Synopses & Reviews
The Beethoven symphonies form the core of the classical concert repertoire and remain among the defining works of the Western musical experience. As the heir to Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven possessed an abiding artistic vision that found its most powerful expression in the symphonic form, which he revolutionized and bequeathed to posterity. Lewis Lockwood's compelling story introduces each symphony as an individual artwork and broadly traces the creative background of each, set against the contemporary political upheavals, the growth of concert life, and the relationship to major works of his in other genres. In concise chapters, Lockwood uncovers a creative process of remarkable scope and originality, including reference to numerous symphonic ideas sketched out but not realized. From the first symphonies, written during Beethoven's emerging deafness, to the monumental Ninth, his lifelong passion to compose works of transcendent aesthetic and moral value is brought vividly to life.
Review
"No one brings Beethoven's music to life as vividly as Lewis Lockwood. A towering achievement." Alan Gilbert, music director, New York Philharmonic
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"Lockwood has given music lovers a great gift. By looking at historical context--who listened to Beethoven, what he read--and how the symphonies were planned, the reader gets a unique view of the creative process of one of our greatest musical minds." Yo-Yo Ma
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"This remarkable book is much more than a guide to Beethoven's symphonies. By granting us access to the composer's workshop, Lockwood reveals a faltering human being whose unfaltering artistic resolution remains one of the great stories of the human spirit." Scott Burnham, Scheide Professor of Music History, Princeton University
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"Lockwood elegantly imparts an enormous amount of fascinating detail, placing each symphony in the context of Beethoven's work in other genres and concert activity. What a pleasure to read!" Emanuel Ax, pianist
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"The preeminent Beethoven scholar traces the composer's lifelong engagement with the symphony, illuminates afresh the familiar Nine, and reminds us why these monuments claim listeners' attention today as much as they did two hundred years ago. A masterful achievement." R. Larry Todd, arts & sciences professor, Duke University
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"This book contains a lifetime of love and admiration for the bedrock of classical music: Beethoven's symphonies. Lockwood's balanced approach and deep knowledge make for a majestic voyage of discovery through these familiar masterworks." David Robertson, music director, St. Louis Symphony
Synopsis
More than any other composer, Beethoven left to posterity a vast body of material that documents the early stages of almost everything he wrote. From this trove of sketchbooks, Lewis Lockwood draws us into the composer s mind, unveiling a creative process of astonishing scope and originality.
For musicians and nonmusicians alike, Beethoven s symphonies stand at the summit of artistic achievement, loved today as they were two hundred years ago for their emotional cogency, variety, and unprecedented individuality. Beethoven labored to complete nine of them over his lifetime a quarter of Mozart s output and a tenth of Haydn s yet no musical works are more iconic, more indelibly stamped on the memory of anyone who has heard them. They are the products of an imagination that drove the composer to build out of the highest musical traditions of the past something startlingly new.
Lockwood brings to bear a long career of studying the surviving sources that yield insight into Beethoven s creative work, including concept sketches for symphonies that were never finished. From these, Lockwood offers fascinating revelations into the historical and biographical circumstances in which the symphonies were composed. In this compelling story of Beethoven s singular ambition, Lockwood introduces readers to the symphonies as individual artworks, broadly tracing their genesis against the backdrop of political upheavals, concert life, and their relationship to his major works in other genres. From the first symphonies, written during his emerging deafness, to the monumental Ninth, Lockwood brings to life Beethoven s lifelong passion to compose works of unsurpassed beauty.
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Synopsis
An exploration of the unswerving artistic vision underlying Beethoven's symphonies, from one of the world's leading scholars of the composer's works.
About the Author
Lewis Lockwood taught at Princeton and Harvard universities, where he is Fanny Peabody Professor of Music Emeritus. His Beethoven: The Music and the Life was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He resides in Brookline, Massachusetts.