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sbbarnes's review against another edition
3.0
A man enters a framing device, that is a folk festival, and sees a poor violinist who has actually brought sheet music instead of just playing from memory. He is so confused by this that he stalks the guy for a bit and gives him money. The musician tells his life story: his dad was wealthy and powerful, but he could never live up to expectations and was shunted off to a dumb office job. Then he heard a girl singing a beautiful song and took up the violin. His father died; he inherited a lot, he wanted to marry the girl, but he invested unwisely and she left him. Now he's a poor street musician who does nothing but play the violin all day to diminishing returns. Then he dies of heroism, because he saves little kids from a flood. The girl who turned him down is sad.
This is, to me, a pretty nothing story. I know it's a german classic but it's not all that exciting. The framing device narrator also seems like kind of a tool, in that Enlightenment/Sturm und Drang sort of I-am-so-sensitive-and-such-a-good-person-but-I-have-so-much-money kind of way. The violinist is interesting, I guess, but I really don't know why this is a thing that would be taught in school. There's not a whole lot there to read into, and the prose is pretty meh. It's kind of your standard wealth does not make happiness story. I guess what interests me most is the implication that despite all his practice etc. the violinist is just really not that good.
This is, to me, a pretty nothing story. I know it's a german classic but it's not all that exciting. The framing device narrator also seems like kind of a tool, in that Enlightenment/Sturm und Drang sort of I-am-so-sensitive-and-such-a-good-person-but-I-have-so-much-money kind of way. The violinist is interesting, I guess, but I really don't know why this is a thing that would be taught in school. There's not a whole lot there to read into, and the prose is pretty meh. It's kind of your standard wealth does not make happiness story. I guess what interests me most is the implication that despite all his practice etc. the violinist is just really not that good.
the_book_leia's review against another edition
5.0
Fue enormemente especial leer la obra que hacía llorar a nada menos que Franz Kafka. Quizá por eso mi reseña de 5 estrellas, aunque no puedo limitar a ello el impacto que tuvo en mi esta corta historia. Escribí tantas cosas al momento de leerla, en un dispositivo que ya no tengo conmigo, pero aún tras el paso de los meses no olvido el canto hermoso que escuché aquí tanto para el arte auténtico como para los que lo defienden, teniendo o no expectadores, eso no importa. Por vitalidad, por terquedad, por instinto visceral… El pobre músico, que no es tan pobre, lo logró aunque fuera con el temblor de sus torpes manos, y también al lector moderno lo logrará conmover.
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