Beethoven: Sein Leben, seine Musik

by Jeremy Siepmann

This is part of a series of musical biographies, written and presented by broadcaster Jeremy Siepmann with Bob Peck as Beethoven. In this four-cassette set, the life and music of the revolutionary composer/pianist is unveiled in considerable detail with many musical examples.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Music, History

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Jeremy Siepmann (16 January 1942 – 6 April 2016), born in America and living in Britain for most of his career, was a broadcaster and writer on music.

Reviews

[Sydney Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Makes a great case for Beethoven. I didn't realize there were so many of his works I don't know in addition to the ones I do. Chopin is still my favorite, but I have new music to explore now and I do recognize the genius.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brief summary of Ludwig's life &analysis of his compositions...if you want a broader perspective of his life, I would suggest reading Jan Swafford's Beethoven book.

[Mark Drinnenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written treatment of Beethoven's life and music. We see the composer's brilliance, and we see things about him that caused some people not to like him. We get an understanding of his gigantic personality and impact upon the development of music. I was particularly interested in how he could be very nonchalant (even to the point of acting superior) toward the royals who helped fund his career.

The book alternates between chapters that are for reading only (like any other book's chapters) and those that focus specifically on describing Beethoven's musical contributions. These music-focus chapters have markers within the text to show the reader which piece of Beethoven's music should be listened to at given points in the text. The music is provided on CDs that come with the book.

The author has designed this work so that those who only want to read Beethoven's story can do so by reading the chapters that do not have accompanying CDs. This is how I read it, and I plan to go back in the future and read the alternating chapters while listening to their corresponding CDs.

Beethoven has been my favorite composer for years, but this book gave me an appreciation for his genius and its place in the advancement of musical composition. And it did so while also giving an honest description of the man himself and the times in which he lived. I recommend it.

[Doreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abwechselnd wird das Leben Beethovens beschrieben, untermauert mit vielen Briefauszügen von ihm selbst oder Wegbegleitern, und die Erläuterung seiner außergewöhnlichen und wichtigsten Werke. Das ganze wird abgerundet durch eine dem Buch beigefügten CD mit 8 Auszügen seiner Kompositionen.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I'd failed to download all the parts to the audiobook, because it ended so abruptly. I was hoping for so much more, but what was there was nice. I loved that the listener gets to hear the compositions they're talking about. I learned a lot about Beethoven, who has always been my favorite classical composer. What remarkable talent and a fascinating, though rather sad life.

[Peter Galamaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are hands down the best audio books I've ever listened to. A detailed and interesting account of the composer's life interspersed with relevant examples of the music. Fantastic!

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reviewing this over a year after I finished it. According to my memory, it was pretty good.

[aloveiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent biography

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixture of appreciation of the music and a light biography. Should read more of Jeremy Siepmann's bios.