Karen Archer has narrated 3 audiobooks on Listento.it by 3 authors, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is Life & Works - Johannes Brahms.

3 audiobooks
Cover art for Life & Works - Johannes Brahms

Life & Works - Johannes Brahms

1 rating

Summary

Brahms is one of the best loved yet most controversial of all the Romantics. Almost uniquely, his works have never suffered the slightest period of eclipse. Profoundly emotional yet governed by an iron discipline, the music, like the man, is a fascinating, entertaining, often deeply moving blend of opposites. He had a gift for friendship and a capacity for love far beyond the ordinary, yet no man could be ruder or more hurtful. Though humble, he was consumed by a sense of destiny, and his inner life, colored by his adoration and fear of women, found expression in some of the greatest music ever written. Listening to this audio-biography is leaping inside the life and times of a great German Romantic, understanding the man who was haunted by the ghost of Beethoven for years and was 43 before he wrote his first symphony. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2002 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2002 Naxos AudioBooks

Available on Audible
Cover art for The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II

The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II

Summary

The two reigns - both unusually long - could scarcely have been more different. Queen Elizabeth I brought a much needed (and appreciated) stability to England at a key moment in the history of the nation. The steady hand of the Virgin Queen - supported by Lord Burleigh, her clear-sighted chancellor - ushered in a golden age after a time of considerable religious and political upheaval. Elizabeth Jenkins offers a personal portrait of a sovereign who was very much a woman, as well as a queen. Queen Elizabeth II has, by contrast, been the constitutional monarch par excellence - a figurehead guiding the concept of monarchy through difficult times, both national and personal. Her reign has seen major changes in the lifestyle and expectations of peoples and nations and she also proved to be a steady, clear personality on the throne. Pearson Phillips, in his sympathetic portrait, shows that even when her family has been rocked by scandals, Elizabeth II has maintained a quiet dignity.

©2002 Naxos AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2002 Naxos AudioBooks Ltd.

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Life and Works of Beethoven

The Life and Works of Beethoven

Summary

For many people, Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived. In this portrait-in-sound, actors’ readings combine with his music to reveal a titanic personality, both vulnerable and belligerent, comic and tragic, and above all heroic, as he comes to grips with perhaps the greatest disability a musician can suffer. No man’s music is more universal; few men’s lives are more inspiring. In every sense but one - his modest height - he was a giant. The great bonus of this audio-biography is that the development of Beethoven’s music can be heard in the context of his life. What did he write in those early, ambitious years when he was at the peak of his musical powers? What did he write when beset with anxiety over his failing hearing? And what was the music that insisted on pouring out of him, even though he couldn’t hear it himself? Jeremy Siepmann draws us into the private world of Ludwig van Beethoven, with the composer portrayed with rugged vividness by Bob Peck. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2003 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2003 Naxos AudioBooks

Available on Audible