-
Beethoven
- Anguish and Triumph
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 39 hrs and 7 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $45.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Symphonies of Beethoven
- By: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Robert Greenberg
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ludwig van Beethoven is justifiably acclaimed as one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music-a genius once characterized as a "Titan, wrestling with the gods." There is no better way for you to understand the full impact of that description than to not only listen to all nine of his magnificent symphonies, but to do so with a full understanding of what this great composer was saying and the circumstances that drove him up to and beyond what had once been considered the limits of musical expression.
-
-
A Great Course with a Great Caveat
- By Eloquent on 01-13-14
By: Robert Greenberg, and others
-
Mozart
- The Reign of Love
- By: Jan Swafford
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 30 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: A man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself.
-
-
Too many words
- By James Messelbeck on 01-12-21
By: Jan Swafford
-
Johann Sebastian Bach
- The Learned Musician
- By: Christoph Wolff
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era. This engaging new biography portrays Bach as the living, breathing, and sometimes imperfect human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances of the last half-century of Bach scholarship.
-
-
Has all the boring details...
- By L. Jensen on 05-14-19
By: Christoph Wolff
-
Language of the Spirit
- An Introduction to Classical Music
- By: Jan Swafford
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Language of the Spirit, renowned music scholar Jan Swafford argues that we have it all wrong: classical music has something for everyone and is accessible to all. Ranging from Gregorian chant to Handel's Messiah, from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons to the postmodern work of Philip Glass, Swafford is an affable and expert guide to the genre. He traces the history of Western music, introduces listeners to the most important composers and compositions, and explains the underlying structure and logic of their music.
-
-
Great intro to various important composers & works
- By Jay G on 06-14-18
By: Jan Swafford
-
Fryderyk Chopin
- A Life and Times
- By: Dr. Alan Walker
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 23 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on 10 years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker's monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker's work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin.
-
-
This book is a masterpiece
- By Carpe Diem on 02-09-19
By: Dr. Alan Walker
-
Wagnerism
- Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Alex Ross
- Length: 28 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic and author of the international best seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics - an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.
-
-
Not Just for Wagner Experts!
- By Rupert Pupkin on 09-26-20
By: Alex Ross
-
The Symphonies of Beethoven
- By: Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Robert Greenberg
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ludwig van Beethoven is justifiably acclaimed as one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music-a genius once characterized as a "Titan, wrestling with the gods." There is no better way for you to understand the full impact of that description than to not only listen to all nine of his magnificent symphonies, but to do so with a full understanding of what this great composer was saying and the circumstances that drove him up to and beyond what had once been considered the limits of musical expression.
-
-
A Great Course with a Great Caveat
- By Eloquent on 01-13-14
By: Robert Greenberg, and others
-
Mozart
- The Reign of Love
- By: Jan Swafford
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 30 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: A man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself.
-
-
Too many words
- By James Messelbeck on 01-12-21
By: Jan Swafford
-
Johann Sebastian Bach
- The Learned Musician
- By: Christoph Wolff
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era. This engaging new biography portrays Bach as the living, breathing, and sometimes imperfect human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances of the last half-century of Bach scholarship.
-
-
Has all the boring details...
- By L. Jensen on 05-14-19
By: Christoph Wolff
-
Language of the Spirit
- An Introduction to Classical Music
- By: Jan Swafford
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Language of the Spirit, renowned music scholar Jan Swafford argues that we have it all wrong: classical music has something for everyone and is accessible to all. Ranging from Gregorian chant to Handel's Messiah, from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons to the postmodern work of Philip Glass, Swafford is an affable and expert guide to the genre. He traces the history of Western music, introduces listeners to the most important composers and compositions, and explains the underlying structure and logic of their music.
-
-
Great intro to various important composers & works
- By Jay G on 06-14-18
By: Jan Swafford
-
Fryderyk Chopin
- A Life and Times
- By: Dr. Alan Walker
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 23 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on 10 years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker's monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker's work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin.
-
-
This book is a masterpiece
- By Carpe Diem on 02-09-19
By: Dr. Alan Walker
-
Wagnerism
- Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Alex Ross
- Length: 28 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic and author of the international best seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics - an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.
-
-
Not Just for Wagner Experts!
- By Rupert Pupkin on 09-26-20
By: Alex Ross
-
Leonardo da Vinci
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Alfred Molina
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leonardo da Vinci created the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and engineering. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry.
-
-
Wish the sample was not from the preface!
