Rating: 
Summary: The Wisdom Of Solomon
Review: If you have ever read Maynard Solomon's biographies of Mozart and Beethoven, and enjoyed them, you will definitely like Swafford's biography of Brahm's. The styles have a lot in common. Both authors write mostly with the lay reader in mind, so even someone like me who doesn't have any background in music can still enjoy the books. Both authors are interested in psychological reasons for behavior and, in my opinion, make convincing arguments concerning certain personality traits of these great musicians. However, both authors are also aware that some of the people that read these books are knowledgeable about music, so there are brief sections that get into technical analysis of the music. Solomon did this by including short chapters scattered throughout his book, devoted solely to musical analysis. Swafford chose to incorporate his musical analysis within the general flow of the book, a few paragraphs at a time. As a lay reader, I liked Swafford's approach better. Since I pretty much didn't understand the technical aspects, it was less boring to have this stuff just a little bit at a time! Swafford's book has two great strengths, besides the fact that he writes beautifully. He goes into detail concerning Brahms relationship with Clara Schumann, a friendship which lasted for approximately 40 years. The second strength is that piece by piece he builds up a picture of Brahms the man so that by the end of the book you will feel that you knew Brahms. The picture is well-rounded, too. Brahms could be rude and arrogant but he also could be sensitive and humble and generous. He also had a tremendous sense of humor. He was very witty, both in his conversation and in his correspondence. He was also a great practical joker. Swafford relates a story about the time Brahms went to lunch with a friend, who happened to be a Beethoven scholar. Brahms, before the lunch, had taken a popular song of the day and written it out in musical notation, but he did this imitating Beethoven's handwriting. He made arrangements for the fellow that waited on them in the restaurant to wrap up the scholar's takeout lunch in the "Beethoven" score. Brahms was quite amused when he saw the expression on his friend's face as he unwrapped his lunch and without saying a word, carefully folded up the score and just put it in his pocket. He probably thought he had made a great discovery until he got the score home and actually got to read the music! This was easily one of the best books I read last year and I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who loves good biography, even if you don't know anything about music!
Rating:
Summary: The window forced open on a consciously private genius.
Review: Since Brahims himself did not understand his genius--how could others? By adroit reading between the lines, Jan Swafford understands this man. He understands him as a mystery--as a conflicted visionary--as a intellectual titan. A noble effort, displaying insight into both the man and those who surround him. In some ways, equally telling of Robert and Clara Schumann as of the protagonist. A marvelous biography. Put on Ein Deutsche Requiem and marvel at the dying and rising, both in the text and in the sound.
Rating: 
Summary: Swafford's Brahms Ignores Recent Scholarship
Review: Swafford's Brahms biography is certainly readable, and the author displays great sympathy with his subject. The problem with this book is that the author perpetuates-- even exaggerates-- a picture of Brahms that is now under serious revision. I don't know if Swafford is entirely to blame, as it is difficult to know to which documents he had access at the time of his writing. But recent work by Kurt Hoffman, and Styra Avin's edition of Brahms's letters show that the usual conception of Brahms's childhood as poverty-stricken and neglected is very inaccurate; and Swafford takes off from this picture of a pitiful childhood as a central principle in Brahms's life, relationships, etc. Hoffman has shown that Brahms could not have played the piano in brothels as a boy, yet Swafford paints us a lugubrious picture of young Brahms possibly suffering sexual trauma at the hands of both the prostitutes and their patrons. Avins's translations of Brahms's letters show us that Brahms had a warm and affectionate relationship with his parents, who did depend upon him to augment the family income, but knew when enough was enough for the boy, and did their best to give him a good education, plenty of diversion and rest. Avins's book has an illustration of Brahms's exquisite handwriting at age nine, which clearly shows that he had been meticulously schooled. Swafford's book is clearly a labor of great love, but _caveat emptor_.
