Beethoven, el genio romántico, hombre atormentado y fascinante capaz de componer las piezas más sublimes, vivió su tiempo con extraordinaria intensidad. Jan Swafford recrea de manera amena y profunda la vida del hombre, del compositor y del genio. Partiendo de la Bonn de la Ilustración en la que Beethoven creció y se empapó del racionalismo y el antidogmatismo que darían forma a su obra posterior, hasta Viena, capital de la música europea donde el compositor culminó su carrera, acompañamos al músico en las múltiples vicisitudes de su vida: la incomprensión de la crítica, su delicada salud, sus fracasos amorosos y su irremediable sordera, que no impidieron su consagración como genio mítico. Un libro hermoso, convertido ya en una obra de referencia.

Parecía difícil leer en castellano una biografía de Beethoven que superase la de Jean y Brigitte Massin (Turner, 2003), especialistas que reunieron con metódico rigor los documentos más relevantes del compositor de Bonn. Esta obrade Jan Swafford (Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1946), posterior a la citada, tiene una intención más narrativa y psicológica, y trata de comprender mejor al hombre que fue Beethoven. Además, da cuenta a grandes rasgos de las ideas que dominaron la época en la que vivió y con las que él armó su ideario. Beethoven fue un ilustrado antes que el romántico que quisieron ver en él críticos musicales como E.T.A. Hoffmann. Tampoco se olvida Swafford de caracterizar a los personajes más importantes que rodearon a Beethoven, de quienes traza vivas semblanzas. Asimismo, repasa de manera somera los acontecimientos históricos. Y, como no podía ser de otro modo en la biografía de un músico, comenta con profusión las singulares obras de Beethoven. Como profesor de musicología en el conservatorio de Boston y compositor, Swafford consagra páginas esclarecedoras a revelar la magia de las composiciones más señeras de Beethoven, aunque sin cargar al lector, puesto que sus explicaciones son amenas y comprensibles hasta para los no versados en música.
Así que en esta biografía —cuyo subtítulo es “Tormento y triunfo”—, muy bien traducida por el crítico musical Juan Lucas, el autor norteamericano presenta a un Beethoven muy personal sin por ello inventarse nada, pues sólo se basa en testimonios fidedignos.
Los rasgos de carácter del biografiado están claros desde el comienzo de la narración; enseguida sabremos que ya desde niño Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) fue tosco y huraño, violento en sus sentimientos y en sus ademanes, aspectos que se agudizaron con el paso de los años. Fue un hombre de baja estatura, moreno —casi meridional—, de semblante más bien adusto; serio y poco dado a la jarana, al contrario que su padre, Johann, que era afable y amigo de juergas y terminó sus días destrozado por la bebida; en esto sí lo secundó el hijo, quien también fue un gran bebedor.
Gracias a la tozudez de este padre parrandero Beethoven se convirtió en un virtuoso musical. Johann, celoso del talento y las ganancias de Mozart, paseado por su progenitor Leopold por todas las cortes europeas cuando niño para que deslumbrase con su virtuosismo y ganase dinero, quiso también que el pequeño Ludwig fuera un superdotado que le llenase los bolsillos de oro. Con este fin el padre sometía a su vástago a duras jornadas de ejercicios al teclado; así, entre broncas y alguna paliza, afloró el talento innato que en verdad poseía el hijo. Sólo “mi infinito amor a la música —dirá años más tarde Beethoven—, me permitió superar esta dura infancia y sacar más tarde todo el jugo a los conocimientos tan duramente adquiridos”.

Johann consiguió en parte lo que quería, porque Ludwig pudo ganarse el sustento con la música siendo todavía muy joven, y fue un sostén para la familia. Empezó como virtuoso del teclado (clave, pianoforte y piano); más tarde, gracias a provechosos mecenazgos de ricos admiradores, pudo alejarse de Bonn y trasladarse a Viena, donde recibió algunas elecciones del mismísimo Haydn, el más célebre compositor de la época.
En Viena pudo vivir con holgura de sus conciertos como pianista y de sus propias composiciones. Nadie era tan bueno como él en el arte de la improvisación. Swafford describe el ambiente de los aristocráticos salones vieneses, a los que se invitaba a destacados músicos para que brillaran con sus conciertos, y en los que a menudo tenían lugar competiciones entre virtuosos: Beethoven triunfaba siempre. Además de estas exhibiciones, aquel tipo tosco y desaliñado, que llevaba el pelo suelto y alborotado en una época de pelucas, que se mostraba arrogante con sus semejantes, cosechó una fama inusitada también como compositor.

