Mozart: A Life [Paperback]

Maynard Solomon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 1996

In this first full-scale biography since the 1950s, esteemed biographer Maynard Solomon draws on a half-century of new information to provide an in-depth account of Mozart's family life, his passions, and his personality.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Perhaps the most important Mozart biography ever written, this book is subtle, rich-textured, endlessly stimulating and provocative -- just like the man's music.

From Publishers Weekly

Beethoven biographer Solomon here presents a revisionist biography of Mozart, which his publisher claims is the first full-scale biography in nearly 40 years. Certainly it is a major work in terms of heft and range. Solomon will have none of the "divine child" approach, limning instead a man growing up under the shadow of an impossibly demanding father who was at once overprotective and jealous of his son's vast gifts. There is a great deal of psychological probing into the agonies of their relationship, much of it sensible; and Solomon paints an indelible portrait of Mozart's last years, begging for money, guilty about his deprived wife Constanze, resentful of being virtually cut out of his father's will, yet still heroically forging a new musical aesthetic. He also clears up much of the mystery about the bizarre Requiem commission, and the burial in the "pauper's grave." He is convinced that Mozart and his cousin "the Basle," recipient of many of the infamous smutty letters, were lovers for a time; and the portrait of the composer that emerges is of an extraordinarily sensitive, liberal-minded (the Masonic material is superb), extravagant but responsible person who has been much belittled by biographers beginning almost immediately after his death. Solomon also writes acutely about what was daringly new, and wonderfully enduring, about Mozart's music. Only a certain lack of flow between the chapters suggests the origin of much of this material in lectures. Illustrations. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (February 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060926929
• ISBN-13: 978-0060926922
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #985,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( M ) > Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

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133 of 148 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars should be Mozart  A Psychoanalysis, January 18, 2003

By 

Michael J. Cashen (Glen Burnie, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Mozart: A Life (Paperback)

This book should be titled "Mozart - A Psychoanalysis"

The book has some strong points - a good analysis of musical style with many examples (if you can't play them on a piano at least tap out the rhythms to get an idea of what he was trying to do) and details about Mozart's dirty letters and fondness for writing backwards. He also makes a good case for Mozart having good earnings. Some of these things are probably difficult to find elsewhere.

However it leaves out some extraordinary things, including Mozart's attitude toward Salieri - and vice-versa, meeting Voltaire and Beethoven, and much of the political climate.

The author drones on with page after page of psychobabble that serves to over-exhaust both the subject and the reader. For example, the following run-on sentence (one of many in the book) occurs five (!) pages into a continuous set of statements about musical imagery:

"An argument can be made, however, that in the last analysis we bring to the entire continuum of such (anxious mental) states derivatives of feelings having their origin in early stages of our lives, and in particular the preverbal state of symbiotic fusion of infant and mother, a matrix that constitutes an infancy-Eden of unsurpassable beauty but also a state completely vulnerable to terrors of separation, loss, and even fears of potential annihilation, a state that inevitably terminates in parting, which even under the most favorable circumstances leaves a residue of grief and melancholy, engendering a desire - wrapped in the likelihood of further disillusionment - to rediscover anew the sensations of undifferentiated fusion with a nurturing caretaker."

That was just ONE sentence! The author then appears to summarize the argument, at which point the reader emits a sigh of relief then turns the page: only to be confronted by two more pages of psychology before the author then spends several more pages applying the argument to several musical works.

The reader gets treated to several whole chapters of analysis of Mozart's emotional mind, emotional relationships with relatives, physical attributes - and what emotions they cause. There is a WHOLE chapter devoted to the fact that Mozart temporarily altered his middle name to "Adam" when he signed his marriage documents! I'm not kidding. The Chapter is entitled, "Adam" and it analyzes the emotional states that caused Mozart to change Amade(us) to Adam. Then, when the reader finally arrives at a chapter that actually describes historical events in Mozart's life (and their emotions), the events are often not played out in chronological order.

The names of Mozart's major works are most often NEVER written in English and the author often uses German, French, or Italian to make major points without bothering to let the reader in on the English translation: Mozart said of his pet starling "Das war schon." The motto of some riddlers was "Honi soit qui mal y pense." It's frustrating not knowing what those sentences mean in English.

I faithfully read the first 344 pages of this book then could no longer bear it - I skimmed the rest, then started reading Gutman's "Mozart - a cultural biography" which appears to present Mozart more idealistically than was the case, but at least I'm getting a feel for what was happening around Mozart during his lifetime.

I hope I wasn't too emotional.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound insight into the greatest of classical geniuses, March 17, 1997

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mozart: A Life (Paperback)

If you ever wondered how Mozart -- using just the same materials and structures as Haydn -- could create works of excruciating beauty instead of merely works of elegant formality, you MUST read this book. The book is organized thematically instead of strictly chronologically; reading it is like watching a beautiful opera about Mozart's life from the best seat in the house. The immense scholarly apparatus never clanks, wheezes, or whirrs -- yet you can go backstage at any time and see exactly what's supporting the stunning performance. Without any psychobabble, Solomon leads you to the most profound psychological insights into Mozart's life and achievements. After he marshals all the facts, he reveals the most astonishing -- and eminently plausible -- insights that you slap your forehead and say "of course -- why didn't I see that!?" Easily the best biography I have ever read.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and thought-provoking, April 8, 2005

By 

Joseph Monmouth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mozart: A Life (Paperback)

Solomon's books have obvious strengths--the depth of his research and his analysis of the music. What seems to divide readers is his use of psychoanalysis. I'm on his side, as his book created a thought-provoking examination of a great figure whose art was a tonic for the fraught relationship he had with his father. But Solomon also shows us that Mozart was neither an idiot savant nor a psychological mess--in his relationship with his wife and his ability to manage a successful career he was remarkably normal. Rather than the center of the book, the psychoanalysis is a useful contextual tool. This really is the best single book on Mozart.