Customer Reviews:
Beautiful and Tormented.......2006-07-28
Scarlett O'Hara will live as long as women dream romantic dreams. And Vivien Leigh, the young woman who won that part in the 1939 movie,"Gone With The Wind,"after a long and brilliant campaign,thereby coming to embody the dream for as long as celluloid lasts, must be considered one of the world's great beauties.
Yet, as this excellent biography by Anne Edwards makes clear, Leigh's life eventually took on a darker tinge. Anyone simply enjoying her high-spirited flirtatiousness at Scarlett's Tara, or her highly-charged scenes with Clark Gable's Rhett Butler,
could never imagine the ultimate sadness of her life.
Like almost any other beautiful woman who's ever been queried on the subject, Leigh did not think herself beautiful. She thought her hands too big, her neck too long, her legs too fat. And though she gave the world superlative performances on stage as Ophelia and Cleopatra, and onscreen in "That Hamilton Woman," and "A Streetcar Named Desire," as well as "Gone With The Wind," she never felt herself to be a good actress.
She also never thought herself worthy of Laurence Olivier, the Prince of English Players, whom she won, as lover and husband, after another long and brilliant campaign and a notorious love affair.
Leigh once spent six hours in a dress-fitting session, insisting the designer hide her "too-long" neck: clearly, she thought she had to be perfect.
She loved Olivier with a passionate, tremulous intensity, and felt their life together must also be perfect. If he was the Prince, then the King of Players,she must be the Queen. So she deprived herself --and us--of numerous film parts, making movies only when she needed the money. She hid her Oscar for "Gone With The Wind" until Olivier had one of his own, and so would no longer be jealous. She, in fact, stayed with him regardless, while he thought only of his career.
Mind you, he repaid her love and loyalty for many years, staying with her even after her serious emotional problems became apparent. She drank too much, smoked too much, worked too hard, and slept too little.
Friends and family learned to chart the terrible manic/depressive cycles. She'd fight the onset of her attacks courageously, then be overwhelmed-- scream obscenities and groundless accusations against her friends. Tear her clothes off and have to be physically restrained. She fantasized "guiltless sex" with working class men, made advances to taxi drivers and delivery men. She identified herself so strongly with Blanche du Bois, her part in "Streetcar Named Desire," that she used Blanche's dialogue as her own, without realizing it.
The treatments prescribed for her illness were as terrible as the attacks; electroshock, immersion of her body in ice, then in water as hot as she could stand. However, she never lost her courage, even after Olivier left her for another woman. Her final illness left an important part open for Elizabeth Taylor in "Elephant Walk."
Edwards has handled Leigh's life with remarkable sensitivity amd perception. She's fair to Leigh, and to the other people in her life, most especially Olivier. Her language is sometimes lazy-- how many times can you describe Olivier as "manly," or say that Leigh "had never looked more beautiful," but I have to say, this is that rare book that's even better than its jacket promises.
Customer Reviews:
The best book about Vivien Leigh.......2006-10-05
This book is a great journey into Vivien's life. It describes her life from beginning to end in a delicate and true way, making the reader really feel her struggle against her desease, so little known at that time. I have always loved Vivien as an actress and after reading this biography I got to love her even more. She was a great actress!
An Engaging Biography About A Celebrity...........2006-07-06
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In this seemingly fair and accurate portrait, common pitfalls of a celebrity biography are avoided, such as a gossipy tone, sensationalism, and gushing admiration. Such writing shows respectable restraint, as Miss Leigh's life has all the makings for a tawdry tale.
The only faults are that at times the business end of Ms. Leigh's career is overemphasized, such as contract and agent negotiations. However, facts more interesting to a movie fan take up less space. For example, there are only a few backstage stories on the making of "Gone With the Wind", with even less on "A Streetcar Named Desire". One interesting story told is that Vivien Leigh refused to perform Scarlett O'Hara's retching sounds, as it would be undignified.Olivia De Haviland therefore filled in the sounds. Perhaps the author felt this kind of backstage story is available elsewhere and does not belong in a biography. Though I accept that, I would have preferred more backstage stories than the business end of Ms. Leigh's career, which slowed down the reading.
