This is a long book – 636 pages of text in small font plus a lengthy introduction. Except for the first 15-20 years of Brahms’s life and the last few years, we get to know Brahms often month-by-month (sometimes week-by-week) with rarely more than a three month hiatus in the narrative. But the book is also immensely enjoyable to read. Swafford manages to convey this massive amount of information in a well-written easy-to-follow form with numerous double-spaced breaks within each chapter. It is an easy book to return to after a break in reading and, what’s more important, it’s a book to which you want to return.
One of the advantages of this detail is that we get to experience the depth of the long-term relationship between Brahms and Clara Schumann. Swafford uses the letters of Brahms and Clara extensively and it would be hard to find a biography of any major historical figure that gives a more poignant and powerful portrait of a long-term loving relationship. As Brahms himself said near the end of his bachelor life, Clara was his only real friend. He had many other people who would normally be counted as friends, e.g., Josef Joachim and Theodor Billroth, whom he knew for decades but with whom he eventually broke. Clara was unique. Swafford details their caring and often tumultuous relationship and how the two of them, after even some serious disagreements, always came back to each other.
Swafford also goes into some detail about several of Brahms’s works as they appeared throughout his life including his four symphonies. Readers with some musical background will find these enlightening. But for readers simply interested in the history of Western music the book is a gold mine about Brahms’s creative process, how his personal life was entangled with his composing, and how Brahms fit into the “War of the Romantics” in 19th century music. The book chronicles from Brahms’s point of view the 19th century development of and (as Brahms himself put it) the decline of the long Western musical tradition. It gives much food for thought whether one agrees with Brahms or not.
If the reader has the time to invest in this lengthy biography, he or she will find it a worthwhile and rewarding experience.
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Top reviews from other countries
Dickoo nowroji
Important: quality of product low
Reviewed in India on March 10, 2024Mark Hayward
Admirable biography
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2023
