Reviews (1)

What the?
Unbelievable that this book is out of print and so hard to acquire! Ludwig was a great biographer and this is one of the best of his biographies, second perhaps to his great bio of Napolean.

It was one of my favorite reads ever when I first came across it in a college library back in the early '70s, when I first became interested in Ludwig Von, partly in response to li'l Alex's hero worship in A Clockwork Orange, and partially a result of listening to the Ormandy/Serkin recording of The Emperor Concerto, until I wore out the vinyl on the record. One thing led to another (Von Karajan's recording of the 9th, also included in the Kubrick film), Lennie/Serkin, etc.

I also recall tonight a truly execrable film called "Beethoven's Nephew, made back in the '80s by a filmmaker who had a slant to convey that was entirely unresearched an unhistorical. Absolute tripe! Yes, Beethoven had a "troubled" relationship with nephew Karl, but it didn't warrant the sort of mudslinging innuendo that so called "filmmaker" flung at one of the world's great cultural icons.

Seek out the Ludwig bio for an actually carefully researched look at the man who was one of the great revolutionaries of his and any age.

If you must seek out a movie that actually conveys some semblance of the actual man, watch Immortal Beloved. It's got its innacuracies as well, but doesn't drag the man's reputation into the dirt.

BK ... Read more

Amazon.com

Great men, especially creative artists whose work lives after them, engage people's imagination for centuries. Beethoven, as man and composer, has inspired innumerable books both by his contemporaries and later writers, and it is proof of his endlessly fascinating, controversial nature that they all throw a different light on some aspect of his life and work. Since J.W.N. Sullivan wrote his book in 1927, much new information about Beethoven, his character, his illnesses, and his relationships has come to light, but it is still a valid contribution to the literature on the composer. Sullivan's basic theory is that Beethoven's greatness lies in his extraordinary perceptions, his heightened experiences and "states of consciousness," and his ability to organize and synthesize these into a musical expression of a "view of life." He asserts that Beethoven's initial despairing, then defiant struggle against his suffering--especially his deafness and resulting isolation--gives his middle-period works their heroism, and that his ultimate acceptance of it as necessary to his creativity marks the peak of his "spirituality" and gives his latest works their unparalleled sublimity.

Like many biographies, the book reveals more about the author than the subject. Sullivan, who is not a musician, offers some interesting, if sometimes extravagantly extramusical, analyses of Beethoven's works (though elsewhere he decries injecting "meaning" into music). He sees Beethoven's late fugues as outbursts of "blind and desperate energy," another battle with hostile fate; many musicians see them as another battle with counterpoint. He also makes subjective, high-handed value judgments: he detests Wagner and dismisses Bach as too religious, while Haydn and Mozart are too shallow to equal Beethoven's struggle-generated "spirituality." The book also brings up questions about beauty and greatness in art, the relationship between moral character and genius, and the impact of a man's personal experiences upon his creativity--all age-old but forever timely. --Edith Eisler ... Read more

Reviews (9)

PhilosopherProf number 2. Maybe we all like Beethoven?
This is not going to get many postive feedbacks.. HOWEVER.. this is just a note to say THIS REALLY and truly is a BRILLIANT BOOK.... and for anyone wanting to dive straight into the deep end as to what Beethoven and ART and Classical Music par se is and the mind of a composer and the struggle of a life between Art, creativity, God and love and genius is all about this is the one book to get. Yet, surprisingly not only all made very understandable but then clarity and inspiration and feel good factor was never made so good in a book on a composer, also made so enjoyable. A true and real learning journey in this book.Priceless.I felt myself on tour with the writer and the works and mind of life of Beethoven as though the man was his art and his work. Out of MUCH self taught reading on classical music. This book truly remains my ALL TIME FAVOURITE book about any single composer.Supremely well written and written with clarity and passages I underlined endlessly. It is one of those books. Just well researched, well written and written about from angles and insights that you really DID want to know and not written anywhere else and never realised you did want to know and it is a real journey. If you feel a journey with Beethoven`s music this is the best book ever written to get into his mind , and his art and the music and his life as one.... A real cherished classic. I hate the phrase. This book is one of 20-30 that I look back really does come under the heading "life changer" and can givea truer real insight into the mind of genius and ART in capital letters and an artist`s intention and the working of a mind and spirit..and it explains the music so well in relation to his life and genius. A seriously great gem , where every page is a page turning inspiration and delight. Seriously 5+ Not a normal book. Exceedingly well done... This bookisspecial. Class of it`s own and essential reading on Beethoven. Trust me. And write your own review. I challenge anyone not to adore this book and give it a 5 having read it. I`m serious. Think about it compared to all the others on Beethoven and dull ill written biographies and over detailed stuff. This book really hits the spot and is very very well writen in style and content and theme and insight....and is concise. :) I.e not only readable but also exciting and a a book to learn from not just factually but with real thinking and a journey and highly enjoyable read. The world it takes one too to the mind of the composer and the music and the journey it takes one too is first class. A really enjoyable mind expanding insight. Seriously good. i.e Great.

