Notes on Beethoven: 20 Crucial Works - Softcover

Wilson, Conrad

9780715208083: Notes on Beethoven: 20 Crucial Works

Softcover

ISBN 10: 071520808X ISBN 13: 9780715208083

Publisher: St Andrew Press, 2003

The author selects Beethoven's 20 most crucial works, tells you why he has selected them and why they are fundamental to our knowledge and understanding of the composer. He guides the reader through Beethoven's life, looking afresh at his status and exploding the myths. He also points the reader to the best recordings ever made of these crucial works.

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From the Back Cover:

The "Notes on . . ." series by distinguished music critic Conrad Wilson illuminates the music of some of history's greatest composers in relation to their private lives. In each "Notes on . . ." volume Wilson selects twenty crucial works of a given composer, discusses these masterpieces with insight and verve, and explains why these particular works are fundamental to understanding the composer.

Permeating these pages are Wilson's vast musical expertise and his colorful, succinct, polished prose style. As a bonus Wilson highlights choice recordings of the music he discusses. Meant for any general reader interested in music, these guidebooks are ideal for dipping into as well as reading straight through.

In the course of elucidating Beethoven and his music in this volume, Wilson questions the traditional practice of dividing Beethoven's life into three periods, discerns his true attitude toward Napoleon, and probes the "heroic" side of Beethoven's music and its bearing on his work as a whole.

Review:

'Conrad Wilson's blend of erudition, wit and scrupulous accuracy, laced with racy anecdotal evidence, makes his writing approachable, whichever level of engagement the reader has with "classical" music. These volumes will be invaluable.' (John Wallace)

'I hugely admire Conrad Wilson's writing, and he ably achieves his aim of widening the audience for classical music.' (Sir Brian McMaster)

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