Also, Ms. Leigh's erratic behavior is often understated. Some incidents are told as if a friend was telling you dinner recipes, then informs you that her daughter set fire to the school, followed by more recipes. In the way you would say, "She did what?" to your friend, I found myself rereading certain paragraphs, because I did not fully capture the extent of Miss Leigh's behaviour on a first read due to its factual presentation. More vivid descriptions would have been appropriate, without necessarily being sensationalistic.
Perhaps the author was too restrained for this fan of both movies and Vivien Leigh. But I felt this to be a worthwhile read, because more importantly, I felt as though I had gotten to know Ms. Leigh, as a woman who loved deeply, suffered much, worked hard and at times acted thoughtlessly, while happening to act in movies.
a tad disappointing.......2003-05-12
As a fan of Vivien Leigh, I was hoping for a biography that would delve more into her personal life. Instead, it dragged with pages and pages dedicated to mostly her career. However, if you can breeze through the boring parts, the rest is worth it.
A life in turmoil.......2002-11-08
"Vivien" is proof positive that there can be a well-written, well-researched, realistic yet understanding biography of a messed-up star. This book could have been a sordid tangle of tabloid sensationalism, but Alexander Walker carefully crafts it into a tapestry.
Vivien Leigh was one of the most memorable actresses of the twentieth century, playing the headstrong Scarlett O'Hara. Yet Vivien was not as strong or indomitable as she appeared onscreen. The book starts with a poetic interlude during a peaceful time in her life, with several guests attending a dinner, then shifts back to her girlhood. Her first marriage fell as her fame rose, and she soon met the man she would fall in love with, her also-married costar Lawrence Olivier. But Vivien's life, despite her fame and idyllic life, was never a happy woman, her mental problems plaguing her to the end of her life.
Very few authors are able to strike a balance between admiration and reality; they'll either idolize the object of their biography, or pour vitriol on them. Walker does neither. While he acknowledges Vivien's faults, he also seems to care about her and her struggles. Nothing could more poignantly convey Vivien's pain than when she shrieked at a nurse, "I'm not Scarlett, I'm Blanche!" (Blanche being a character she played who went mad).
Vivien herself is a vivid presence from the first pages onward. Her struggles with mental illness are done with great delicacy, as is her relationship with Olivier. He himself is almost as strong a presence, even though he ultimately could not stay with her; another impressive real-life presence is Jack Merivale, the understanding younger man who remained with her until her untimely death. The scene where Merivale brings Olivier to his dead ex-wife's beside is another extremely effective anecdote.
The writing style is lush for a biography. Quite uniquely, there is also a lot of focus on Vivien's movies as well as her personal life, especially her dogged pursuit of roles that she desperately wanted to play. The pictures are well-suited for this book -- they're clear, elegant, well-laid out, relevant to the different parts of Vivien's life, and balanced well between her on-screen roles and her personal life. Walker keeps these pictures of her roles grounded by mentioning what was going on in Vivien's life while she filmed the movie.
Alexander Walker's biography of Vivien Leigh is a treasure for all of her fans. Without being sordid ior adoring, he creates a believable biography about a troubled, talented and passionate actress. Outstanding read.
A Must Read for All Vivien Leigh Fans.......2002-06-27
Even though this actress is known to the world from her role as Scarlet O'Hara, many do not know the woman behind the role. This biography does an excellent job of giving her fans a chance to know who she was. I would recommend this to both Vivien Leigh fans and anyone who enjoys a good book. Her life even though not always a fairy tale, was very interesting and Alexander Walker hold the readers attention with ease.
Average customer rating:
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Vivien Leigh: A Biography
Manufacturer: Indigo Publishing
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ASIN: 0972595139 |
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In his last years, America's leading playwright,Tennessee Williams, often threatened to publish a 'black book' describing the darker side of show business as he experienced it. Knowing he would not have time to complete it in his lifetime, he asked author Bruce Smith to write his personal memoirs of his years as Mr. Williams media and personal manager. That book is COSTLY PERFORMANCES/ Tennessee Williams: The Last Stage. It is now scheduled as a major motion picture release in 2005, starring Derek Jacobi as Tennessee Williams and Kevin Anderson as the author.
