| Description |
xv, 389 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm |
| Note |
Includes index. |
| Summary |
Llluminates Beethoven's difficult childhood, his struggle to find a wife, his ungovernable temper, his emotional volatility, his tendency to push away those trying to help him, and in middle age his obsessive compulsion to control his nephew's life. |
| Contents |
The Spaniard : in which a momentous life begins -- The right teacher : this boy could become 'a second Mozart' -- Meeting Mozart : watch out for that boy -- Word spreads : young Beethoven as kitchen scullion -- Impressing the Viennese : but Haydn feels the wrath of an angry young man -- My poor hearing haunts me : but there is 'a dear charming girl who loves me' -- Only my art held me back : in which Beethoven considers suicide -- Egyptian hieroglyphics : Napoleon is no more than 'a common tyrant' -- O, beloved J! : musical failure, but will Beethoven succeed in love? -- A deeply immoral woman : Beethoven holds the most important concert of his life, and is offered a job -- Under cannon fire : in which Beethoven once again tries his luck at love -- Immortal beloved : 'my angel, my all, my very self' -- An utterly untamed personality : Beethoven turns again to his 'poor shipwrecked opera' -- Into the witness box : how the single letter 'o' ruined Beethoven's life -- A musical gift from London : how Rossini found Beethoven 'disorderly and dirty' -- 'I want to be a soldier' : in which Beethoven gets drunk with friends -- Two pistols and gunpowder : an invitation to get away from it all -- Frightening the oxen : 'The greatest composer of the century, and you treated him like a servant!' -- Terminally ill : 'His face was damp, he spat blood' -- The last master : 'He was an artist, but a man as well.' |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Subject |
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827.
|
|
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827. |
|
Composers -- Germany -- Biography.
|
|
Composers. |
|
Germany. |
| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
|
|
Biographies.
|
| ISBN |
080212206X |
|
9780802122063 (hardcover) |
| Standard No. |
10438163 |
|
