�Right from his disarming opening line - �Jan�ček would have hated this book� - you know you�re in good hands. Tyrrell is a natural storyteller with a very good story to tell and his prose, striking a perfectly judged balanced the elegant, the scholarly and the colloquial, is a pleasure from start to finish. [...] This is not only the most detailed biography of the composer in any language, but, for all its length, the most absorbing, informative, enlightening and readable (Alexander Letvin, Piano)

�Impeccable and absolutely essential� (David Pountney, Opera)

�The writing is unfailingly characterful, and Tyrrell�s unique mastery of the complex Czech sources materials never leads him into pedestrian antiquarianism. He remains aware on every page that he is dealing with one of the most volatile, cussed, original and inspired figures in the music of the past two centuries.� (Arnold Whittall, The Gramophone)

�A magnificent achievement, indispensable not merely to anyone interested in Jan�ček but to anyone who wishes to have a broad view of Eastern European culture before the break-up of the Habsburg Empire. Volume 2 cannot come soon enough� (Simon Heffer, Literary Review)

�Tyrrell�s self-avowed intent is not to mythologize, but to provide a transparent, accurate and balanced account from which readers may draw their own conclusions and create their own narrative. The result is enormously impressive. Tyrrell�s dramatic flair in placing documents within the flow of Jan�ček�s life adds vivacity and integrity and in, for example, outlining the death of Jan�ček�s daughter Olga, the greatest tragedy of his life, encompasses the profoundly moving. [...] As a whole, this biography is not just indispensable to those moved by Jan�ček�s passionate approach to music and life, but with its rich and detailed contexualisation of the biography, anyone interest in Czech music of the 19th and 20th centuries.� (Jan Smaczny, BBC Music Magazine)

�Magnificent new book� �When [volume 2] appears, Tyrrell will surely have realized the standard work on this unique individual composer in the English language. That achievement is already immense, but the sequel is awaited with barely contained impatience.� (Hugh Canning, Sunday Times)

�Few recent composer biographies have offered so much texture, so much circumstantial detail, or so clear an impression of the evolution of a creative life.� (Brian Morton, Sunday Herald)

�Plotting the creative evolution of Jenůfa or its successor, the heavily autobiographical Osud, is one of this outstanding books� major pleasures. John Tyrrell handles his subject with the compassion, humour and understanding Jan�ček himself all too often lacked, but he also enables us to grasp the composer�s lonely singleness of purpose as his career after Jenůfa seemed to have stalled. Bring on the second volume. I can�t wait for the lonely blackbird to fly again.� (Jonathan Keates, Sunday Telegraph)
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