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Ludwig van Beethoven: to some, the greatest ever composer of Western classical music. Yet his life remains shrouded in myths, and the image persists of him as an eccentric genius shaking his fist. In this book, Oxford professor Laura Tunbridge cuts through the noise in a refreshing way – with each chapter focusing on a period of his life, a piece of music and a revealing theme, from family to friends, heroism to liberty.
From his celebrated early childhood, Mozart has been caught up in myths: the superhuman prodigy, the adult who was still a child, the neglect, the pauper’s grave. None of these myths are true, at least not at face value. ‘Wolfgang Amadè Mozart’ is not primarily a myth-busting book, but in the process of bringing to vivid life the man and composer absorbed in writing for his public rather than for posterity, the myths topple en route. Swafford portrays a man who had his sorrows like everybody else, but who was a high-spirited, high-living bon vivant fond of games of skill, well-read and thoughtful if also at times playing the clown: in the end fundamentally a happy and happily married man who had a wide circle of friends.
‘Schumann: The Faces and the Masks’ is a groundbreaking account of a major composer whose life and works have been the subject of intense controversy ever since his attempted suicide and early death in an insane asylum. Schumann was a key figure in the Romanticism which swept Europe and America in the 19th century, inspiring writers, musicians and painters, delighting their enthralled audiences, and reaching to the furthest corners of the world. All the contradictions of his age enter Schumann’s works, from the fantastic disguises of his carnival masquerades and his passionate love songs to his great ‘Spring’ and ‘Rhenish’ Symphonies. He was intensely original and imaginative, but he also worshipped the past-especially Shakespeare and Byron, Raphael and Michelangelo, Beethoven and Bach. He believed in political, personal and artistic freedom but struggled with the constraints of artistic form.
Ian Bostridge focuses on the context, resonance and personal significance of Schubert’s ‘Winter Journey’, which is possibly the greatest landmark in the history of Lieder. Using each of the 24 songs as a starting point, the book brings the work and its world alive for connoisseurs and new listeners alike.
Ian Bostridge focuses on the context, resonance and personal significance of Schubert’s ‘Winter Journey’, which is possibly the greatest landmark in the history of Lieder. Using each of the 24 songs as a starting point, the book brings the work and its world alive for connoisseurs and new listeners alike.
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