Customer Reviews:
The Kindness of a Stranger...Who Became a Friend.......2007-02-06
What is most striking about this book is its lack of sentimentality and incisive, sharp language. There has, indeed, been much written about Tennessee Williams, perhaps too much; the endless nonsense of his being a self-hating homosexual, the lurid tales of his promiscuity, the alleged Oedipal complexes, the temper tantrums and paranoia, and other such twaddle have all obfuscated many essential things about the genius who was Tennessee Williams. This excellent book stands out because it reminds us of Mr. Williams' power -as a person and a playwright- and at the same time it is not sycophantic nor is it cleverly bitchy. Smith, the author, meets Williams rather by accident and the unlikely friendship blossoms. I found the writing to be rather enthralling, evocative, and extremely well-crafted, which allows it to stand apart from many of the other (lesser) books on Williams. It is a memoir and does not purport to be anything but that, which allows the reader a keen insight into the life and work and humanity of the great Tennessee Williams. Because it is told from Smith's eyes the recounting of these stories is deeply personal and often effervescent with images and ideas; a far cry from the mawkish, self-consumed memoirs that pass as literature these days. I also liked the fact that Smith names some names and makes clear the case that the critics, PR people, and the various 'powers that be' in the theater and film worlds (i.e. agents, lawyers, producers) all played their part in Williams' miserable and protracted demise as much as the alcohol and pills did. And while Smith does not exculpate Williams from his vices he carefully explains why, he in fact, had them, and elucidates the nefarious forces constantly in conflict with the artist and his creative process.
Make no mistake this is Mr. Smith's story of his friendship with Tennessee, and thank goodness for its uniqueness, honesty, and edge. I think to truly appreciate this book one has to be familiar with serious writing (Eliot, Shaw) and not the Pop pap that sadly passes for publishable literature today. COSTLY PERFORMANCES and its author are both class acts and any writer or artist or person with a soul or fan of Tennessee Williams will love this book.
PS
The comment about grammatical errors is totally wrong and unfounded. And the Braun woman; who is she? "The author needed distance"? If she works in a library, how does she not know what a memoir is, and what the first person POV narrative offers the reader? These types of hit jobs are precisely the type of aforementioned `nefarious forces' to which I referred.
This is a valuable theatrical memoir.......2003-11-12
I am a young actor living in London where the plays of Tennesssee Williams are experiencing a great deal of interest within the entire theatre community: schools and universities; theatre companies; theatre media. All fans of his work are turning to background material on Williams and one of the most discussed -- and admired -- is Costly Performances/Tennessee Williams: The Last Stage by Bruce Smith. Mr Smith has, since writing this memoir, become actively involved in London's theatre world, saying he learned "at the master's hand" many enduring and valuable lessons re dramaturgy, play production and, more importantly, playwriting. His play 'Papal Gore' is scheduled for a West End staging. As well, his book about Mr. Williams is now being made into a major motion picture here in England. Real theatre people understand the sensitivity Mr. Smith brought to his portrayal of Mr Williams in his last, very difficult years and value it as a real contribution to 20th Century theatre history. It is highly literate but -- above all -- a very good read. This book, with Lyle Leverich's
The Unknown Tennessee Williams and the gossipy The Kindness of Strangers by Donald Spoto provide an indepth look at the author's life and times.
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Vivien Leigh: A Biography
Hugo Vickers
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0316902454 |
Book Description
`I will play Scarlett O'Hara' she said, even while the novel of Gone with the Wind was being reviewed - and she did. While a barrister's wife with an infant daughter she saw a handsome actor and immediately announced `I will marry him' - and she did. From 1940 until they divorced in 1960 Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were the `royal' couple of the stage in two continents, yet were steadily being consumed by Vivien's manic depression which led her into follies and affairs.
Drawing on the memories and anecdotes of her family, friends and fellow players, as well as on his own conversations with Vivien just before her death, Alexander Walker has written the definitive biography of Vivien Leigh.
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Love Scene
J. Lasky
Manufacturer: Berkley
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 042505022X |
Customer Reviews:
It's about time!.......2000-02-25
Finally! A book about how they really loved each other. Probably the best on/off screen couple to ever exist. This book was written so beautifully that it actually made you feel what Vivien or Larry were feeling. It puts their life together and apart in a whole new light. I will read this one again and again. THANK YOU!