Rating: 
Summary: A rich, readable portrait of a difficult man
Review: The secretive Brahms is notoriously hard to biographize; Swafford does it splendidly, with a musician's feel for the work as well as a biographer's feel for the man. He is a clear, honest writer, who at times rises to poignance, and he never overwhelms with detail. Above all he manages to retain critical distance from his difficult subject while admiring him and loving his music. To bad he didn't omit the discursive epilogue.Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Brahms to the life
Review: This book brings the persona of Johannes Brahms to life for me for the first time. I have read every other biography of this composer that is in English and this one does indeed give the reader a living, breathing portrait of this artist.This is difficult to achieve because Brahms made every effort to control his public image, destroying most of his personal papers and manuscripts, asking his friends to return his letters to them so he could destroy those he did not wish to leave behind.. The book achieves the same for Clara Schumann as well: she emerges as a glowing though troubled individual.. The book is flawed, however. It is not very well written and is a challenge to read.. Unfortunately, too, it reads as if it were written decades ago.. For one thing, the author writes as if he assumes his reader is male and heterosexual, which most contemporary writers are now careful not to do. I find this very annoying and condescending. For another, the author makes no real effort to understand the underlying psychological reasons for Brahms' lonely life. He misses the "clues" that most people cannot help but leave behind no matter how they try to control their image. Brahms' troubled sexuality is barely looked at, almost as if looking at it too closely would make the author uncomfortable. The book is worth reading however, for the insights it does provide to the life of this composer.
Rating:
Summary: The best classical music book I have ever read!
Review: This book is so easy and fun to read! A shear joy! There is so much detail and great stories in this book. Stuff we have never seen before. Anyone who likes this book should also read J.D. Landis' LONGING.
Rating:
Summary: The best classical music book I have ever read!
Review: This book is so easy and fun to read! A shear joy! There is so much detail and great stories in this book. Stuff we have never seen before. Anyone who likes this book should also read J.D. Landis' LONGING.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant life of Brahms
Review: This is a brilliant biography. It is well-written and engaging from first to last. It gives a well-rounded picture of a complex and difficult subject -- difficult because the secretive Brahms systematically destroyed a great deal of the evidence that biographers might otherwise have used to tell the story of his life. Swafford can perhaps be taken to task for his failure to acknowledge the recent research that casts doubt upon Brahms' alleged employment in brothels as a very young man. Swafford uncritically accepts the account of Max Kalbeck, an early biographer who knew Brahms. Kalbeck's source, so he said, was Brahms himself. Kalbeck cannot and should not be taken at face value -- nor was Brahms himself incapable of embellishing a good story. The recent research to which the previous reviewer refers casts doubt Kalbeck's account, but to say "that Brahms could not have played the piano in brothels as a boy" is overstating the case, going well beyond the available evidence (as Avins does also in her book). We simply do not know the truth, and probably never will. The previous reviewer also errs when he says that Swafford "takes off from this picture of a pitiful childhood as a central principle in Brahms's life, relationships, etc." Swafford does not paint Brahms' childhood as "pitiful." He makes clear the love and affection that both of his parents lavished on him and details the educational opportunities that they provided him, in spite of the fact that they were working class people. Brahms' affection for both his parents lasted until their deaths, as Swafford makes clear. Swafford does use the supposed early brothel experiences to explain (in part) Brahms' inability to form a lasting romantic relationship, and in this analysis he may be relying upon events that did not occur. Swafford makes at least one minor error in his musical analysis. In his discussion of the First Symphony's finale, he says that the trombones make their initial entrance when they blare forth the chorale theme (i.e., at measure 47). They actually enter earlier, as part of the accompaniment to the first statement of the alphorn theme, at measure 30. These are nits that do not detract from a fine work. If you have any interest at all in Brahms or in his music, you will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional and insightful
Review: This is perhaps the finest biography that I have ever read. It evokes so well the atmosphere of Hamburg in Brahms' youth (which added to what I had read of an earlier period in 'Anton Rieser' by Moritz) and later of Vienna. It has so many friends - other composers and musicians, and then there are the pieces of music that are so familiar to modern music lovers - the serenades, the symphonies, the Requiem, the songs and chamber music, the concertos. Any sense I had that Brahms was less productive than the great giants he saw looming behind him - Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert - was altered when I read that he had destroyed many of the works he was dissatisfied with, as well as a lot of biographical material, such as letters. Fortunately some resources remain and Mr Swafford uses these continuously. Brahms was a man as well as a composer/musician and I greatly admired the gentle way Mr Swafford narrated the story of the relationship of Brahms to the women he was so attracted to, but kept at arms length - especially, of course, and tragically Clara Schumann. For me there was a secondary biography here - that of Clara Schumann. She was such a courageous woman to sustain the friendship and the stream of musical advice that Brahms so needed, after Brahms had rejected following