An illuminating study of the life and work of Gyorgy Ligeti, one of the best loved and most original composers of our time. Ever since Stanley Kubrick's (unsanctioned) use of his music on the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey, interest in Ligeti has extended far beyond the classical domain. Richard Steinitz's compelling new book is both an illuminating study of the music and its associative ideas and of Ligeti the man. Ligeti has confided in Steinitz a mass of previously unknown biographical information. The result is an astonishing account of his early upbringing in Romania, of his terrifying yet surreal experiences in the war, and of his difficulties as a young composer before his dramatic escape to the West in 1956.
