Award-Winning Beethoven Biography Available at Four Seasons Books

Friends of Music have ordered the famous, out-of-print biography Beethoven, by Maynard Solomon and it is now available at Four Seasons Books. The paperback book is priced at $9.00 and Members can receive a 15% discount on the price by showing their membership cards.

Of interest is that Solomon was one of the founders of Vanguard records, which propelled the folk and rock artists in the 1950’s and 60’s, including Joan Baez. He signed Paul Robeson for the Vanguard label at the height of the McCarthy era. Later he began a second career as a musicologist and author, publishing major works on both Mozart and Beethoven.

Solomon’s Beethoven, originally published in 1977, won the ASCAP—Deems Taylor Award for Best Music Book when it was released. The book generally follows Beethoven’s life chronologically and offers a Selective Bibliography and Index of Compositions at the back.

Soloman has some interesting observations about Beethoven’s First Symphony, a work to be performed by the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra on November 7, 2015. The First was scored for the standard orchestra used by Haydn and Mozart, whose last efforts in the form were only a decade or so earlier. It was one of Beethoven’s most popular symphonies during his lifetime, but was not regarded as an imitative work, particularly because of the “off-key” opening and the “striking use of the timpani.”

Completed in 1800, the First received a warm reception in most of Europe and England in particular. But the French were not favorably impressed with Beethoven’s music. He remarked that “the French find my music beyond their power of performance.” This is ironic because it has been shown that Beethoven adopted aspects of French Revolutionary music in the First, as well as other early compositions. Concert goers will be certain to enjoy the performance of the First Symphony on November 7 at Trinity Episcopal Church.