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artbookshelfodyssey's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent Biography that is probably the most detailed one you will ever read. It covers Beethoven's personal life, analyzes his music, and also studies the history of the time period in which he lived. The book goes on and on and on... but it is actually pretty good in spite of it's length.
miw2140's review against another edition
3.5
Very interesting but the descriptions of the symphony's are a bit ridiculous. Who on earth would read a written description of a symphony? Or take the time to write it out? The historical information about the man himself was really interesting though.
atelierofbooks's review against another edition
4.0
"I will seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not bend and crush me completely."
I really, really love Beethoven, even when he's kind of unlovable. Not only because he wrote lines like that, but more because he lived it.
This book isn't a mythologized account of Beethoven's life. Jan Swafford does a lot to poke holes in the romantic cult of genius that was already starting to pop up during Beethoven's lifetime. Yet it's not critical either. It's balanced, respectful, and warm without shying away from the facts. And thankfully there's little of the awkward psychoanalysis that so many biographers are prone to.
Some of my favorite stories are the ones where Beethoven embodies the stereotype. Like when he schools rivals in piano battles or frightens a herd of oxen with his wild gesticulating while taking a walk. But there's so much more to him than this; his struggles with deafness and poor health, the opposition to his music, his combustible relationships with friends, family, patrons, and princes (pretty much everyone).
If you're only interested in his life and letters then I'd give this a pass. This is extremely thorough and dense, almost to the point of unwieldiness. Swafford goes beyond the man and explores what was happening in Europe while Beethoven lived (politically, militarily, philosophically, and culturally) and how that may have affected him and his music.
There is also a considerable amount of musical analysis which admittedly involved a lot of skimming on my part:
"All but two variations are in the C major of the theme (also including the familiar minore, a turn to C minor), but within each variation he went for maximum harmonic contrast, much chromaticism, internal modulations. For one example of the tonal variety he injected into the theme, the C-minor Variation XIV has a passage in D-flat major, which is nowhere hinted in the theme."
*Whoosh* is the sound as that goes over my head. But he usually brings it around so it's not totally inaccessible:
"The Ninth Symphony, forming and dissolving before our ears in its beauty and terror and simplicity and complexity, is itself Beethoven’s embrace for the millions, from East to West, high to low, naive to sophisticated. When the bass soloist speaks the first words in the finale, an invitation to sing for joy, Beethoven’s words are addressed to everybody, to history. There’s something singularly moving about that moment when this man—deaf and sick and misanthropic and self-torturing, at the same time one of the most extraordinary and boundlessly generous men our species has produced—greets us person to person, with glass raised, and hails us as friends."
Without his music Beethoven is really hard to know, even with all of the facts of his life we can glean from letters and testimonies. I mean, I just read a thousand pages about the man and I still can't understand what went on in his head. So I appreciate what Swafford does here.
Still, I don't think storytelling is his strong suit. It's masterfully researched and constructed. Yet the writing is overly florid and can get repetitive. It's just not my taste and I think the story gets buried in the flowery language.
I'd like to read other (shorter) Beethoven biographies in the future but I'm glad that I read this one and have a solid foundation for future reads. I really came to appreciate and understand Beethoven's music so much more after this and genuinely do recommend it. Especially if you want to strengthen your biceps while reading because omg, it's so heavy.
musicdeepdive's review against another edition
4.5
It may not be the best Beethoven biography (I might lean towards Caeyers for that one), but it spares no detail, and the musical analysis is an epic sprawl deserving of such a widely respected composer. At 1000+ pages, though, reading this is not a light endeavor, so tread cautiously.
philipe's review against another edition
4.0
I loved reading this authors books on Brahms and Ives. This book on one of the greatest classical composers doesn’t disappoint. Along with great biographical info, we are given lots of perspective on the times he lived in. It’s a bit daunting with the copious amounts of musical analysis but again, a great read. Those 1000 pages go by more quickly than you think they will.
brampton's review against another edition
4.0
This book is really three books in one. It is a biography of Beethoven (as you would expect) but it is also a potted history of Europe from the Enlightenment through the French Revolution until the demise of Napoleon, and it is an analysis of Beethoven’s major pieces of music.
If your history is a bit shaky, and I’ll concede mine is, the potted history is excellent for putting Beethoven and his music in the context of his times.
But the analysis of the music sometimes descends into just enumerating the keys that various pieces pass through and unless you have perfect pitch or a Doctorate of Music it is probably going to be pretty meaningless. I found I tended to skim through those sections. Alternatively there is great value to be had if you can acquire the music and listen as you read, but that elevates reading a book into an act of full time study. And even when I did listen along I still found some things eluded me such as the whereabouts of the “drunken uncle” intruding into the Third Symphony.
But the biography is very comprehensive and Swafford goes to great lengths to explain how Beethoven was influenced by events occurring around him. Although Swafford does tend to tread a fine line between historical accuracy and speculation on occasions. Unfortunately the book opens with such speculation when he describes Beethoven’s baptism which, whilst we know it was a Catholic service and we know the form of the service in use in Bonn at that time, we don’t actually know that the events took place with as much detail as we are given. For all we know the priest drop the baby on its head.
Overall this is a thorough insight into the development of Beethoven’s music throughout his life and it gives one a great understanding of how it evolved. It would also be a valuable reference when researching individual pieces of music when there would be time to listen for all the key changes.
If your history is a bit shaky, and I’ll concede mine is, the potted history is excellent for putting Beethoven and his music in the context of his times.
But the analysis of the music sometimes descends into just enumerating the keys that various pieces pass through and unless you have perfect pitch or a Doctorate of Music it is probably going to be pretty meaningless. I found I tended to skim through those sections. Alternatively there is great value to be had if you can acquire the music and listen as you read, but that elevates reading a book into an act of full time study. And even when I did listen along I still found some things eluded me such as the whereabouts of the “drunken uncle” intruding into the Third Symphony.
But the biography is very comprehensive and Swafford goes to great lengths to explain how Beethoven was influenced by events occurring around him. Although Swafford does tend to tread a fine line between historical accuracy and speculation on occasions. Unfortunately the book opens with such speculation when he describes Beethoven’s baptism which, whilst we know it was a Catholic service and we know the form of the service in use in Bonn at that time, we don’t actually know that the events took place with as much detail as we are given. For all we know the priest drop the baby on its head.
Overall this is a thorough insight into the development of Beethoven’s music throughout his life and it gives one a great understanding of how it evolved. It would also be a valuable reference when researching individual pieces of music when there would be time to listen for all the key changes.
julieyue's review against another edition
2.0
Some interesting arguments/themes but overall repetitive and cloying
angieinbooks's review against another edition
Withholding a rating and review in support of HarperCollins staff who are currently on strike.