Beethoven's Deeper Thoughts
Sullivan's book has remained in print for over 70 years, despite not being a definitive source book for facts about Beethoven's life and work. Sullivan's achievement is different. Sullivan wrote one of the very few biographies, about Beethoven or anybody else, that captures and understands the level of "depth of life" that results from identifying one's life with the search for the meaning of life and of the universe, if there is any such meaning. Beethoven lived on this level and the particular path Beethoveen pursued and expressed in his music is uniquely understood by Sullivan. This biography is a masterpiece in its own right.

The willl against the fate : far beyond the graves !
Why has Beethoven reached this special place in the music world?
First at all his music is fundamentally human . The organic feature of his works shows the timeless conflict between the will and the fate ; the horizontality of the destiny and the verticality of the irrevocable and untamedhuman character .
Ernest Newman has said : " The peculiarity of Beethoven imagination is that it raises over and over to heights since we can do a new appraisement , not only of all the music but the life , the emotions and the ideas".
Think in the Final of the last variation of his Third Symphony and will understand the message ; you have to fight always without expecting anything in change ; because the hero attitude is to make not to think . And you know this wisdom statement of Goethe: "We are what we do".
This book is admirably compelling and reveals unknown facets , interesting letters and even I do not agree with the value of the last stage of his life in which the transfiguration and the evasion would seem derivate making a simple analysis of the endings of his last three Piano Sonatas , the text is a must for any reader really interested in the life and work of this icon beacon of the mankind : Ludwig van Beethoven.

insightful and informative
I recommend the book not only for its intertwined information about the composer's life and works, but for its demonstration of Beethoven's inward evolution.My one criticism is that the author tends to see in some ofBeethoven's clearly neurotic behavior (e.g., his obsession with his nephew;his incredible personal messiness; his narcissistic rages at certaincolleagues) an overabundance of some sort of energy--which may indeed bethe case at a very deep level, but hey, misbehavior is misbehavior. Nevertheless, an excellent Beethoven resource.

A wonderful brief introduction to a great composer
Amateurs tread upon the musicologist's turf always at their peril - a tendency doubled in the case of one amateur reviewing another. J.W.N. Sullivan was one of the most gifted popularizers of science (i.e., THELIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE) between the world wars, conveying in clear,polished prose the main lines of scientific development tailing Einstein'sonce-in-a-lifetime comet. When he turned his hand to music, as in thisshort appraisal of the inner development of Beethoven as it foundexpression in his work, he brought to the task his customary literarygifts, and the result is a joy to read. Sullivan spends a fair amount ofthroat-clearing time early in his book in discussing the capacity of musicto convey deep, extralinguistic truth (a topic ground to dust by everywould-be philosopher since at least as far back as the pre-Socratics). Theremainder of the book highlights the unending round of struggles -physical, material, emotional - faced by the composer, and the ways inwhich he strove to express and overcome them in his music. Especially fromthe vantage of today, with the wealth of fine scholarship at theirdisposal, Beethoven specialists may quarrel throughout with Sullivan's petnotions. But general readers, who have claims of their own, will be hardput to find a more moving or better-written short attempt at conveying whatstirs us still in the life and work of a composer who, to paraphrase thegreat musicologist Sir Donald Tovey, will always occupy a central place ina sound musical mind. ... Read more

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20
jag har skrivit en book som jag kallar för anuskig heter på söråker if söråker är en plats i sweden ... Read more

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delightful, short, eminently readable biography
This 100-page volume is a good "Cliff Notes" biography of Beethoven, providing a chronological overview of Beethoven's life with descriptions of his major works interwoven into the text. The author briefly addresses Beethoven's childhood, and then focuses on the three recognized periods of the composer's life --early Beethoven, with a description of Beehoven's relationship with Mozart (and later other noted composers) and his adherence to classical style, the middle period following the composer's "Heilegenstadt Testament" (believed by many to be a suicide note), and the late period, during which Beethoven's music became very introspective. Following the biography, there is a complete listing by opus number of Beethoven's compositions, and then a list of recommended recordings.

This is a appetizer; it's a great book for someone who wants to learn about Beethoven but who is not yet prepared to plow through a long, technical biography. I understand that there is some controversy about Beethoven's life & love affairs -- this book doesn't address the controversy; it's a rather simple presentation, though it does present the basics well, and provides some background for someone who wants basic familiarity with the composer's life. Although it is hard to find, it may be available in public libraries. I highly recommend it. ... Read more