On Mahler and Britten

Book excerpt: In February 1995 Donald Mitchell, the foremost authority on the life and works of Gustav Mahler and Benjamin Britten, celebrated his seventieth birthday. To mark this event, the present Festschrift has been compiled under the editorship of Philip Reed. Distinguished composers, scholars, colleagues and friends from around the world have written on aspects of the two composers closest to Mitchell's heart - Mahler and Britten - to produce a volume which not only reflects some of the latest thinking on this pair of remarkable figures in the music of our century, but which also pays full tribute to the impact of Mitchell's own work on these composers over the last fifty years. The volume includes the fullest bibliography of Mitchell's writings yet compiled.