- By Chris M. on 11-13-17
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The Life and Works of Tchaikovsky
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Malcolm Sinclair, Karen Archer, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers of all time. His melodies are known to many people who may never have heard his name. They crop up on mobile telephones, alarm clocks and answering machines as often as on records and concert programs. Like his music, the man himself was widely loved, but his inner life was fraught with sufferings, confusions and a deep vein of self-doubt. The drama of his emotional life is vividly reflected in his music, letters and diaries, all of which play a major part in this intimate portrait-in-sound.
-
-
Comprehensive and Concise
- By Cristina on 01-05-14
By: Jeremy Siepmann
-
Van Gogh
- The Life
- By: Steven Naifeh, Gregory White Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 44 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials. While drawing liberally from the artist's famously eloquent letters, they have also delved into hundreds of unpublished family correspondences, illuminating with poignancy the wanderings of Van Gogh's troubled, restless soul. Naifeh and Smith bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist.
-
-
Empathy for a True Artist
- By Sojourning Hope on 05-04-21
By: Steven Naifeh, and others
-
Life & Works - Franz Schubert
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Tom George, Peter Yapp, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of Franz Schubert has been a gift to romantically inclined biographers: the beautiful, brilliant, modest boy who sprang to fully fledged genius at the age of sixteen; the quintessential ‘artist in a garret’, entirely consumed by his art and living a hand-to-mouth existence in Vienna (home of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven); the gentle, cheerful, convivial young man who prized friendship almost as highly as music itself; the unworldly poet from whom great music poured like water from a fountain; the unrecognized master who died almost penniless at the age of 31.
-
-
An Informative Look at Franz Schubert, the Heir to Beethoven's Musical Legacy
- By Margaret on 07-06-18
By: Jeremy Siepmann
-
Life & Works - Johannes Brahms
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Jasper Britton, Karen Archer, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brahms is one of the best loved yet most controversial of all the Romantics. Almost uniquely, his works have never suffered the slightest period of eclipse. Profoundly emotional yet governed by an iron discipline, the music, like the man, is a fascinating, entertaining, often deeply moving blend of opposites. He had a gift for friendship and a capacity for love far beyond the ordinary, yet no man could be ruder or more hurtful.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Yvonne Angel on 11-03-21
By: Jeremy Siepmann
-
Schumann
- The Faces and the Masks
- By: Judith Chernaik
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Judith Chernaik
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on previously unpublished sources, this groundbreaking biography of Robert Schumann sheds new light on the great composer’s life and work. With the rigorous research of a scholar and the eloquent prose of a novelist, Judith Chernaik takes us into Schumann’s 19th-century Romantic milieu, where he wore many “masks” that gave voice to each corner of his soul.
By: Judith Chernaik
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
-
Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: You thought he was a stodgy scientist with funny hair, but Isaacson and Hermann reveal an eloquent, intense, and selfless human being who not only shaped science with his theories, but politics and world events in the 20th century as well. Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos.
-
-
This is the kind of book that deserves a Pulitzer
- By Amazon Customer on 05-08-07
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Life & Works - Antonin Dvorak
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann, Sean Barrett, Jonathan Keeble, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the best-loved composers of all time, Dvorák rose from rural origins to become not only a great but an influential composer. The first composer to put his native Bohemia on the musical map of the world, he was invited to do the same for America. One result was the famous "New World" Symphony, which made him a household name across the globe. Writing music of irresistible color, lilt and peasant vitality, he was also a melodist-in-a-million. This portrait-in-sound follows a lovable and in many ways a very simple, man from hay cart to imperial palace, from tragic loss to heart-warming joy, to pigeon-raising and world celebrity.
-
-
Serviceable, lightweight bio with music
- By Bonny on 07-05-14
By: Jeremy Siepmann
-
Joseph Haydn
- His Life and Works
- By: Jeremy Siepmann
- Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Symphonies, quartets, concertos and keyboard works poured from the pen of Joseph Haydn, making him one of the most important figures in classical music. Jeremy Siepmann tells the story of the man and his work in this lively autobiography, enhanced by numerous examples of the music itself, taken from the Naxos catalogue. There is no better programme with which to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer's death.
-
-
Great history of Haydn
- By Kip on 07-16-09
By: Jeremy Siepmann
-
Thelonious Monk
- The Life and Times of an American Original
- By: Robin DG Kelley
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 25 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.
-
-
The definitive bio of Monk
- By ricardo on 12-27-17
By: Robin DG Kelley
-
The Pope at War
- The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler
- By: David I. Kertzer
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his papers were sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives, leaving unanswered questions about what he knew and did during World War II. Those questions have only grown and festered, making Pius XII one of the most controversial popes in Church history, especially now as the Vatican prepares to canonize him.
