Water Music is an ideal read for those who frequent summer music festivals the world over. Many of these festivals began during the cultural heyday of spas and watering places throughout Europe and the United States, when music making was entertainment and therapy for both patrons and composers themselves. In his typical witty and winning style, author Ian Bradley–himself somewhat of a celebrity across the festival world for his expertise and involvement in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta phenomenon–tells the story of the many well-known composers who came to these pioneer resorts between the early- eighteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries.
