In Beethoven's Century: Essays on Composers and Themes, world-renowned musicologist Hugh Macdonald draws together many of his richest essays on music from Beethoven's time into the early twentieth century. The essays are here revised and updated, and some are printed in English for the first time.
Beethoven's Century addresses perennial questions of what music meant to the composer and his audiences, how it was intended to be played, and how today's audiences can usefully approach it.
Opening with a revealing analysis of Beethoven's not always generous regard for his listeners, the essays probe aspects of Schubert's musical personality, the brief friendship between Berlioz and Schumann, Liszt's abilities as a conductor, and Viennese views of Wagner as expressed by Hugo Wolf.
Essays on comic opera and trends in French opera librettos in the late nineteenth century reflect the author's long-standing sympathy for French music, and strikingly eccentric personalities in the world of music, such as Paganini, Alkan, Skryabin, and Janácek, are brought to life.
Beethoven's Century concludes with a wry look at some startling developments in early twentieth-century music that have often been overlooked.
Hugh Macdonald has taught music at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Glasgow, and since 1987 has been Avis H. Blewett Distinguished Professor of Music at Washington University, St. Louis. He has written books on Skryabin and Berlioz, and is a regular pre-concert speaker for the Boston and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras.
Reviews
The essays are each like a rich dessert and perhaps should not be all consumed at once. --NINETEENTH CENTURY MUSIC [Christa Pehl]These are gems in the genre of the literary-musicological essays. . . . Macdonald's wit emerges frequently in this volume. . . . I learned a great deal, and my attention and interest never wavered. A must read for anyone interested in modern French music and musical life. --H-FRANCE [Glenn Stanley]. Read the full review at http://www.h-france.net/vol9reviews/vol9no120stanley.pdf
Gems -- sometimes irreverent, always profound -- from one of the masters in our field. --Michael Beckerman, Professor and Chair of Music, New York University
Few writers today can match Hugh Macdonald's breadth and depth of scope. The essays in Beethoven's Century are often cast in the civilized, liberal traditions of the era that they describe. The writing is varied in texture and nourished by fascinating factual details. Macdonald urges us to think afresh, to go against the grain, to take the broader sweep. This book provides answers to questions you knew should be asked but never had the time (or the courage) to pursue. --David Charlton, Professor Emeritus of Music History, Royal Holloway, University of London
Macdonald's curiosity is boundless...and he satisfies it with unfailing scholarship and wit....He gives the most thorough account yet of Hugo Wolf's complicated critical attitude to Wagner in a musically complicated Vienna...Depth of thought and high critical intelligence...mark all these essays, and make them an invigorating read. Raise your glass to Hugh Macdonald! --OPERA [John Warrack]
The considered judgement of a receptive and immensely well-informed observer of the Western musical landscape of the past two centuries. --Times Literary Supplement [Leon Plantinga]
