No one has conveyed as vividly and knowlingly the sense and scents of that 'skeined, stained, veined variety' of twentieth century musics and musical milieus as does Joan Peyser. She transports one into the musics, around the musics and beyond the musics. At a time when so few appear to care about the state and fate of serious contemporary composition, she does, and she is passionately concerned to lead others also to care, to listen, to distinguish, and even - perhaps - to find a home somewhere on that extended range of musical possibilities and realizations.
Milton Babbitt, composer [Joan Peyser's] smoothly flowing prose encapsulates the history of the whole era of modern music. Among many valuable insights, Ms. Peyser remarks that Boulez's performances of Mahler perhaps more than of any other composer, identify his own qualities, rigor, precision, intellect, by omitting the Weltschmerz. (She says that Boulez still regards Mahler as a stepping-stone to Berg, which is consistent with his view when I first met him forty years ago.)
Robert Craft, conductor and writer on music To Boulez and Beyond is unique in that it comprises an introduction and overview and an intimate portrait of the men and their musical thought that have shaped the fundamental aesthetic characteristics of our extraordinary twentieth century... Joan Peyser presents an overall history of twentieth-century musical thought and composition that is a must for everyone interested in music, whether professional, academic, student or layman.
Rosalyn Tureck, renowned concert pianist, Director of Tureck Bach Research Foundation at Oxford University