• Earliest and lifelong RussophiliaBritten and Shostakovich, 1934-63Britten and ProkofievBritten and StravinskyHospitality and politicsPushkin and performanceDialogues of war and Death, 1963-76Final assessmentAppendix I: Letter from Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, 16 May 2010Appendix II: Interview with Alan Brooke Turner CMG [1926-2013], London, 24 September 2009Appendix III: Interview with Keith Grant, London, 25 September 2009Appendix IV: Interview with George, Earl of Harewood [1923-2011], Harewood House, Leeds, 13 March 2009Appendix V: Interview with Lilian Hochhauser, London, 24 November 2011Appendix VI: Interview with Victor Hochhauser CBE, London, 4 November 2009Appendix VII: Letter from Sir Charles Mackerras CH [1925-2010], 26 January 2010Appendix VIII: Interview with Dr. Donald Mitchell CBE, London, 11 August 2008Appendix IX: Interview with Sir John Morgan KCMG [1929-2012], London, 16 March 2012Appendix X: Interview with Gennady Rozhdestvensky, 4 December 2014Appendix XI: Interview with Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, Shostakovich Centre, Paris, 31 March 2009Appendix XII: Letter from Boris Tishchenko [1939-2010], 21 May 2008Appendix XIII: Interview with Oleg Vinogradov, 8 September 2010Appendix XIV: Interview with Galina Vishnevskaya, Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre, Moscow, 11 June 2010Appendix XV: Letters from Dmitri Smirnov [b. 1948] and Elena Firsova [b. 1950], 13 January 2015Appendix XVI: Letter from Vladislav Chernushenko, 22 April 2015Appendix XVII: Britten's volumes of Tchaikovsky: Complete Collected WorksBibliography

Rich in ideas, with musical, statistical and pictorial illustrations, this handsome volume is a splendid tribute to one of Rostropovich's outstanding pupils, the tragically short-lived Professor Alexander Ivashkin who, incidentally, recorded Britten's complete works for cello. Cameron Pyke's admirable study deserves a place in all major libraries and on the shelves of many of the composer's admirers who wish to know more about an important aspect of his life and work.