Meet the Budapest String Quartet, captured here in a 1959 New Yorker profile that exemplified not only the way they handled stress, but the way they handled their life and music: "Sasha leaped from his chair and with violin held aloft, played the passage with exaggerated schmalz, like a street fiddler in Naples. Kroyt...stopped playing and started singing a Russian song...Mischa Schneider thereupon performed a number of stupendous triads on his cello...Only Roisman went quietly on with his part, untouched by the pandemonium around him, playing Beethoven with his noble tone and elegant bowing." Here were four men with personalities as varied as their ways of playing. Yet when they played, they produced a perfect union of instrumental voices and interpretive nuances that not only created an entirely new audience for chamber music in America, but made the Budapest String Quartet the premier chamber music group of the twentieth century. In Con Brio, Nat Brandt tells the fascinating story of the Budapest Quartet, from its founding in 1917 (when its members were 3 Hungarians and one Dutchman) to the trials and triumphs of its core members, the four Russian Jews--Joseph Roisman, Alexander (Sasha) Schneider, Mischa Schneider, and Boris Kroyt--who brought the Quartet to worldwide fame. We are there on the chilling night in 1934 when Nazi soldiers go backstage to congratulate four 'Hungarians' on their outstanding performance. That night, realizing that the Budapest name would not protect them forever, the four decide to leave Nazi Germany, never to return. We follow them to America, where they become the country's first quartet-in-residence at the Library of Congress, where they record the Mozart quintet with guest clarinetist, the King of Swing himself, Benny Goodman, and where, in 1957, they become the first chamber music ensemble to appear on television, bringing Debussy, Dvorak, and the Beethoven E minor into the homes of hundreds of thousands of spellbound viewers. Here too is a personal glimpse of the Quartet: in rehearsal, shouting at each other in Russian and German, bows in hands like rapiers, to make a point in their arguments before they decide matters by a vote; in their hotel rooms, obsessively playing bridge to relieve the stress of a rigorous concert schedule; in concert, abruptly stopping in the middle of a piece because an audience has become noisy; and at home, spending time with their family and friends. As Sasha Schneider recalls, "It is much easier to be married to one person than to be married to a string quartet." Said Jascha Heifetz, "One Russian is an anarchist; two Russians is a chess game; three Russians are a revolution; four Russians are the Budapest String Quartet." And in these pages we experience the passion for music and life of four Russians--Joe, Sasha, Mischa, and Boris--whose playing seduced the entire world and created a musical legacy--of a unity of sound and uniqueness of interpretation--for generations of musicians to come.

Con Brio: Four Russians Called the Budapest String Quartet

Biographies & Memoirs

Brandt, Nat

Arts & Literature

Oxford University Press

Before the War Between the States, there was the war between the U.S. government and Oberlin, Ohio. . . . “A fascinating, gripping narrative.”—James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom On a crisp autumn day in Ohio, 1858, two Kentucky slave hunters were closing in on a runaway slave named John Price. Federal law said they had the right to bring the man back across state lines. But to the people of Oberlin, Ohio, the law was wrong—and they were willing to prove it with their sweat and blood. In this fascinating, spirited telling of one of the most extraordinary confrontations in U.S. history, Nat Brandt gives a blow-by-blow account of how a small but passionate army of students, farmers, former slaves, a bookstore owner, a professor, a preacher, and a cobbler risked their lives to rescue a man they didn’t know—and ignited a furious conflict with a wavering U.S. government. From its first blows to the controversial trials that followed, the Oberlin Rescue was an act of uncommon heroism and courage—and a true battle for the conscience of a land.

The Town That Started the Civil War: The True Story of the Community That Stood Up to Slavery--and Changed a Nation Forever

