dented her modesty; on retirement, she tended Elgar’s grave alone.

Doreen Carwithen (b.1922): One of Britain’s first woman film composers who scored Elizabeth II’s coronation film, her success hid a 20-year affair with her married composition tutor.

In their time, these women were celebrities. They composed some of the century’s most popular music and pioneered creative careers; but today, they are ghostly presences, surviving only as muses and footnotes to male contemporaries like Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten – until now.

Leah Broad’s magnificent group biography resurrects these forgotten voices, recounting lives of rebellion, heartbreak and ambition, and celebrating their musical masterpieces. Lighting up a panoramic sweep of British history over two World Wars, Quartet revolutionises the canon forever. In 1969, decades before he was chosen to conduct the music at the Coronation of King Charles, Sir Antonio Pappano was a ten-year-old boy accompanying his father’s singing lessons. My Life in Music tells the moving tale of a legendary conductor who, nurtured in childhood by his parents and their dedicated work ethic, goes on to conduct at many of the most influential opera houses of Europe and North America. Pappano skilfully evokes an extensive selection from his wide-ranging repertoire – operas and orchestral works spanning from Mozart to Birtwistle and Mark Anthony Turnage, as well as art song and chamber music works in which he has performed as a pianist – and makes a compelling case for the potential classical music has to captivate new and wider audiences.