Music & Silence
Rose Tremain, , read by Michael Praed, Clare Wille and Alison Dowling. . Naxos, $34.98 (0pp) ISBN 978-962-634-975-5
Michael Praed shines in his performance of Tremain's 1995 Whitbread Award–winning novel. His intimate, sensual voice and use of pacing—even within sentences—adds nuance to each scene. He has a distinct voice for each character, and his variety of accents are believable and without affectation. Especially engaging are the story's central characters: King Christian IV of 17th-century Denmark has the quiet, gravelly voice of age and profound sadness; the lutenist Peter Claire (the central love interest) is very appealing. Clare Wille expertly handles the emotional swings of Christian's childish, scheming and sex-crazed wife, Kirsten. The device of alternating voices becomes somewhat annoying in an abridgment, but the plot line is clear, and lovely 17th-century lute intervals signal omissions.
Reviewed on: 08/31/2009
Genre: Audio
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-0-7540-0717-3
Hardcover - 485 pages - 978-0-374-19989-0
MP3 CD - 978-1-5318-7198-7
Open Ebook - 464 pages - 978-1-4464-5065-9
Paperback - 512 pages - 978-0-7434-1826-3
Paperback - 464 pages - 978-0-09-926855-0
Prebound-Glued - 485 pages - 978-0-613-70861-6
