Beethoven, Letters, Journals, and Conversations

If you love Beethoven you have to have this book. It gives you a deeper insight into the Master's mind and music, a clearer picture of the whole man.

This book is an excellent way to get to know the real Beethoven, rather than a biographer's possibly biased opinion about him, such as Solomon. The more one looks into Beethoven's life, the more interesting it becomes. He was such a controversial, often misunderstood composer. We often hear of his moodiness, temper, and idiosyncrasies yet this collection of writings and personal remembrances will help you to better understand why he was perceived that way. You sense the utter despondency he experienced as his one gift to the world (his music) became such a challenge for him as his hearing decreased. Hard to pick a favorite remembrance - Probably the friendship that developed between a French speaking messanger and German speaking Beethoven! - Jonna Lambrosa Statt

This is an important read for any Beethoven-head, classical music fan, or music history buff. I'm a fan of primary documentation in general; I would rather read letters, essays, or autobiographies than some scholarly tome. But these letters are very revealing as to Beethoven's character and state of mind. At times they are quite moving, such as Beethoven's letter to his brother where he stated that the only thing that prevented him from killing himself was the knowledge that he still had more music to give to the world. From just about anyone else that would seem like delusional grandiosity, but in Beethoven's case it was true. It brought to mind a comment made by a patient who was opposed to psychiatric medications. He made an argument, a variation of a common one, linking mental illness as the driving force behind creativity: "If Beethoven had been given Prozac, we all would have been robbed of the Eroica." Sounds compelling, but is it true? One thing that can be learned from Beethoven's letters, in combination with other sources, is that he wrote his heaviest, darkest, most brooding works during periods of relative happiness. When he was in the deepest depths of his mood disorder, he wrote light, upbeat music, music that is brilliant in its own way, but not the music people generally picture as Beethovian. Certainly one can speculate as to links between creativity and some forms mental illness, but to equate the two is to marginalize the suffering of true mental illness. Here's what I'm saying: Mental illness is not something to exoticize. It is something to rebel against. Who's to say that Beethoven on Prozac wouldn't have written the same music? Or wouldn't have written different but equally brilliant music? This also begs the question of whether or not a suffering artist really owes the public the products of their creativity, but that's another tangent. You know who I'd like to medicate? Bruckner. How about Bruckner punching up his 7th symphony while on multiple stimulants? That might be interesting. Oops, off-topic again. I recommend this book. If willing to invest the time, one could create an iPod Beethoven playlist that roughly tracks his work chronologically, and then read Beethoven's letters in short bites following along with the music.