the death of Robert Schumann. In my experience, few women are capable of sustaining such a friendship in the face of their own emotional disappointment. Mr Swafford describes Brahms' behaviour without any hint of criticism or speculation - the facts speak sufficiently for themselves. Another aspect of this biography is the explanation of the schism in music caused (precipitated?) by Beethoven's musical experiments - a symphony with a program (the 'Pastoral') and one with words (the 'Choral'). Berlioz took Beethoven's lead and wrote an especially influential programmatic symphony (the 'Fantastique') as well as less successful symphonies with vocal elements (such as 'Romeo and Juliet'). This was taken on enthusiastically as the new wave - emotional rather than academic music. Liszt and Wagner were the great leaders in Germany of this modern school. In the meantime there was a reargaurd action lead by Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann to try and retain the historic development of music and reject radical change (Mendelssohn's revival of interest in the music of JS Bach is an example of this). Brahms arrived in this schism and was immediately championed as the future of music by Robert Schumann - was this the cause of Brahms' rejection of women - a sense of duty to Schumann's prediction? Like all biographies that are chronologically described there is always a deep sense of sadness as we read of the end of life. But after the gruelling and sad description of Brahms later life and death, Mr Swafford ends the biography with an essay that explores Brahms place in history and explores why we still enjoy the music despite the general decline in musical appreciation that Brahms could see coming. Was Brahms the end of the historic development line in music? Did Liszt, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Struass win the battle of the schism? It seems that Brahms' music was fostered by his political wisdom (despite some personal abrasiveness), but if that were the case the music would have disappeared along with that of all the composers Brahms admired (with the exception of Dvorak). But there is another school of music - that of Scheonberg, a composer whom I have grown to admire recently more than I would have expected twenty years ago. But Brahms and Schoenberg? It's an interesting speculation and Mr Swafford does reflect on it with an insight that adds measurably to the biography.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional and insightful
Review: This is perhaps the finest biography that I have ever read. It evokes so well the atmosphere of Hamburg in Brahms' youth (which added to what I had read of an earlier period in 'Anton Rieser' by Moritz) and later of Vienna. It has so many friends - other composers and musicians, and then there are the pieces of music that are so familiar to modern music lovers - the serenades, the symphonies, the Requiem, the songs and chamber music, the concertos. Any sense I had that Brahms was less productive than the great giants he saw looming behind him - Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert - was altered when I read that he had destroyed many of the works he was dissatisfied with, as well as a lot of biographical material, such as letters. Fortunately some resources remain and Mr Swafford uses these continuously. Brahms was a man as well as a composer/musician and I greatly admired the gentle way Mr Swafford narrated the story of the relationship of Brahms to the women he was so attracted to, but kept at arms length - especially, of course, and tragically Clara Schumann. For me there was a secondary biography here - that of Clara Schumann. She was such a courageous woman to sustain the friendship and the stream of musical advice that Brahms so needed, after Brahms had rejected following the death of Robert Schumann. In my experience, few women are capable of sustaining such a friendship in the face of their own emotional disappointment. Mr Swafford describes Brahms' behaviour without any hint of criticism or speculation - the facts speak sufficiently for themselves. Another aspect of this biography is the explanation of the schism in music caused (precipitated?) by Beethoven's musical experiments - a symphony with a program (the 'Pastoral') and one with words (the 'Choral'). Berlioz took Beethoven's lead and wrote an especially influential programmatic symphony (the 'Fantastique') as well as less successful symphonies with vocal elements (such as 'Romeo and Juliet'). This was taken on enthusiastically as the new wave - emotional rather than academic music. Liszt and Wagner were the great leaders in Germany of this modern school. In the meantime there was a reargaurd action lead by Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann to try and retain the historic development of music and reject radical change (Mendelssohn's revival of interest in the music of JS Bach is an example of this). Brahms arrived in this schism and was immediately championed as the future of music by Robert Schumann - was this the cause of Brahms' rejection of women - a sense of duty to Schumann's prediction? Like all biographies that are chronologically described there is always a deep sense of sadness as we read of the end of life. But after the gruelling and sad description of Brahms later life and death, Mr Swafford ends the biography with an essay that explores Brahms place in history and explores why we still enjoy the music despite the general decline in musical appreciation that Brahms could see coming. Was Brahms the end of the historic development line in music? Did Liszt, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Struass win the battle of the schism? It seems that Brahms' music was fostered by his political wisdom (despite some personal abrasiveness), but if that were the case the music would have disappeared along with that of all the composers Brahms admired (with the exception of Dvorak). But there is another school of music - that of Scheonberg, a composer whom I have grown to admire recently more than I would have expected twenty years ago. But Brahms and Schoenberg? It's an interesting speculation and Mr Swafford does reflect on it with an insight that adds measurably to the biography.
|
