Book : Beethoven Anguish And Triumph - Swafford, Jan

-Titulo Original : Beethoven Anguish And Triumph

-Fabricante :

Mariner Books

-Descripcion Original:

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. More than a decade in the making, this will be the standard Beethoven biography for years to come. From Booklist *Starred Review* There is such an abundance of personal documentation of Beethoven-letters, other papers, press notices and reviews, acquaintances’ memoirs-that, while eschewing musical analysis, John Suchet was able to write an excellent 400-page biography without too much speculation. There is such an abundance that Swafford, incorporating lengthy but not highly technical discussions of the most important compositions, produces a 1,000-plus-page life without exhausting-indeed, further piquing-­interest in the most consequential musician who ever lived. For readers of both Suchet and Swafford will find many nonmusical details in the latter’s account that Suchet didn’t mention. Also, the two biographies differ in emphases; for instance, Suchet stresses that Beethoven’s own bad habits contributed to his physical and mental anguish, whereas Swafford fingers coincidental factors, such as lead poisoning and injurious medicines, for the composer’s virtually lifelong indigestion, nausea, diarrhea, and other internal complaints. But Swafford, whose Charles Ives (1996) and Johannes Brahms (1997) rule the roost on their respective subjects, so deftly intertwines biography and musical explication that anyone capable of matching a motif in musical annotation and a cording of it will revel in his Beethoven. Indeed, such readers will want to refer to the book often when they listen to Beethoven. A marvelous achievement. --Ray Olson Review A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice A Christian Science Monitor Top 10 Book of the Month Swafford’s craftsmanship shines...The book is two books: a biography and a series of journeys through the music, a travelogue with an excitable professor. Readers will want to have a recording playing so they can match metaphors to sounds. I found myself engaged by his imagery, sometimes delighted and surprised. -Jeremy Denk, New York Times Book Review Impassioned and informed...Swafford’s exuberance is infectious, prompting the reader to revisit works both famous and obscure. - The New Yorker [T]he stately rhythm, carefully etched detailing and oceanic sweep of this ambitious book mirror the complexity and richness of Beethovens revolutionary Romanticism...surrender to it and it’s easy to be swept away...Swafford comes marvelously equipped to take on the enormousness of Beethovens life and work - his heights of inspiration, depths of suffering, the roots and range of his masterworks...Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph doesnt drown in its musicology so much as achieve a buoyant balance of technical and human detail. -Matt Damsker, USA TODAY Compelling...Despite the wealth of historical detail, this is no dry academic tome, but a biography full of colorful descriptions of the composer and his milieu...Comprehensive, detailed, and highly readable, this is an entertaining biography that should find favor with music lovers and history buffs. - Seattle Times