W.A. Mozart - Hardcover

Abert, Hermann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300072236 ISBN 13: 9780300072235

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Hermann Abert's classic biography, first published in German more than eighty years ago and itself based on the definitive mid-nineteenth century study by Otto Jahn, remains the most informed and substantial biography of Mozart in any language. The book is both the fullest account of the composer’s life and a deeply skilled analysis of his music.
Proceeding chronologically from 1756 to 1791, the book interrogates every aspect of Mozart’s life, influences, and experience; his personality; his religious and secular dimensions; and the social context of the time. In a book within a book,” Abert also provides close scrutiny of the music, including the operas, orchestral work, symphonies and piano concertos, church music and cantatas, and compositions for solo instruments.
While the tone of Abert’s great work is expertly rendered by Stewart Spencer, developments in Mozart scholarship since the last German edition are signaled by the Mozart scholar, Cliff Eisen, in careful annotations on every page. Supported by a host of leading Mozart scholars, this immense undertaking at last permits English-language readers access to the most important single source on the life of this great composer.

About this title

About the Author:

Hermann Abert (1871 1927) was professor at the University of Leipzig, and Germany’s outstanding musicologist of the early twentieth century. Cliff Eisen is reader in historical musicology, King’s College London, and co-editor of The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopaedia. Stewart Spencer is an author, translator, and musical consultant. His most recent translation for Yale University Press was Joachim Kohler’s Richard Wagner: The Last Titan.

Review:

"Hermann Abert's W.A. Mozart is a monumental achievement—one of the most important biographies of any musician written at any time and in any language. . . . This is enriching, enlightening, indeed essential reading."—Simon P. Keefe, Music & Letters (Simon P. Keefe Music & Letters 2009-02-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0300072236
• ISBN 13: 9780300072235
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1515
• Editor: Eisen Professor Cliff