Beethoven
Jan Swafford's biographies of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the world's most iconic music. Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Enlightenment-era Bonn, where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the ideas that would shape all of his future work. Swafford then tracks his subject to Vienna, capital of European music, where Beethoven built his career in the face of critical incomprehension, crippling ill health, romantic rejection, and "fate's hammer," his ever-encroaching deafness. Throughout, Swafford offers insightful readings of Beethoven's key works. - Publisher.
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4recommend
6mentions
4people
2017–2023years
83% recommend17% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I haven’t read the reviewed book. However, it seems close enough to on topic to recommend Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford, which is one of the best biographies I have ever read. Beethoven’s story is hardly believable - from his early exposure to the Bavarian Illuminati, through his years of piano showdowns, through his triumphant 9th symphony when he was nearly deaf. If you are looking for book to dig into, I strongly recommend it.
- The quote was real!
"He is a great master, ran the usual critical line, but he cannot restrain his overweening imagination, his chilly intellectualism, his too many notes."
I cannot recommend Swafford's biographies on Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven highly enough.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jan-swafford/moza...
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jan-swafford/beet...
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jan-swafford/joha...
- I'm currently reading the book - Jan Swafford is masterful. See https://g.co/kgs/2Jv69s for the book itself.
I was waiting for this to come out since his book on Beethoven was, and I mean this, a riveting page-turner, I devoured it: https://g.co/kgs/KfQ34W. If you are a pianist you'll love it. So far, the Mozart is equally good. Can't wait to finish it. Must put down phone and return..
- One of the reasons I got so much enjoyment from this book is that Swafford himself was a composer and described the works in great detail accordingly. The numerous anecdotes about Beethoven's life were fascinating of course too.
Does anyone know of similar biographies of other famous composers? Ones that tell stories of the composer's lives as well as give detailed analyses of their works?
- If anyone is curious about Beethoven's life, I can recommend and excellent and relatively recently published biography: 'Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph', by Jan Swafford.
We see figures like Beethoven and Goethe as geniuses themselves, but the 18th century conception of 'genius' was not of a person, but of a sort of holy spirit that blessed an individual with great abilities, while remaining separate from that person.
So prior to Romantics of the 19th century taking hold of the concept of genius and re-purposing it into the one we're familiar with today, one would not speak of someone being a genius, but being graced with genius. Genius was not who they were, but something external to them that they possessed.
It's a subtle but interesting difference.
- Bach is beyond sublime and I am not a poet, my words are insufficient to offer praise of suitable depth. And I wonder, there are so many good writers and poets among us so why, on earth, have we yet to have a blockbuster biography of his, or celebrated film or TV series? We have them all of Beethoven, Mozart, even Mahler and Chopin. Is it because he's just too big to tackle? Jan Swafford--you mastered the other two, where are you?
