Does music have charms to soothe the savage beast? Or is there a savage beast in some of the greatest music itself? The biographical movie “Immortal Beloved” takes Ludwig van Beethoven, the matchless ...

Music lovers who are familiar with Jan Swafford’s earlier biographies of Brahms and Charles Ives will need no further incitement to read this mammoth but compelling biography of a composer arguably ...

Inspired by a true story of survival.

“What Beethoven wanted from pianos, as he wanted from everything, was more: more robust build, more fullness of sound, a bigger range of volume, a wider range of notes. As soon as new notes were added ...

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer. As a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all ...

Following Jan Swafford through the thousand-plus pages of his new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven is hardly as exhilarating as listening to the music of the peerless composer. But the stately rhythm ...

Ludwig van Beethoven’s career was and still is boxed into early, middle, and late periods; the last three of his violin-and-piano sonatas, taken together, fairly race through those checkpoints. The ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. I watched Beethoven all the time growing up. Whether it was at home or at a friend's sleepover, I ...