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.
The definitive book on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, written by the acclaimed biographer of Brahms and Ives.
ANew York Times Book ReviewEditor's Choice
AChristian Science MonitorTop 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 aml3.
![Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/6/6/0/2_425224.jpg)