‘This book is almost impossible to put down.’ Financial Times ‘For anybody interested in 20th-century musical life [the Notebooks and Conversations] make fascinating reading, because Richter met everybody from Britten to Karajan, and had an opinion (usually scathing) about them all. But you don’t have to be an aficionado to enjoy this rant: a genius on the rampage is always great entertainment.’ Richard Morrison, The Times'Though most of the [notebook] entries are brief, they are vivid in their immediacy, and Richter’s remarks about opera productions, conductors (he despised von Karajan and thought that Carlos Kleiber was the greatest) and individual works are constantly engaging.‘ Economist