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Vivien Leigh
John Russell Taylor
Manufacturer: Elm Tree Books
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Vivien: The Life of Vivien Leigh
ASIN: 0241113334 |
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Vivien Leigh
Hugo Vickers
Manufacturer: Pan Books
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ASIN: 0330311662 |
Average customer rating:
- Obsolete now; a period piece
- As Stunning as the Lady Herself
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Vivien Leigh Bio
Edwards
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0671552201 |
Customer Reviews:
Obsolete now; a period piece.......2003-03-17
This book has been lionized as a labor of love, and I suppose it is-- a certain fondness approaching idolatry appears in every chapter. For all that, and despite a promising first chapter where we're introduced to Vivien as she meets David Selznick at the "burning of Atlanta" and he realizes he's found his Scarlett!-- this is a dull book.
but worse than that for anyone really interested in her life, it's a book missing very important facts. That's not Edwards' fault-- of all the people she acknowledges at the end of the book, Laurence Olivier, Viv's second husband and the man who was there as her manic-depressiveness began to take over, is not listed. Olivier did not speak much about Vivien until after he'd written his won two volumes of autobiography, in the 80s. (On Acting and its companion).
So, the notorious affair with Peter Finch, for example, is not described, or worse-- described as just a mild flirtation. Far too much is missing from the biography.
Alexander Walker's book VIVIEN, published after both Olivier and Leigh were dead, is a much better choice, and its style is also far more comprehensive. Walker spends less time speculating and more time grounding his ideas with citations and sources. There's also a book coming out in the spring of 2003 which promises to be complete.
In short, this must have been a very welcome book in 1977, 10 years after Viv's death, but it's obsolete now. I gave it two stars because in its time it did represent a great deal of labor and research, and the writing style works hard (unsuccessfully, for me) to keep the reader engaged. But for anyone who really needs to research her life and the lives of the many famous people in her life, it's missing too much.
As Stunning as the Lady Herself.......2000-04-08
"Gone With The Wind" is my all-time favorite movie, which I've seen probably a million times now. I "blame" Vivien Leigh for the movie's success and for being so strong in my heart. Besides being the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, Vivien's acting is so wonderful, you really believe she IS Scarlett O'Hara. At least, she always will be for me. BUT, little did anyone know Ms. Leigh's hidden secret -- her mental illness, which made her success all the more enthralling. Despite bouts of "craziness" and bouts of fear so great she hid in corners, Leigh became America's sweetheart. Her portrayal of Scarlett was one of a woman you love and hate. Folks note in the biography that after Vivien got over one of her "crazy" spells, she was so kind to everyone and quick to apologize that everyone just loved her and felt the need to protect her all the more. This book is wonderful in its portrayal of mental illness while describing the star's romantic life with star Laurence Olivier -- who later leaves her because he can't handle her mental instability. This was all before medication could have brought some dignity back to this diva's life. Author Edwards sure did her homework in describing a true lady who struggled to succeed while struggling for her life.
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- An Absolutely Excellent Book!
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The Possessor and the Possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Idea of Musical Genius
Peter Kivy
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Beethoven, Ludwig van
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Book Description
The concept of genius intrigues us. Artistic geniuses have something other people don't have. In some cases that something seems to be a remarkable kind of inspiration that permits the artist to exceed his own abilities. It is as if the artist is suddenly possessed, as if some outside force flows through him at the moment of creation. In other cases genius seems best explained as a natural gift. The artist is the possessor of an extra talent that enables the production of masterpiece after masterpiece. This book explores the concept of artistic genius and how it came to be symbolized by three great composers of the modern era: Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven. Peter Kivy, a leading thinker in musical aesthetics, delineates the two concepts of genius that were already well formed in the ancient world. Kivy then develops the argument that these concepts have alternately held sway in Western thought since the beginning of the eighteenth century. He explores why this pendulum swing from the concept of the possessor to the concept of the possessed has occurred and how the concepts were given philosophical reformulations as views toward Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven as geniuses changed in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
Customer Reviews:
An Absolutely Excellent Book!.......2007-07-29
So what is genius? Sure, we all have an idea. But sometimes that word is thrown around quite carelessly. What it is really?
