Beethoven, A Life
- Author: Caeyers, Jan
Beethoven, A Life continues the journey towards a more complex and nuanced picture of the great composer. . . . Caeyers seeks to unravel the networks that influenced Beethoven's career, to paint...
Beethoven, A Life
- Author: Caeyers, Jan
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Beethoven, A Life continues the journey towards a more complex and nuanced picture of the great composer. . . . Caeyers seeks to unravel the networks that influenced Beethoven's career, to paint...
About
The authoritative Beethoven biography, endorsed by and produced in close collaboration with the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, is timed for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth.
With unprecedented access to the archives at the Beethoven House in Bonn, renowned Beethoven conductor and scholar Jan Caeyers expertly weaves together a deeply human and complex image of Beethoven—his troubled youth, his unpredictable mood swings, his desires, relationships, and conflicts with family and friends, the mysteries surrounding his affair with the “immortal beloved,” and the dramatic tale of his deafness. Caeyers also offers new insights into Beethoven’s music and its gradual transformation from the work of a skilled craftsman into that of a consummate artist.
Demonstrating an impressive command of the vast scholarship on this iconic composer, Caeyers brings Beethoven’s world alive with elegant prose, memorable musical descriptions, and vivid depictions of Bonn and Vienna—the cities where Beethoven produced and performed his works. Caeyers explores how Beethoven’s career was impacted by the historical and philosophical shifts taking place in the music world, and conversely, how his own trajectory changed the course of the music industry. Equal parts absorbing cultural history and lively biography, Beethoven, A Life paints a complex portrait of the musical genius who redefined the musical style of his day and went on to become one of the great pillars of Western art music.
Contents
- Foreword by Daniel Hope
- Prologue
- Part One: The Artist as a Young Man (1770-1792)
- 1 * Louis van Beethoven: A Grandfather Figure
- 2 * Jean van Beethoven: The Absent Father?
- 3 * The Early Years
- 4 * Christian Gottlob Neefe: The Mentor
- 5 * The Young Professional
- 6 * Bonn Turns to Vienna
- 7 * Beethoven's First Crisis
- 8 * A Second Home, and New Horizons
- 9 * Renewed Vigor and the First Major Works
- 10 * Farewell to Bonn
- Part Two: A Time of Proving (1792-1802)
- 11 * Vienna in 1792
- 12 * Beethoven's First Patron: Karl von Lichnowsky
- 13 * Haydn and Albrechtsberger
- 14 * Career Plans
- 15 * Family, Friends, and Loves in Vienna
- 16 * In Anticipation of Greater Things
- 17 * Lobkowitz's "Center of Excellence"
- 18 * The Immortal Beloved: Episode One
- 19 * The Road to a Broader Public
- 20 * A Word from the Critics
- 21 * The Disciples: Carl Czerny and Ferdinand Ries
- 22 * The Heiligenstadt Testament
- Part Three: The Master (1802-1809)
- 23 * A "New Way" Forward
- 24 * The Laboratorium Artificiosum
- 25 * Publishing Pains and the "Warehouse of the Arts"
- 26 * Composer in Residence
- 27 * Salieri's Opera Lessons
- 28 * The Mystery of the Eroica
- 29 * The Immortal Beloved: Episode Two
- 30 * In Search of the Perfect Piano
- 31 * Leonore: A Work in Progress
- 32 * The Golden Years
- Part Four: Crowds and Power (1809-1816)
- 33 * A New Social Status
- 34 * New Prospects
- 35 * An Imperial Pupil
- 36 * Beethoven and Goethe
- 37 * The Immortal Beloved: Episode Three
- 38 * Se non e vero . . .
- 39 * The End of the Classical Symphony
- 40 * Music for the Masses
- 41 * A Lucrative Sideline
- 42 * From Leonore to Fidelio
- 43 * From Coffee and Cake to Congress and Kitsch
- 44 * The Fight for a Child
- 45 * From the "Immortal Beloved" to a "Distant Beloved"
- Part Five: The Lonely Way (1816-1827)
- 46 * Longing for Greater Things
- 47 * Post-Congress Vienna
- 48 * London Plans
- 49 * A Faustian Sonata and a Diabolical Contraption
- 50 * The Missa solemnis: A Mass for Peace
- 51 * The Circle Is Complete: The Late Piano Works
- 52 * Estrangement
- 53 * Encounters with the Younger Generation
- 54 * An Ode to Joy
- 55 * Decline
- 56 * Karl's Emancipation
- 57 * Money Matters
- 58 * The Discovery of Heaven: The Late String Quartets
- 59 * Comoedia finita est
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Illustration Credits
- Index of Works
- Index of People
Awards and reviews
Beethoven, A Life continues the journey towards a more complex and nuanced picture of the great composer. . . . Caeyers seeks to unravel the networks that influenced Beethoven's career, to paint portraits of those who supported him, and to outline the many interests that were at play in forming Beethoven both as a man and an artist. . . . The result is a very readable book that, as a byproduct, offers a generous supply of scene-setting detail. This ranges from life in Vienna in the early 19th century to the grinding economic impact of the French revolution and its aftermath, and even the bathing customs in Bohemian spa towns." FT Books of the Year 2020
Among the books about the legend . . . in this anniversary year, the most substantial is Jan Caeyers's Beethoven: A Life, a magisterial account, rich in archival findings, translated with revisions from the German edition of 2009." Books of the Year 2020