A sus veintisiete años, cuando su talento más florecía, irrumpió en su vida la enfermedad: una dolencia de oído que le causaba tremendos ruidos internos, y que amenazaba con dejarlo sordo. Su misantropía se agudizó aún más por el quebranto de su salud. Empezó entonces para él una época desesperada, jalonada de temores y vanos intentos de curación, y que terminó con una crisis que dio un giro drástico a su destino. En 1802, supo que no se curaría de la sordera y que tendría que dejar de tocar el piano. A partir de entonces se volcó en la composición: tendría que vivir sólo de ella y renunciar a los ingresos de los conciertos.

Aquel hombre consagrado por entero a la música se aisló en su trabajo y en un mundo para sí. Ciego para simpatizar con sus congéneres, incapaz de ponerse en el lugar de otras personas, las manejaba, sometía o despreciaba; “era incapaz de amarlas”, dice Swafford. Aunque sí tuvo amores y amoríos; algo se sabe de una célebre “amada inmortal” secreta con la que han especulado todos los biógrafos sin llegar a descubrir su identidad; pero ninguno de sus amores tuvo consecuencias determinantes en su vida, que se abismó en una honda soledad.

Swafford lo narra todo con detalle; emocionante es la parte dedicada a este amor desconocido, pero también la semblanza de los últimos años, cuando Beethoven se empeñó en oficiar de padre para su díscolo sobrino, hijo de un hermano fallecido. Se ilusionó con convertirlo en una persona sensata, y esto le causó innumerables trastornos.

Entre enfermedades, éxitos magníficos y profundos desánimos, la vida de Beethoven sólo halló verdadera recompensa en la música. Mientras vemos cómo él languidece y se desespera entre tormentos y desdichas, los cuartetos de cuerda, los tríos y quintetos, las sonatas para piano, las sinfonías, Fidelio, la Misa Solemne… resuenan elocuentes y triunfantes en las páginas de esta extraordinaria biografía

Beethoven vividly placed in his time as Enlightenment artist and nascent Romantic. A transitional figure, "[a]s usual, he conceives his ideas in terms of familiar formal outlines." But into those outlines, he pours a fiery and experimental Romanticism and "bend[s] formal traditions...nearly beyond recognition." Swafford sees Beethoven's character as shaped by external forces--his abusive father, illness, etc. Irascible and implacably confident, tragic in his impending deafness from age 27, he is also amazingly resilient and defiant. A composer himself, Swafford extracts Beethoven's process from his sketchbooks and offers insightful, often quite detailed analysis of the works. Repetitive on some points, but an achievement.

(Interesting to chart the rise of the artist through Haydn, who, as court composer, wrote almost exclusively to order; Beethoven, who still wrote many works on commission; to Chopin, who was completely independent and followed his inspiration. So different from Chopin--in so many ways--in this, too: "[Beethoven] based all his pieces on a story or an image and wrote the music to fit it.") ( )

Originally I wrote: "See other reviewers for accurate ratings. My rating reflects only the audiobook version, which has a terrible narrator."
However, I decided that this would be unfair to the book. My rating for the book is 4 but my rating for the narrator, Michael Prichard, is 1 at best.
Ratings of the printed book vs ratings of the audible version should not be concatenated, so in this case I have not rated the book. ( )

I've been reading this 1077 page biography of one of the most famous composers for the past 3 months. I barely know where to begin in reviewing this book.

As a professional classical musician, I knew a lot about Beethoven going in to this. I've played almost all of his symphonies (and extensively studied and listened to the few I haven't performed) and I've played all of his chamber music that uses the horn. He's also such a big name that I've picked up a lot of the facts of his life in various classes. I guess I wasn't sure how much I was going to learn that was new out of this book. In the end, I think it was beneficial to have everything gathered in to one book and it really clarified Beethoven's influence for me. I also enjoyed that Swafford placed Beethoven in his times. There is enough discussion of the Napoleonic wars and the impact on Vienna, where Beethoven lived, to solidly ground the book historically without losing focus on Beethoven. I also thought the portrait of Beethoven's character was well within the known facts and didn't over-romanticize his life, something that has often been done.

Some highlights of what I took away from this book:

- that Beethoven was grounded in the Aufklarung (Enlightenment) philosophy. Though he was adopted by the Romantics and his music definitely pushes out of the bounds of classical music, he didn't think of himself as a Romantic. ETA Hoffmann was a music critic who really embraced Beethoven's music and sort of adopted him into the Romantic trend. Beethoven's eccentric character and habits lent themselves well to the image of the tortured artist.

- There was a ton of censorship of all the arts in Vienna, but Beethoven largely escaped scrutiny because instrumental music was too hard to pin down to a philosophy. He had freedom to pursue his composition however he liked.

- As a performer Beethoven was an amazing improviser his improvisation skills greatly influenced his compositional technique, especially in his piano music. His other over-riding compositional style was to come up with a whole idea and create the entire multi-movements works to serve the whole.

- The main genres he influenced (has been virtually unsurpassed in even to this day) are the symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas.