I loved this book. It is extremely well written, intelligent, enlightening, and thought provoking.
Regarding Beethoven, even I, with a very limited understanding of music, could tell something extraordinary was happening the very first time I heard the Ninth Symphony and none of Beethoven's music has disappointed me since. I have CDs where Leonard Bernstein and Benjamin Zander talk about Beethoven's genius in their own words. But now I have a much greater understanding of the concept of musical genius as well as a profound appreciation of its rarity.
I highly recommend this book. It will remain on my bookshelves for a very long time.
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Ludwig Van Beethoven: Musical Genius (Great Life Stories)
Brendan January
Manufacturer: Franklin Watts
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Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0531119092 |
Book Description
In this provocative account Tia DeNora reconceptualizes the notion of genius by placing the life and career of Ludwig van Beethoven in its social context. She explores the changing musical world of late eighteenth-century Vienna and follows the activities of the small circle of aristocratic patrons who paved the way for the composer's success.
DeNora reconstructs the development of Beethoven's reputation as she recreates Vienna's robust musical scene through contemporary accounts, letters, magazines, and myths--a colorful picture of changing times. She explores the ways Beethoven was seen by his contemporaries and the image crafted by his supporters. Comparing Beethoven to contemporary rivals now largely forgotten, DeNora reveals a figure musically innovative and complex, as well as a keen self-promoter who adroitly managed his own celebrity.
DeNora contends that the recognition Beethoven received was as much a social achievement as it was the result of his personal gifts. In contemplating the political and social implications of culture, DeNora casts many aspects of Beethoven's biography in a new and different light, enriching our understanding of his success as a performer and composer.
Customer Reviews:
The Pits!.......2007-07-29
The reasoning in this book is so full of holes that anyone could drive a fleet of Mack trucks right through it. Don't waste your time and money on this book. The other three individuals who also have given this book a single star are so on target. I can't add anything to the excellent points they have already written. This book is amazingly bad.
Yes, genius alone is not enough........2004-04-04
If it was true for Michelangelo and the Medicis, why not for Beethoven and the Lichnowskys, Lobkowitz and other "Medicis" of his time? In fact it's odd that a book like this one, about so obvious a fact should be written at all. The underlying thesis is super-well known in the N.T. (Matthew 13:4): "And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.."
As clearly expressed by historian Arnold Toynbee society is not made by human beings but by the RELATIONS between them. For a collection of people is only a crowd, not a society.
Jacob Bronowski applied this same thesis in explaining the social essence of modern science, where individual discovery is framed - fostered and checked - by social dynamics. If "revelation" takes place in science is only because it makes sense to the scientific community in being a proved representation of reality. On the other hand, discovery of factual reality is eagerly pursued by every member of it. "Quest" and "production" of knowledge go hand in hand in science, we know that; we only have to add that such quest and production is a SOCIAL phenomenon. Otherwise scientific products would be "filling the walls", like pictures in a museum, where "everything is valid" or "beautiful", being the quest and production of mere individuals that might not need to address or fulfill any social demand or inspiration.
This is the problem of Art when regarded as a strictly individual task, where every quest or production can be beautiful and /or useless at the same time. That modern Art is indivitualistic to the extreme, there can be no doubt about it. But what about Beethoven? And what about Beethoven's society?
This is a book that PROVES - yes, no speculation, full of fresh DATA about performance, audiences, and general musical activity in 18th and beginning of 19th century Vienna - how SOCIALLY bound was Beethoven's art,with no downplaying of Beethoven EVER -if you've followed my argument. For if you think, like me, that Beethoven'art is GREAT, then it must have necessarily been meaningful to the society of his time. But on the other hand, it must have been the end and succesful result of a SOCIAL QUEST or demand (therefore it's social meaning). The highly disturbing fact for us, today, is that such high aspirations that led to such a great art could not come from "everyone". They were, as in 15th century Florence the aspiration of a MINORITY of men, like the creative minorities of Toynbee's theory of civilizations.
