Beethoven, A Life

Jan Caeyers

Univ of California Press, Jun 21, 2022 - Biography & Autobiography - 680 pages

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

• A Grandfather Figure: 3
• The Mentor: 23
• Beethovens First Crisis: 42
• A Second Home and New Horizons: 48
• Vienna in 1792: 71
• Family Friends and Loves in Vienna: 111
• Episode One: 138
• A Word from the Critics: 155
• Carl Czerny and Ferdinand Ries: 161
• A New Way Forward: 181
• The Mystery of the Eroica: 217
• Episode Two: 231
• A New Social Status: 297
• New Prospects: 306
• An Imperial Pupil: 311
• Beethoven and Goethe: 318
• Episode Three: 330
• Se non è vero: 337
• The End of the Classical Symphony: 344
• 40: 353
• A Lucrative Sideline: 363
• From Leonore to Fidelio: 369
• From Coffee and Cake to Congress and Kitsch: 381
• The Fight for a Child: 390
• From the Immortal Beloved to a Distant Beloved: 401
• PART FIVE THE LONELY WAY 18161827: 409
• Longing for Greater Things: 411
• PostCongress Vienna: 420
• London Plans: 425
• A Faustian Sonata and a Diabolical Contraption: 431
• A Mass for Peace: 442
• The Late Piano Works: 455
• Estrangement: 468
• Encounters with the Younger Generation: 474
• An Ode to Joy: 482
• 55: 495
• Karls Emancipation: 499
• The Late String Quartets: 514
• 59: 532
• Acknowledgments: 541
• Bibliography: 601
• Illustration Credits: 611

About the author

Jan Caeyers is a conductor and musicologist. One of Europe’s preeminent experts on Beethoven, he is the music director of the Beethoven orchestra Le Concert Olympique and a member of the Department of Musicology at KU Leuven.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Beethoven, A Life
• Author: Jan Caeyers
• Translated by: Brent Annable
• Contributor: Daniel Hope
• Publisher: Univ of California Press, 2022
• ISBN: 0520390210, 9780520390218
• Length: 680 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts; Biography & Autobiography / General; Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Music / Genres & Styles / Classical; Music / History & Criticism; Music / Individual Composer & Musician