New book: The Devil Prefers Mozart

A new selection of Burgess’s essays about music will be published on 25 January. Music surrounded Burgess throughout his early years in Manchester. He came from a family of musicians: his mother had been a music-hall singer, and his father played piano in pubs, music halls and silent cinemas. In his book about music and […]

Review — In concert: No Dice Collective perform Anthony Burgess

In 2021, the youthful Manchester-based chamber ensemble No Dice Collective recorded a pair of seldom played compositions by Anthony Burgess, his Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor and Quartet for Flute, Oboe, ’Cello and Piano. Composed nearly forty years apart, these two works highlight complementary aspects of Burgess’s musical style. The concerto […]

This Man and Music: Q&A with Raymond Yiu

Raymond Yiu, composer of the song cycle The World Was Once All Miracle based on Anthony Burgess’s poems, describes his love for This Man and Music in this Q&A, exclusive to the Burgess Foundation and Manchester University Press. Tell us how you first came to Anthony Burgess’s This Man and Music. What impression did it […]

The Music of This Man and Music

Exploring the music referenced in the brand new Irwell Edition of Anthony Burgess’s This Man and Music. This Man and Music, Anthony Burgess’s reflections on music, literature and autobiography, references a varied selection of music from the expected, such as Beethoven and Mozart, through the modernist influences on Burgess’s own music such as Stravinsky and […]

Schreber: Burgess and Freud

Anthony Burgess was fascinated by the life and work of Sigmund Freud. As a writer and composer, he often returned to the founder of modern psychoanalysis in his creative works. The list begins with his stage adaptation of Oedipus the King in 1972 (a consciously Freudian work). This was accompanied by the novel MF, which […]

Manchester International Festival: Symphony in C

We are delighted to continue our collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as they play Symphony in C (1975) by Anthony Burgess on 4 July 2017 at the Bridgewater Hall as part of the Manchester International Festival. This special performance celebrating Burgess’s centenary will be the European premiere. Anthony Burgess claimed to have written three […]