Johannes Brahms: A Biography
by Jan Swafford
Jan Swafford's biography uniquely merges musical analysis with the life of Johannes Brahms, delving into his symphonies, chamber works, and requiems with fresh insight. It portrays a remarkable artist in an era of change, from his Hamburg roots to Vienna's triumphs and failures, inspiring revolutionaries while foreseeing modern darkness.
About This Book
Unique to this book is the way in which musical scholarship and biography are combined: in a style refreshingly free of pretentiousness, Jan Swafford takes us deep into the music--from the grandeur of the First Symphony and the intricacies of the chamber work to the sorrow of the German Requiem--allowing us to hear these familiar works in new and often surprising ways.
This is a clear-eyed study of a remarkable man and a vivid portrait of an era in transition. Ultimately, Johannes Brahms is the story of a great, backward-looking artist who inspired musical revolutionaries of the following generations, yet who was no less a prophet of the darkness and violence of our century. A biographical masterpiece at once wholly original and definitive.
Among the characters in the book are two great cities: the stolid North German harbor town of Hamburg where Johannes grew up, which later spurned him; and glittering, fickle, music-mad Vienna, where Brahms the self-proclaimed vagabond finally settled, to find his sweetest triumphs and his most bitter failures.
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