Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph
Written by Jan Swafford
Narrated by Michael Prichard
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
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.
Jan Swafford
Jan Swafford is an American composer and author. He earned his bachelor of arts magna cum laude from Harvard College and his DMA in composition from the Yale School of Music. His music has been widely played by ensembles, including the symphonies of St. Louis, Indianapolis, and the Dutch Radio. He is the author of biographies of Ives, Brahms, and Beethoven. His many honors include an NEA Composer Grant and the Deems Taylor Award for online writing on music, which he won for his essays in Slate. He is a longtime program writer and preconcert lecturer for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and has written notes and essays for the orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, and Toronto. Among his liner notes for recordings are those for DGG’s anniversary release of Beethoven’s nine symphonies by the Vienna Philharmonic.
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Reviews for Beethoven
51 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very well- researched, written and interesting book with a lot of musical analysis.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've been reading this 1077 page biography of one of the most famous composers for the past 3 months. I barely know where to begin in reviewing this book. As a professional classical musician, I knew a lot about Beethoven going in to this. I've played almost all of his symphonies (and extensively studied and listened to the few I haven't performed) and I've played all of his chamber music that uses the horn. He's also such a big name that I've picked up a lot of the facts of his life in various classes. I guess I wasn't sure how much I was going to learn that was new out of this book. In the end, I think it was beneficial to have everything gathered in to one book and it really clarified Beethoven's influence for me. I also enjoyed that Swafford placed Beethoven in his times. There is enough discussion of the Napoleonic wars and the impact on Vienna, where Beethoven lived, to solidly ground the book historically without losing focus on Beethoven. I also thought the portrait of Beethoven's character was well within the known facts and didn't over-romanticize his life, something that has often been done. Some highlights of what I took away from this book:- that Beethoven was grounded in the Aufklarung (Enlightenment) philosophy. Though he was adopted by the Romantics and his music definitely pushes out of the bounds of classical music, he didn't think of himself as a Romantic. ETA Hoffmann was a music critic who really embraced Beethoven's music and sort of adopted him into the Romantic trend. Beethoven's eccentric character and habits lent themselves well to the image of the tortured artist. - There was a ton of censorship of all the arts in Vienna, but Beethoven largely escaped scrutiny because instrumental music was too hard to pin down to a philosophy. He had freedom to pursue his composition however he liked. - As a performer Beethoven was an amazing improviser his improvisation skills greatly influenced his compositional technique, especially in his piano music. His other over-riding compositional style was to come up with a whole idea and create the entire multi-movements works to serve the whole. - The main genres he influenced (has been virtually unsurpassed in even to this day) are the symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas.- He used instruments in new ways, stretching the capabilities particularly of the string bass, horn, and vocalists. Also the string quartet as a whole.- I knew, of course, that he lost his hearing, but I didn't realize how much of his life he was plagued with chronic stomach pain. He was basically never healthy as an adult.- Interesting sections on the tuning of pianos and the perceived character of different keys. Also the different pianos available at the time. - fascinating information on publishing and how impossible it was for a composer to ensure both quality of publication and get compensation for his compositionsOverall, I wouldn't say this is a book for a non-musician. There is a lot of technical language in the description of Beethoven's major works (Swafford details all of Beethoven's major works). Swafford does a good job of explaining himself and has a good appendix that gives a little music theory refresher and discussion of forms but I still think it would be confusing to anyone without at least a little music knowledge or at least a good grasp on listening to Beethoven's music. It would be fairly easy to skip the musical analysis (or skim) and read the rest as a biography. That would make it closer to 600 or 700 pages. I'm glad a took the time to read this even though it was a big commitment.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Read this in and out over a number of months this past year. The best of the Beethoven biographies I've read. Very much like the Brahms bio—straight ahead, not much supposition or invention, very detailed. Good analysis of the music. One odd thing missing was an accounting of Schubert's late visit to Beethoven when on his deathbed. I believe it is agreed upon that it happened, just little if any information about it. I don't believe it was even mentioned.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What more can you say about a 1000 page book than - I wish it were longer! Simply superb.
As an aside, I read Edmund Morris' review in the NYT Book Review. Having read Morris' bio of Beethoven, I assume his snarky review was written out of jealousy - it wasn't 1/10th the book this one is (and I'm not talking page length). I also note that while Swafford seems to have used every great previous biography as a source, Morris doesn't show up in the Works Cited. I can't imagine why.