LIVE MUSIC & LITERATURE EVENT!

it’s just under three weeks until our very specialmusic and literature event at Bristol Beacon. The evening will feature multi award-winning author, Jonathan Coe, and a live performance from two of Bristol’s most accomplished musicians, Marian Givens and Juliet McCarthy.

This week sees the official publication of the novel Jonathan will be discussing at the event, Lessons in Harmony, a fictional account of the friendship between the composers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Maurice Ravel. To mark the occasion we wanted to share some quotes from a few of the early rave reviews the novel has received, starting with this piece in The Guardian:

‘A tender and generous novel … It is also a masterful examination of national identity and how it shapes us.’ Clare Clark, The Guardian

‘The writing has all the subtlety and wit that is customary for Jonathan Coe, but rare, and there is so much wisdom in it – about the sacrifices demanded of the friends and partners in the orbit of a musical genius, about rivalry, disappointment, and the convulsions of world politics.’ Clare Chambers

‘Lessons In Harmony … is as witty, lapidary and elegant as a Ravel miniature and as rich and deep as Vaughan Williams at his most lyrical.’ Stuart Maconie

‘Absolutely wonderful … A book that slowly, quietly reveals its themes and points of view. Beautifully, elegantly, movingly done.’ Chris Addison

At the event, Jonathan will be discussing the novel (his 16th!) and the influence music has had on his work. And in a celebration of the book’s central theme, Bristol Ensemble’s Marian Givens and Juliet McCarthy will give a live performance of Ravel’s spellbinding Sonata for Violin and Cello – an occasion not to be missed.

We couldn’t be more excited about this unique, one-off opportunity to hear from one of the UK’s leading fiction writers of the last several decades, and to experience live the work of one of the 20th century’s most influential composers.

Tickets for the event are available from Bristol Beacon’s website, here.

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