Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge

I listened to the 'Hammerklavier' on YouTube with the music appearing in the visual. "Beethoven's impossible piece" was dedicated to his student Prince Rudolf whose health precluded him from actually playing it. In the year of its composition, Beethoven said that he had not known how to compose, but he knew now. 

I was stunned by the music. I studied piano as a girl and have enjoyed playing (badly) for my own enjoyment. I had some idea of what was required to perform it. Few could actually conquer it, Laura Tunbridge writes in her new biography, Beethoven.

I have heard Beethoven in concert many times. I had never heard this piece before and would have remained ignorant if not for Tunbridge including it in her book. It is one of the nine pivotal compositions she uses to tell the story of Beethoven's life.

The composer lived through turbulent times and decades of war. 

The age of reason morphed into the romantic era. Beethoven took music into the sublime and beyond, shocking people with its dissonance and loudness. Some complained that the music was too cerebral, 'elaborate musical puzzles.' 

Through Beethoven's music, Tunbridge presents a complete biography. The familiar questions of the identity of 'The Immortal Beloved' and the changing dedication of the 'Eroica' are discussed, but also the development of the piano and the role of the conductor in his time, self-marketing and sheet music, Beethoven's religious life, and the long custody battle over his nephew. I found it all fascinating, and I felt I had a better grasp of this iconic composer.

I listened to the music as Tunbridge discussed the piece, added so much to my appreciation, doubling my enjoyment of this biography.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces
by Laura Tunbridge
Yale University Press
Pub Date: October 26, 2020  
ISBN: 9780300254587
hardcover $35.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A major new biography published for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, offering a fresh, human portrayal

The iconic image of Beethoven is of him as a lone genius: hair wild, fists clenched, and brow furrowed. Beethoven may well have shaped the music of the future, but he was also a product of his time, influenced by the people, politics, and culture around him. Oxford scholar Laura Tunbridge offers an alternative history of Beethoven’s career, placing his music in contexts that shed light on why particular pieces are valued more than others, and what this tells us about his larger-than-life reputation. 

Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music, and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. We discover, along the way, Beethoven’s unusual marketing strategies, his ambitious concert programming, and how specific performers and instruments influenced his works. 

This book offers new ways to understand Beethoven and why his music continues to be valued today.

About the author

Laura Tunbridge is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford. She is the author of three monographs—Schumann’s Late Style, The Song Cycle, and Singing in the Age of Anxiety—and the recipient of a three-year Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust for a project on string quartets. 

On Hearing Beethoven's Allegretto, First Heard 52 years Ago

"One of the happiest products of my poor talent." Ludwig von Beethoven

Last evening we attended a concert by the Royal Oak Symphony Orchestra, our local community orchestra. The concert included Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, in A Major, Op. 92. The moment the Allegretto began in the second movement I was transported back to over 50 years ago. I was about 10 when my elementary school class went to hear the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra play, and this was one of the pieces performed in the Young People's Concert.

I remember this so clearly because I had recognized the theme and told those around me I had learned the theme on the piano. I have always loved this music. I found a nice article about the Seventh Symphony at this NPR article.

I found the picture postcard of Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY where I heard my first concert.

From their webpage, I learned that the Kleinhans Music Hall opened on October 12, 1940 with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's first concert. The building was designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen to resemble the body of a string instrument. Read more here. It is located on what was originally a park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux in 1868.

The history of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra shows the music director I would have seen was Josef Krips. We moved in June 1963, and I am sure my Fifth Grade class attended the concert.

Farewell letter from music director Krips

I also learned that since their inception in 1935 they held youth concerts with 1,200,000 students having attended!!!

1950 children going to Young Persons Concert at Kleinhans Music Hall

"All tumult, all yearning and storming of the heart, become here the blissful insolence of joy, which carries us away with bacchanalian power through the roomy space of nature, through all the streams and seas of life, shouting in glad self-consciousness as we sound throughout the universe the daring strains of this human sphere-dance. The Symphony is the Apotheosis of the Dance itself: it is Dance in its highest aspect, the loftiest deed of bodily motion, incorporated into an ideal mold of tone." Richard Wagner