Review: Mozart: The Reign of Love

Mozart: The Reign of Love by Jan Swafford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I always enjoy these long, dense biographical books, I often find they get bogged down in detail, or tend to ramble on about something or another. And, not knowing much about Mozart and not being particularly musically inclined, I fully expected the same from this.

But I must say I was happily surprised. This was a pleasure to read, from the surprisingly naughty messages and couplets of his youth (my daughter really enjoyed hearing about these parts) to his trial and travails later on in life. The description of certain operas got into more detail than I could really process, but I did appreciate the analysis of famous operas like the Marriage of Figaro, or how the arias of Queen of the night were written for his sister-in-law. And some of the other characters (yes, including Salieri, but also Lorenzo Da Ponte and others) were fascinating.

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Review: Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph

Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is probably the definitive biography of Beethoven, at least until anything new is uncovered. Many parts went way too much into detail for me, analyzing his pieces of music movement by movement. But the story of his life was at times tragic and depressing, but always fascinating, including the snippets about his mysterious lover.

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