5.0 out of 5 based on 2 reviews. – Customer review on 22/06/2006

I would like to recomend a great little paperback that I picked up recently. It is called "Why Beethoven Threw The Stew.....And Lots More Stories About The Lives Of Great Composers." It is written by a man named Steven Isserlis.
Steven Isserlis is a professional musician and he travels the world playing Cello in concerts. He has also made recordings. Amongst these is his personal favourite, "Cello World". He writes with extreme wit and manages, through humour, to tear down the abstract images that many of us have of some of the famous composers.
We are introduced to people such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven.......amongst others!
I highly recomend this book as a read aloud to your children. We are taken in to the personal lives of these famous people in such a light hearted manner that it is almost possible to relate them to people that we may already know in life!
I found that after finishing a chapter I was able to play some of the composer's music and my children seemed to appreciate it in a whole new way.

1.0 out of 5 based on 2 reviews. – Customer review on 08/05/2010

Don't buy this book. It is poorly written. Looks great on the cover, but the stories are not that interesting to a child, and the language is definately not child-friendly. Neither has it the depth to interest an adult reader. As a music teacher, I bought it with the idea of lending it out to students, but I think instead I will be throwing it away.