-
-
Wow!
- By Swerdnabrab on 07-02-22
By: David I. Kertzer
Publisher's Summary
Jan Swafford's biographies have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the world's most iconic music.
Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Enlightenment-era Bonn, where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the ideas that would shape all of his future work. Swafford then tracks his subject to Vienna, capital of European music, where Beethoven built his career in the face of critical incomprehension, crippling ill health, romantic rejection, and "fate's hammer," his ever-encroaching deafness.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about Beethoven
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DMgraphicGlass
- 01-20-15
Huge book - musical reader appreciates best
This is an exhaustive book. Not being a trained musician, I found it a little hard to follow some off the discussions of music theory. And because the author often quoted from contemporary sources certain aspects of the composer's life seems to be duplicated. I found that by printing a list of Beethoven compositions and having that available as I listened, I was able to place my favorites in context. It's hard to imagine a more complete version of a person's life from that period. A fine story well told. Had I been more musical I would have rated it much higher.
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joe Schmoe
- 02-17-16
Very Detailed Biography
What did you like best about this story?
The level of details available about his daily life. Letters and manuscripts (many records kept due to conversations written down because of his deafness).
Any additional comments?
I read other reviews that complained about too much musical composition details. I thought that I would still enjoy that part but found myself eventually skipping through those parts as they could only be enjoyed by another composer. I still enjoyed the book and learned much about Beethoven's life which is what I was hoping to learn.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Barry Katz
- 04-02-19
Great book. Terrible narration.
Very poor choice of reader for this book. The voice and affect of the performer are really spoiling it for me. Much as I want to read this, I'm not sure I can take 39 hours of this narrator's voice.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RFC
- 03-11-19
Listen to Sample Prior to Purchase
Nice content, but I did not like reader's voice - sounded like an announcer on a police TV story from the 1970s.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- WB
- 03-29-20
Excellent book, terrible audio book
This is probably one of the worst audio books I've ever encountered. The voice of the narrator is unpleasant, and he reads in a mechanical, detached way as if he doesn't understand or doesn't care about what he's reading. The tone and cadence are like a bad imitation of the news reels one saw in movie theaters in the 1960s. I have been unable to listen to more than 5 minutes of narration at a time and have now given up on it completely. For the sake of this excellent book, please redo the narration with a more engaged, more vibrant person. Or go all Victorian as Swafford describes Thayer's monumental biography of Beethoven and get a Brit to do the reading.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jonathan R. Zeko
- 03-08-16
Wonderful Biography of A Supreme Artist
Would you listen to Beethoven again? Why?
Yes. You cannot separate the music from the person. The author told the story of Beethoven and wove in the analysis of his music synchronized with his life.
What other book might you compare Beethoven to and why?
There are other masterpiece books about Beethoven, but this one gave the most expert analysis of the music.
Which scene was your favorite?
Beethoven's writing the Heiligenstadt Testament and his death bed.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
No film could do justice to such a person.
Any additional comments?
Mr. Pritchard is an experienced and excellent narrator. His narration was wonderful, except he mispronounced "Pianoforte" 100s of times.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- horoscopy
- 06-27-15
Audio Books Can Hardly Get Any Better than This!
Would you consider the audio edition of Beethoven to be better than the print version?
extremely good , well researched content on life of Beethoven. Very well written and as well very well narrated!
What was one of the most memorable moments of Beethoven?
so many!
Have you listened to any of Michael Prichard’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
no..but very much liked it. (first "American" narrator I have listened to in which I really did like the tone or style of "Accent" and narration)
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
several.
Any additional comments?
highly recommend!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Curt
- 12-09-15
Enjoyable, engrossing.
Would you consider the audio edition of Beethoven to be better than the print version?
This is a wonderfully in depth examination of Beethoven's life and his times. My only complaint is the occasional mispronunciation.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Although impossible, yes.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. Wachs
- 06-18-20
Very detailed, but.....
Way too much time was spent on the verbal detailing of individual works. I would far more prefer to listen to the works themselves than get one persons descriptive take on them. However, the information about the historical period and Beethoven's peculiarities and character traits, was good. The detailing of personal events involving Beethoven the composer and Beethoven the man, were also good. There is a very obvious "bent" in the author's account. BUT, there would be a very obvious "bent" if I wrote about Beethoven too.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Daniel
- 05-27-18
Worth the Time
I’m not knowledgeable about music, but this book keep me coming back. Interesting, engaging and informative. It was superbly performed.
1 person found this helpful