Beethoven : a life / Jan Caeyers; translated by Brent Annable.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Caeyers, Jan, 1953- author.

Contributor:

Annable, Brent, translator.

Language:

Dutch

English

Subjects (All):

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827.

Beethoven, Ludwig van.

Composers--Austria--Biography.

Composers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (681 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English, Translated from Dutch.

Summary:

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:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

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 è 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

Notes:

Originally published as: Beethoven : een Biografie by De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, ©2009 by Jan Caeyers.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-520-97502-2

OCLC:

1248759687