Of course, to talk like this is nowadays political incorrect. We like, for instance, to picture the French Revolution as a popular, people-led social movement, when in fact it was really started, ironically, by the French avant-garde intellectual aristocracy. Same with Beethoven: who has not heard, even once, the ode-to-joy tune or the beginning of the Fifth Symphony? That's "popular" Beethoven. Then add to this the Christ-like, rejected-by-society - romantic, to be precise - image of the lone creator guided by his sole divine inspiration and you have the whole picture we like to hang on our walls. This is the artist as the crucified and yet savior of humanity.
In the "classic" (Greek), more real picture, the most excellent men (aristoi) achieve the most excelent deeds. As wonderfully stated by Ortega y Gasset: "Nobility is conquered, not inherited." Classical Greece, Renaissance Florence and Beethoven's Vienna are three magnificent examples of how sublime greatness in man is factually achieved through history.
Make no mistake, don't miss the point. This is not a book about music or "sociology". It's sheer fact that, probably, will open your eyes!
She starts with her conclusion and then works backwards.......2001-12-22
It's tempting to start this review by saying sociologists should stay away from musical topics, at least if they can't appreciate music, and I mean *appreciate* rather than "enjoy." But maybe a fairer criticism would be if you're going to upset the apple cart this much, you'd really better have a sturdier theory than Tina DeNora has here. DeNora is a sociologist at the University of Exeter, and she thinks Beethoven's genius was constructed by society. She says Beethoven's place in the musical firmament was a result of certain aspiring elite aristocrats of the time having a predilection for Beethoven's "difficult" music in an attempt at social one-upmanship and wanting to use him to advance their own standing in Vienna. To put it simply, Ludwig was at the right place at the right time, he had the luck. There is no analysis of the music itself in this book, because she has decided it is irrelevant. I'm not kidding.
DeNora would likely argue that our criteria for "greatness" have been pre-determined by the very elements that we then go into a "great work" looking for. The aesthetics of criticism are a social construct, and so is the music; therefore it's no wonder the two fit together so well. Music criticism is taste writ large, that's all. (Sociology, on the other hand, is not subject to these social tastes and trends, of course.)
Actually, I felt upon approaching this book there may be something to her argument. As Michael Walsh jokingly and insightfully remarked in his book Who's Afraid of Classical Music, "Ludwig 'Rights o' Man' Beethoven was always sucking up to royalty in his dedications." It's hard to deny: he knew who buttered his bread. It's easy to view talent, especially when from the distant past, in a vacuum that we don't extend to the present. In today's world I find myself wondering, for just one example, if a fine but unremarkable actress such as Gwyneth Paltrow would be where she is were her mother not Blythe Danner and her father not a prominent TV producer who is good buddies with Steven Spielberg. Is it any coincidence that Gwyneth's first role was in a Spielberg film, Hook?
So what does DeNora say? After several chapters on the state of the aristocracy and aristocratic taste of the time--chapters I enjoyed and am not prepared to defend or debunk--she focuses relentlessly on the famous quote about Beethoven from Count Waldstein, saying he would go forth to receive the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn. DeNora argues, repeatedly, (she seems to think that by repeating a groundless assertion she can make it stick) that this statement played a huge role in elevating Beethoven to greatness in the minds of the Viennese aristocracy. Of course this begs the question how did Mozart and Haydn achieve *their* reputations? Sure Beethoven understood how he could benefit socially from the patronage of Haydn--he?d have to be an idiot not to understand it--but seeing it solely on those simplistic terms ignores the fact that he was innovating, and that except for Mozart and Haydn his contemporaries were not. DeNora seems to make a big deal out of this, saying they were thrown on their own as freelancers because they lacked Beethoven's connections (while giving us no real evidence that this is in fact the reason they "went commercial" and he succeeded as a serious artist). She conveniently ignores the fact that Schubert had no significant connections, yet has also come down to us as a "great composer." Hummel's sonatas, written around the same time as Beethoven's and Schubert's, show just how far ahead of their time Beethoven and Schubert were. But this is not mentioned.
Furthermore DeNora either underplays or seems unaware of the reputation of Mozart, of how his music was also considered extraordinarily difficult well into the 19th century. Beethoven himself singled out the fifth "Haydn" quartet of Mozart and said that in this work Mozart was showing to the world what he could do if only they were ready for it. Of course, some of Beethoven's patrons had also been Mozart's, but this shows the idea of serious music did not begin with Beethoven, and this makes her thesis about changing tastes in the aristocracy weaker.
