Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph Hardcover - 2014

Summary

From the jacket flap

The essential book on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, written by an esteemed composer and historian
Ludwig van Beethoven confronted professional and personal obstacles almost unmatched by any other artist. And yet, by the time of his death in 1827, this brilliant man had defied crippling ill health, his listeners incomprehension, romantic rejection, and fate s hammer, his encroaching deafness, to become the most famous composer of his time, creator of some of the most iconic music ever written. He was lionized by princes, misunderstood by critics, and celebrated so widely that more than ten thousand people attended his funeral. By that point Beethoven s works had been embraced as the anthems of the Romantic era, and the man had become a myth.
Peeling away layers of legend that have built up around Beethoven s life, Jan Swafford s magnificent new biography shows how a child prodigy from an obscure corner of what is now Germany came to write music that defines the modern age. Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Bonn, the city where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the Enlightenment ideals that would shape all his future work.
In his early twenties, Beethoven left for Vienna, capital of European music, a city whose madness for art and gossip papered over the rigors of a repressive police state. There, Beethoven studied with the great Franz Joseph Haydn, a father figure whose shadow, like Mozart s, would loom large in the young composer s tormented psyche. Beethoven went on to write towering symphonies, intricate, mysterious string quartets, and piano sonatas and concertos that would push the boundaries of this new instrument. He drove his career to ever-greater heights, all while staving off financial ruin, overcoming the pains of unrequited love, and, toward the end of his life, fighting a vicious custody battle for the nephew he loved. His story is one of titanic passions and struggles.
To those who knew him, Beethoven could seem irascible and haughty, even at times misanthropic. His violent temper occasionally drove away longtime friends and supporters. Yet he was also a man of sparkling humor and astonishing warmth, capable of deep devotion. While Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph is rich in atmosphere and epic in scope, it is also surprisingly intimate, offering a portrait of the composer in all his human complexity. And as a composer himself, Swafford provides insightful readings of Beethoven s key works, allowing us to hear this beloved music as if for the first time.
More than a decade in the making, this biography will be the defining statement on Beethoven for years to come and a necessary addition to any music lover s library.
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Media reviews

Citations

• Booklist, 06/01/2014, Page 20
• Choice, 04/01/2015, Page 1325
• Kirkus Reviews, 06/15/2014, Page 0
• Library Journal, 03/15/2014, Page 95
• Library Journal Prepub Alert, 03/15/2014, Page 95
• New York Review of Books, 10/23/2014, Page 32
• New York Times Book Review, 08/03/2014, Page 11
• Publishers Weekly, 07/14/2014, Page 0