Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Mozart: A Life
Book Review: Serious and thoughtful
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I give this book five stars, I recommend it only to certain readers. If you
--already love Mozart's music
--have read a certain amount of Mozart biography before (like liner notes on CDs)
--yearn to know more, and
--are willing to read patiently
then this is the book for you.
Solomon is a true scholar who has studied all of the old letters and documents with care. When he addresses aspects of Mozart's life that are encrusted with mythology (Did Mozart think he was writing his Requiem for himself? Was he vulgar? Did he almost starve?), he gives you a solid answer by including quotations from the original sources. In cases where the sources conflict, he lets you know this and doesn't try to pretend that the facts are known. Solomon is also quite unsentimental and doesn't let what we'd *like* to believe influence his presentation.
More controversially, Solomon thoroughly explores Mozart's thoughts, motivations, and relationships, along with those of his close relatives. This can be gripping. I am particularly taken with Solomon's portrayal of Mozart's father Leopold, a complex and difficult personality.
Occasionally, the psychologizing becomes too much for me. For instance, I'm not very enthusiastic about Solomon's idea that the substitution of "Adam" for "Amadé" on Mozart's marriage certificate was deliberate. But following Solomon out on these too-long limbs is a small price to pay when the book as a whole is so insightful.
Book Review: A masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very detailed account of the life of this great composer. At times with some insight into the psyche of Mozart. The timeline of his life is analysed and this is all in the context of his music. The letters of Mozarts have a prominant role in this book. This book even surpasses the author's wonderful biography of Beethoven.Book Review: Enjoyable to read....
Summary: 4 Stars
Mozart's financials were now up now down, and this also reflects the vicissitudes attendant on the way this great musician genius was living.
Indeed Constanze was the inadvertent witness of his financial engagements and, being so keen on money, she brought about a gloomy catalogues of his Balance Sheet (so to speak) so that his heirs would not have greedy `appetite' after him.
Mozart's personal letters to his cousin (before he married Constanze) are full of frivolity, vivacity, and written in unorthodox language, in their contents, using `flagrant' terms and words befitting a merry teenager full of gaiety and high spirits. Mozart's soulful personality, for instance, didn't know the pressures of antagonisms from anyone, including Saliere.
Mozart always had a personal touch of sincere friendliness to clear away any lingering misunderstanding with the Royal court (The marriage of Figaro)
There have been awful lot of exaggerations in the movies and in the literatures written about Mozart, which made us wonder what was true vs. dramatized.
It is a documented fact, though, that Mozart (and his friend Haydn) found great personal diversion in the Masonic Lodges of Vienna.
Mozart's first complete musical contribution honouring the `Lodge' with Masonic themes and allegory was his `Die Zauberflote'- The magic Flute, music and libretto of devoted love and unique delight.
At the Lodge, some of the lectures also spoke of the meaning of `death'. Should it be feared? Should it be regarded `friendly' as the secession of all mundane excessive endurance to quietness, self-relief and freedom of the soul? Mozart composed the `Requiem' of music combining `happiness' and `acceptance' of the inevitable as `duty' and `obligation', not of fear.
Book Review: "An Accountant's Dream" or "Mozart on the Couch"
Summary: 2 Stars
I read up to chapter twenty (about 300 pages) and stopped reading the book, realizing I had more important things to read. My major complaints are (1) that there is too much discussion of the Mozart family finances, which I'm sure would be fascinating to economists and accountants, however tedious to someone concerned about music; and (2) too much retroactive Freudian analysis of the subject, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Think about this: Solomon uses an obsolete, and now debunked, system of psychoanalysis to describe a subject that cannot be interviewed. The best discussion of music is concerning the Salzburg serenade style in chapter eight. Other than that brief section (pp. 125-133), I was not impressed. Short of reading Mozart's letters and making your own analysis, I recommend Stanley Sadie's "Mozart: The Early Years, 1756-1781" for starters. Book Review: A Must Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
A bit on the dry side but so well written and researched that this is the best book on Mozart at present.