But DeNora's argument spectacularly self-destructs on page 119. She describes the first time pianist Gelinek competed with a young Beethoven in a duel in 1793. Gelinek expressed confidence he would destroy Beethoven--make mincemeat of him by one account. The next day the father of the person telling the tale asks Gelinek how he did and the pianist admitted he was the one pulverized. Keep in mind he did not know of Beethoven or his reputation before the duel. You'd think DeNora would see this as a strike against her thesis, but she actually says (p. 121): "First, whatever Galinek thought of Beethoven is less relevant in this context [!!] than the ways his conversations were converted subsequently into topics in their own right--material for further discussion within the music world." Never mind that this person who never heard Beethoven before and was unaware of his reputation, by DeNora's own admission, was blown away and humbled, what matters is how the result elevated Beethoven's position. It never occurs to her that perhaps it elevated his position because it was deserved! But she doesn't stop there: "Once again, we see that Beethoven's reputation *can be conceived of as the accumulation of a repertoire of recorded, publicized stories about his talent.* [emphasis mine, out of disbelief] She goes on: "In telling the story of Beethoven's talent, Gelinek positioned himself as subordinate to Beethoven (as a less talented but admiring colleague); thus Galinek testified to and helped to publicize a favorable view of Beethoven's talent by aligning his own abilities as inferior to Beethoven's." What is one to make of this idiocy that passes for sociology? DeNora never for a moment considers that perhaps Gelinek simply believed what he said. I think it's obvious she reached her conclusion before she began and worked backwards, determined to cram every fact she uncovered into her theory even if she had to pound the loose ends down with a sledgehammer.
Musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen, in a rebuttal shortly after the DeNora book was published, commented that an ethnomusicologist once told him there surely must be hundreds of "Eroica" symphonies that we just don't know about, written by unknown geniuses galore. As Rosen points out, we do indeed know many if not most of the works of Beethoven's contemporaries; many have been analyzed, revived and recorded. They do not come close to Beethoven in originality, breadth of thought, or structural sophistication. But DeNora, like so many revisionists with an agenda, loses her finely-honed sense of skepticism when dealing with alternative interpretations to events. Then she really tips her hand: "While these programs [of cannonic revisionism] obviously vary in levels of ambition, they share a concern with the ways exclusive or ?high? cultural forms are both inaccessible and inappropriate to the lived experience of a large proportion of the people to whom they are upheld as inspirational."
That astonishing remark could be interpreted in ways ranging from merely patronizing to racist, and it sets DeNora up as a sort of cultural arbiter herself. *Inappropriate?* Says whom? Inappropriate to whom? And why?
After all this, there is still one remaining gripe, and that is DeNora?s writing style. It is repetitious in the extreme. She really has a thin point, and takes well over 200 pages to make it. This book could have been a magazine article or two- or three-part series in a journal. Trash.
perhaps unintentionally awry.......2001-08-21
The author states more than once, in one way or another, that she does not mean to detract from Beethoven's greatness as a creator, but the effect is peculiar nonetheless. As the other reviewer of this book exclaimed, listen to the music! The IMPRESSION the author perhaps inadvertently gives, anyway, is that the world as we know it after Beethoven did his work might have been a world instead impressed by the greatness of Pfart, or whoever that circle of Viennese influencers otherwise settled on. Whereas someone totally unaware of Vienna and its doings would still have taken amazed note of Beethoven, then and since. Some folk are not that enamored of B even now, but they certainly know his power.
An astonishing thesis that disregards the music!.......1998-10-11
Are we really to believe that the music of this man does not speak for itself? Was it really his "political connections" and "who he knew" that led to his success in 19th century Vienna? Are there really other Beethovens running around out there who just haven't gotten a break. A nice parlor exercise perhaps, but really.....how about a serious listen to what he actually wrote down! What I am suggesting is a serious listen. Why, for example, does his work seem to have a much higher density of sheer thought (form if you like) than that of any other composer? Why are his thematic constructs so intellectually exhilarating as well as emotionally moving? Why does he exemplify the most startling development of style of almost anyone you can think of in the arts? What is it about his almost extra-material universal appeal? Listen to the music. Maybe the answers are found there.
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