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Title: W.A. Mozart
ISBN: 0300072236
Author:
Hermann Abert
Publicate Date: 2007-11-30
Publish: 2007-11-30
List Price: $55.00
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $32.92
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $26.70
Amazon Merchant Price: $34.65
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Magnificent!
I am someone who considers Mozart to be our "greatest" composer, in fact probably a person surpassed by no other person in creative achievement and whose work comes closest to achieving perfection at the level that nature herself does. Across all the arts. So I was astonished when I learned of the existence of this book. It actually has existed for some time but is only now available in English translation. An excellent translation. Aided further by copious annotations by a contemporary Mozart scholar. I have not read the book in its entirety yet but every part that I have read has been fascinating to read. Never a dull page. A magnificent book!
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2: Wolfgang Mozart Laid bare
This is a serious reference work that comprehensively details Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's life and works, together with the Kochel catalogue, a chronology, a bibliography of other authors' works, and a comprehensive index of significant people, places, and events in Mozart's life. This English-language edition has only been available for about 12 months, and I have found it to be one of the most valuable books in my collection of musical literature. Yes, it's a bit dry in its style, but this is not some fluffy novel. If you present classical music for radio, TV, the internet, or are a teacher, this is a work you should have on your bookshelf.
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3: In two volumes, please!
Great book, have only read a little so far since I am obliged to sit at the table to read it and not in my favorite armchair. It would have been so much simpler to have this published in two volumes. I am prepared to buy it again in order to read it in a more comfortable position. I think I would really enjoy it much more.
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4: The titanic basis for our conception of Mozart
As the centenary of Mozart's birth loomed in 1856, German musicologist Otto Jahn published the first volume of his ground-breaking four volume biography of Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus (Gottlieb) Mozart. Theophilus, meaning 'beloved of God', was changed to its German equivalent, Gottlieb. The names Johann and Chrysostom commemorated the boy's birth on that saint's day. He was born on 27 January 1756 at eight o'clock in the evening. He was the last of seven children: only two of whom, Nannerl, the fourth, and Wolfgang, survived. No one at the time had the slightest foreknowledge of the epochal nature of that birth.
Simultaneous to Jahn's massive undertaking was Ludwig Kochel's similarly path-breaking catalogue of Mozart's works. The two scholars created the historical landscape upon which all subsequent study and knowledge of Mozart's life and works would be based. Jahn's and Kochel's work were as comprehensive and dependable as the then current state of knowledge about Mozart's life and music permitted. In the process, the foundation of a Germanic cultural hero, a Romantic myth, of Mozart, the inestimable, miraculous child genius who created musical masterpieces Jove-like fully formed from his mind, was created. That myth is still with us in books, in concert notes, in recording liner notes, in essays and in films.
Jahn's work was revised several times before Hermann Abert fully reworked it in the post-war years of 1919-1921, taking full advantage of an additional 70 years of research and discovery: in the process modifying Jahn's 19th Century Romantic tone to fit a more modern sensibility. Abert's massive work included everything then known, the most informed and substantial biography of Mozart in any language. It is unquestionably the most comprehensive account of the composer's life and a profound analysis of the composer's work. In Abert's 'book-within-a-book', he scrutinizes the music, with individual chapters on the operas, splendid accounts of the orchestral works, the symphonies and piano concertos, church music and compositions for solo instruments. It is a titanic work that has never been rendered in English until now.
Brilliantly translated by Stewart Spencer, what makes this massive work so impressive is how even Abert's deeply considered words are brought up to date. Recent developments in Mozart scholarship since the last German edition are analyzed by Mozart scholar Cliff Eisen in his meticulous and informative annotations located on every single page. This whole massive undertaking is supported by a coterie of leading Mozart scholars. At the weight of a very healthy baby, this is not a book you will be carrying to your local Starbuck's unless you plan to use it as a portable table. It is, nevertheless, the single most important source on the life of a truly great composer. It is remarkable that it has been unavailable in English. That it now is, and in such a superlative edition, makes its publication the single most important event in English language Mozartean scholarship of this, or perhaps any other, year. This book is not an investment to be made lightly. It probably requires a program of upper arm development (a small lectern might be helpful). But for the committed Mozartean, this mighty volume would make a splendid gift. You will spend the rest of your life absorbed in its 1600 pages. Most strongly recommended.
Mike Birman
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