Available Formats
Mozart: The Reign of Love
By (Author) Jan Swafford
Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber
18th January 2022
4th November 2021
Main
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Composers and songwriters
780.92
Paperback
832
Width 153mm, Height 234mm, Spine 48mm
1143g
From his celebrated early childhood, Mozart has been caught up in myths: the superhuman prodigy, the adult who was still a child, the neglect, the pauper's grave. None of these myths are true, at least not at face value. Wolfgang Amade Mozart is not primarily a myth-busting book, but in the process of bringing to vivid life the man and composer absorbed in writing for his public rather than for posterity, the myths topple en route.
Swafford portrays a man who had his sorrows like everybody else, but who was a high-spirited, high-living bon vivant fond of games of skill, well-read and thoughtful if also at times playing the clown: in the end fundamentally a happy and happily married man who had a wide circle of friends.
Jan Swafford is a composer and writer whose music has been played by orchestras and chamber ensembles including the Symphonies of Indianapolis, St. Louis, and the Dutch Radio Orchestra. His award-winning books include biographies of Brahms, Charles Ives, and the NY Times best-seller Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph. He studied at Harvard and the Yale School of Music.