History

Americas

Random House Publishing Group

Arts & Photography

Music

iUniverse

Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903

On the afternoon of December 30, 1903, during a sold-out matinee performance, a fire broke out in Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre. In the short span of twenty minutes, more than six hundred people, two thirds of whom were women and children, were asphyxiated, burned, or trampled to death in a panicked mob’s failed attempt to escape. A century after the firethe deadliest in American historyNat Brandt provides the only detailed chronicle of this horrific event to assess not only the titanic tragedy of the fire itself but also the municipal corruption and greed that kindled the flames beforehand and the political cover-ups hidden in the smoke and ash afterwards.
Advertised as absolutely fireproof,” the Iroquois was Chicago’s most modern playhouse when it opened in the fall of 1903. With the approval of the city’s building department, theater developers Harry J. Powers and William J. Davis opened the theater prematurely to take full advantage of the holiday crowds, ignoring flagrant safety violations in the process. During the matinee on this particular Wednesday, all 1,724 seats were filled and an additional two hundred people were standing.
Midway through the second act, a spark from a defective light ignited a drop curtain and the blaze spread quickly to the scenery. Roof vents designed to handle smoke and heat were sealed off, and the fire curtain snagged before it could shield the audience from danger. A blast of gaseous fumes shot across the auditorium from an open stage door and asphyxiated hundreds of theatergoers almost instantly. Others were trampled or burned to death in the panic that ensued as they struggled to escape through locked exits, succeeding only in piling body upon body as the flames closed in.
For days afterward, Chicago mourned as relatives and friends searched hospitals for missing loved ones. The aftermath of the fire proved to be a study in the miscarriage of justice. Despite overwhelming evidence that the building was not complete, that fire safety laws were ignored, and that management had deliberately sealed off exits during the performance, no one was ever convicted or otherwise held accountable for the enormous loss of life.
Lavishly illustrated and featuring an introduction by Chicago historians Perry R. Duis and Cathlyn Schallhorn, Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 is rich with vivid details about this horrific disaster, captivatingly presented in human terms without losing sight of the broader historical context.

Southern Illinois University Press

On the afternoon of December 30, 1903, during a sold-out matinee performance, a fire broke out in Chicago’ s Iroquois Theatre. In the short span of twenty minutes, more than six hundred people were asphyxiated, burned, or trampled to death in a panicked mob’ s failed attempt to escape. In Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903, Nat Brandt provides a detailed chronicle of this horrific event to assess not only the titanic tragedy of the fire itself but also the municipal corruption and greed that kindled the flames beforehand and the political cover-ups hidden in the smoke and ash afterwards. Advertised as “ absolutely fireproof,” the Iroquois was Chicago’ s most modern playhouse when it opened in the fall of 1903. With the approval of the city’ s building department, theater developers Harry J. Powers and William J. Davis opened the theater prematurely to take full advantage of the holiday crowds, ignoring flagrant safety violations in the process. The aftermath of the fire proved to be a study in the miscarriage of justice. Despite overwhelming evidence that the building had not been completed, that fire safety laws were ignored, and that management had deliberately sealed off exits during the performance, no one was ever convicted or otherwise held accountable for the enormous loss of life. Lavishly illustrated and featuring an introduction by Chicago historians Perry R. Duis and Cathlyn Schallhorn, Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 is rich with vivid details about this horrific disaster, captivatingly presented in human terms without losing sight of the broader historical context.

This thoroughly researched work traces the life of Robert Cobb Kennedy, a Confederate soldier turned spy, and his involvement in the Northwest Conspiracy, a Confederate plot to burn major hotels in New York City

The Man Who Tried to Burn New York (York State Books)

Syracuse Univ Pr

This thoroughly researched work traces the life of Robert Cobb Kennedy, a Confederate soldier turned spy, and his involvement in the Northwest Conspiracy, a Confederate plot to burn major hotels in New York City

The Man Who Tried to Burn New York

Recounts how the pro-abolitionist people of Oberlin, Ohio rescued a man from slave hunters in 1858 and the subsequent trial of the leaders of the rescuers

The Town That Started the Civil War

Syracuse University Press

Recounts how a murder trial led to the first successful use of the temporary insanity plea, when Congressman Sickles was acquitted for shooting District Attorney Philip Barton Key after learning of Key's affair with his wife

The Congressman Who Got Away With Murder

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brandt, Nat. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brandt, Nat

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brandt, Nat. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Con Brio: Four Russians Called the Budapest String Quartet

The Town That Started the Civil War: The True Story of the Community That Stood Up to Slavery--and Changed a Nation Forever

Con Brio: Four Russians Called the Budapest String Quartet

Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903

Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903

The Man Who Tried to Burn New York (York State Books)

The Man Who Tried to Burn New York

The Town That Started the Civil War

The Congressman Who Got Away With Murder

The Congressman Who Got Away With Murder