false 64005 0 0 344475 0156011719 9780156011716 3 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173914982m/344475.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173914982s/344475.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/344475.Mozart_A_Cultural_Biography 4.00 12 Amadeus will be astonished by the man they meet in this biography by music historian Robert Gutman: "affectionate and generous ... an austere moralist of vital force, incisiveness, and strength of purpose." Without scanting Mozart's often maladroit handling of his patrons or his earthy way with words ("Let the whole company of patricians lick my ass," he declared in a 1777 letter), Gutman portrays a musical genius who slowly and painfully achieved personal maturity as he emerged from the shadow of his domineering father. The rich cultural life of 18th-century Europe forms a vivid background for Mozart's professional and artistic evolution. And Gutman's descriptions of Mozart's work are models of music writing for the lay reader: they capture the brilliance and beauty of the great composer's art in easily accessible language, as in the analysis of The Marriage of Figaro's place in "a new aesthetic of surging movement ... the vocal and orchestral lines twine, separate, and reunite in confrontation, opposition, and accommodation, an ever-changing, effortless interlacing." The prose delineating Mozart's complex personality is just as full-bodied and perceptive. --Wendy Smith ]]> 64005 3.95 20 4 1999 110569 0156776154 9780156776158 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171642135m/110569.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171642135s/110569.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110569.Richard_Wagner_The_Man_His_Mind_and_His_Music 3.67 6 </div>]]> 64005 3.95 20 4 1974