BEETHOVEN: A Concise Biography

The magnificent music came from a flawed human. Lonely, often at odds with his family, plagued by money worries and going deaf, Beethoven alternated periods of great creative output with stretches of depressed downtime. There's a lot of information here, but it flows smoothly thanks to Wright's crisp delivery. She paints many verbal pictures of this complicated man; he once conducted 10 bars ahead of the orchestra, silently unaware. Some of his best works, like the MISSA SOLUMNIS, came late in life; some of his most popular works during his lifetime are never played today. Culled partly from the composer's journals and letters, this is a compact but well-rounded biography; you might not even miss the music. J.B.G. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 99]