- He used instruments in new ways, stretching the capabilities particularly of the string bass, horn, and vocalists. Also the string quartet as a whole.

- I knew, of course, that he lost his hearing, but I didn't realize how much of his life he was plagued with chronic stomach pain. He was basically never healthy as an adult.

- Interesting sections on the tuning of pianos and the perceived character of different keys. Also the different pianos available at the time.

- fascinating information on publishing and how impossible it was for a composer to ensure both quality of publication and get compensation for his compositions

Overall, I wouldn't say this is a book for a non-musician. There is a lot of technical language in the description of Beethoven's major works (Swafford details all of Beethoven's major works). Swafford does a good job of explaining himself and has a good appendix that gives a little music theory refresher and discussion of forms but I still think it would be confusing to anyone without at least a little music knowledge or at least a good grasp on listening to Beethoven's music. It would be fairly easy to skip the musical analysis (or skim) and read the rest as a biography. That would make it closer to 600 or 700 pages.

I'm glad a took the time to read this even though it was a big commitment. ( )

In the introduction to his biography of the Big B, Swafford says he wishes to avoid the Romanticizing (or Freudianizing) indulged in by other Beethoven biographers. He avoids terms like "genius" and "masterpiece"; he plays down the conventional "three periods" approach to the music; he describes Beethoven's relationship to classical forms as not so much revolutionary as "radically evolutionary" (a phrase he credits to Joseph Kerman). Instead of the Titan shaking his fist at heaven, Swafford's Beethoven is a human being: terrible at relationships, plagued by ill health, living through a whiplash era of revolution and counterrevolution, tirelessly experimenting in musical forms while juggling the demands of aristocratic patrons, music publishers, and an emerging bourgeois audience.

Yet much is familiar here. Last winter I read Maynard Solomon's Beethoven, and Swafford's 1,000 pages added surprisingly little to what I learned from that book. On some very interesting and important subjects (Haydn, aristocratic patronage, the music publishing industry, the renaming of the Bonaparte Symphony) Swafford is surprisingly less informative than Solomon, despite having twice the pages to work with. The growing deafness, the Heiligenstadt Testament, Napoleon: these are related to the music in the usual way. Swafford may eschew the phrase "Heroic Period" but the term he substitutes, the "New Path," is used to signify roughly the same thing. There are, despite the disclaimers, Romantic references to Beethoven's "courage, his defiance of fate" (308). Unlike Solomon, Swafford keeps speculation to a minimum--he does not claim to have solved the mystery of the "Immortal Beloved," for example. But Beethoven came alive in Solomon's biography as he didn't (for me) here.

I think this is in part because Swafford never arrives at a strong point of view on his subject to replace the Romantic or Freudian ones he rejects. He tells the life primarily through the music and the result is rather episodic, as the reader is marched through one opus after another. (While musical examples are provided, the analysis is not such to scare off the casual reader: these are colorfully descriptive rather than analytical. A few works--the Eroica, the Missa Solemnis, the Ninth Symphony, get a more lengthy discussion, and there is more "nitty-gritty" analysis to be found in the hundred pages of footnotes, some of it really insightful--although I found it easy to get lost in them as they are not keyed to page numbers.) One gets the impression, particularly in the second half, that one is reading a series of self-contained program notes linked by the thinnest of connecting tissue. The narrative momentum suffers for this.

I happened upon one factual error: Swafford more than once identifies the key of the Archduke Trio as E-flat major, rather than B-flat major. This is not a misprint, because Swafford makes a point of grouping it with the "Harp" quartet, "Emperor" concerto, and "Lebewohl" sonata as one of Beethoven's major 1809-1811 works composed in E-flat (534). (The key is correctly given as B-flat major on page 1018.)

More problematic is a confusing index, a real concern with a book of this length. An entry for "Piano Sonata in C Minor" (no opus number is provided) leads to pages concerning the Op. 111 sonata, although Beethoven wrote three piano sonatas in that key. The Op. 10/1 C Minor sonata is discussed on 213-214, but does not seem to be indexed. The Op. 13 C Minor sonata is listed under its familiar nickname "Pathetique." Moreover, while the non-nicknamed sonatas (as well as trios and quartets) are indexed by genre, symphonies are not: whose idea was it to enter Symphony No. 9 as "Ninth Symphony" (under N)!? Surely it would have made sense to index the works consistently, preferably by genre, and perhaps grouped under the entry for "Beethoven" as is often done.

If you've never read a Beethoven biography--and have strong forearms-- Swafford's lengthy, meticulous, well-researched biography that attempts to avoid Romantic gloss (but check out that subtitle!) may serve you well. However, those who have already read Solomon's classic biography will not find much new in these 1,000 pages. Solomon's book is still the one I would recommend to someone looking for a biography of this composer. ( )