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Concert Black
- Author
- Michael O’Donnell
- Narrator
- Simon Vance
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 20 June 2026
- Run Time
- 8 hours 36 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
From the acclaimed author of Above the Fire comes Concert Black, a hauntingly elegant novel that unspools a tale of music, obsession, and the fragile architecture of legacy.
Ellen Wroe, a celebrated biographer known for her piercing insight, sets her sights on Cecil Woodbridge, the legendary conductor whose name reverberates through concert halls and conservatories. But Woodbridge, imperious and elusive, rebuffs her approach and conspires to thwart her efforts. Undeterred, Wroe embarks on a relentless pursuit, trailing the maestro across continents—through the archives of his correspondence, into the confidences of his colleagues, and deeper still into the long shadow of his past.
Maestro, cellist, king of the baton—Woodbridge is a man enshrined in myth and bristling with contradictions. Beneath the grandeur lies a hidden lattice of ambition, betrayal, and sorrow. As Wroe attempts to chart his ascent, she uncovers not only the cost of genius but the wreckage it often leaves behind.
With lyrical precision and atmospheric sweep, Concert Black echoes the psychological depth of Ian McEwan’s Atonement and the philosophical resonance of Julian Barnes’s The Noise of Time. From the frostbitten avenues of postwar London to the symphonic stages of Boston and Chicago, biographer and subject circle each other in an elegiac dance—until they collide in a reckoning neither can escape.
A novel of ambition and artistry, Concert Black is a symphony of human complexity: piercing, poised, and unforgettable.
Critics Review
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“In this masterful work, Michael O’Donnell leverages a gripping plot to reveal the costs and consequences of ruthless ambition. He does so within the rarefied world of classical music, capturing its nuances and rituals with welcome authenticity. Though music resonates poetically through these pages, the flaws and virtues of human nature stand at the core of this most engaging tale.”
Howard Reich, Emmy Award–winning author of Van Cliburn and writer-producer of For the Left Hand
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“Concert Black is a thrilling novel about ambition, love, biography, and music that stretches effortlessly across decades and continents. Compulsively readable and lovingly researched, it sidesteps simplification at every turn and leaves the reader instead with vital moral questions. A deeply resonant and intelligent page-turner.”
Debbie Urbanski, author of After World and Portalmania
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“Concert Black is a tense and atmospheric novel about secrets, corrosive ambition, and the power of music. I tore through it.”
Ed Caesar, author of Two Hours and The Moth and the Mountain, a Sunday Times Biography of the Year
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“Concert Black is the twisty portrait of a ruthlessly ambitious star conductor and his unauthorized biographer—an intriguing novel of secrets, conducted with as many satisfying shifts of tempo and tone as any Romantic concerto. Swinging through time and space, from Chicago to London to the Scottish Highlands, Michael O’Donnell’s new novel impresses with its intimate knowledge of the music conservatory and concert hall. It asks not only what price success, but what obligation to the truth every writer bears.”
Alix Christie, author of Gutenberg’s Apprentice and The Shining Mountains
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“A gripping tale of music, friendship, and reckless ambition rendered with the masterful touch of a literary maestro.”
Eric Siblin, bestselling author of The Cello Suites and The Fatal Scroll
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“Concert Black takes the reader into the world of classical music, with all its rivalries, challenges, and egos. It is a story of ambition and obsession, of beauty and cruelty. It is wonderfully imagined and told with skill and sensitivity.”
Iain Pears, internationally bestselling author of An Instance of the Fingerpost and Arcadia
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“[A] compelling, beautifully crafted story of the human costs of ruthless ambition and flawed genius in classical music…O’Donnell captures the milieu of conservatory, concert hall, and boardroom in authentic detail and memorable character snippets.”
Booklist
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“In this twisty novel, a biographer doggedly pursues a legendary but elusive conductor who is determined to thwart her efforts, setting them on a dramatic collision course.”
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Details
- Author
- Michael O’Donnell
- Narrator
- Simon Vance
- Duration
- 8 hours 36 minutes
- Release Date
- 20 June 2026
- ISBN
- 9798228270442
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Fiction: general and literary, Fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Interior life
Synopsis
From the acclaimed author of Above the Fire comes Concert Black, a hauntingly elegant novel that unspools a tale of music, obsession, and the fragile architecture of legacy.Ellen Wroe, a celebrated biographer known for her piercing insight, sets her sights on Cecil Woodbridge, the legendary conductor whose name reverberates through concert halls and conservatories. But Woodbridge, imperious and elusive, rebuffs her approach and conspires to thwart her efforts. Undeterred, Wroe embarks on a relentless pursuit, trailing the maestro across continents—through the archives of his correspondence, into the confidences of his colleagues, and deeper still into the long shadow of his past.Maestro, cellist, king of the baton—Woodbridge is a man enshrined in myth and bristling with contradictions. Beneath the grandeur lies a hidden lattice of ambition, betrayal, and sorrow. As Wroe attempts to chart his ascent, she uncovers not only the cost of genius but the wreckage it often leaves behind.With lyrical precision and atmospheric sweep, Concert Black echoes the psychological depth of Ian McEwan’s Atonement and the philosophical resonance of Julian Barnes’s The Noise of Time. From the frostbitten avenues of postwar London to the symphonic stages of Boston and Chicago, biographer and subject circle each other in an elegiac dance—until they collide in a reckoning neither can escape.A novel of ambition and artistry, Concert Black is a symphony of human complexity: piercing, poised, and unforgettable.
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