45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The titanic basis for our conception of Mozart, November 27, 2007
This review is from: W.A. Mozart (Hardcover)
As the centenary of Mozart's birth loomed in 1856, German musicologist Otto Jahn published the first volume of his ground-breaking four volume biography of Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus (Gottlieb) Mozart. Theophilus, meaning 'beloved of God', was changed to its German equivalent, Gottlieb. The names Johann and Chrysostom commemorated the boy's birth on that saint's day. He was born on 27 January 1756 at eight o'clock in the evening. He was the last of seven children: only two of whom, Nannerl, the fourth, and Wolfgang, survived. No one at the time had the slightest foreknowledge of the epochal nature of that birth.
Simultaneous to Jahn's massive undertaking was Ludwig Kochel's similarly path-breaking catalogue of Mozart's works. The two scholars created the historical landscape upon which all subsequent study and knowledge of Mozart's life and works would be based. Jahn's and Kochel's work were as comprehensive and dependable as the then current state of knowledge about Mozart's life and music permitted. In the process, the foundation of a Germanic cultural hero, a Romantic myth, of Mozart, the inestimable, miraculous child genius who created musical masterpieces Jove-like fully formed from his mind, was created. That myth is still with us in books, in concert notes, in recording liner notes, in essays and in films.
Jahn's work was revised several times before Hermann Abert fully reworked it in the post-war years of 1919-1921, taking full advantage of an additional 70 years of research and discovery: in the process modifying Jahn's 19th Century Romantic tone to fit a more modern sensibility. Abert's massive work included everything then known, the most informed and substantial biography of Mozart in any language. It is unquestionably the most comprehensive account of the composer's life and a profound analysis of the composer's work. In Abert's 'book-within-a-book', he scrutinizes the music, with individual chapters on the operas, splendid accounts of the orchestral works, the symphonies and piano concertos, church music and compositions for solo instruments. It is a titanic work that has never been rendered in English until now.
Brilliantly translated by Stewart Spencer, what makes this massive work so impressive is how even Abert's deeply considered words are brought up to date. Recent developments in Mozart scholarship since the last German edition are analyzed by Mozart scholar Cliff Eisen in his meticulous and informative annotations located on every single page. This whole massive undertaking is supported by a coterie of leading Mozart scholars. At the weight of a very healthy baby, this is not a book you will be carrying to your local Starbuck's unless you plan to use it as a portable table. It is, nevertheless, the single most important source on the life of a truly great composer. It is remarkable that it has been unavailable in English. That it now is, and in such a superlative edition, makes its publication the single most important event in English language Mozartean scholarship of this, or perhaps any other, year. This book is not an investment to be made lightly. It probably requires a program of upper arm development (a small lectern might be helpful). But for the committed Mozartean, this mighty volume would make a splendid gift. You will spend the rest of your life absorbed in its 1600 pages. Most strongly recommended.
Mike Birman
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A BIBLE FOR ALL MOZART ENTHUSIASTS & SCHOLARS, March 4, 2010
This review is from: W.A. Mozart (Hardcover)
This is a huge tome. Some comments on its physical aspect are in order.
For people who have only used their forearms for nothing more than holding their TV remotes or their spoon and fork, this book is absolutely not recommended, even dangerous to handle. They should only lift paperbacks.
But for people interested in Mozart's music and life, and who have regularly used their dumbbells to develop good shoulders and arms, this book is highly recommended and, in spite of its massive aspect, very manageable.
The format of 8" x 7.5" is well within the norms of standard books. However, this Abert book is definitely much thicker than your regular hardback novel, 3", for 1515 pages. And, at 6.6 lbs, heavier than most books, though not the heaviest. Any good dictionary, for instance, the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 1987 2d edition, is much larger and heavier (12 lbs).
Still, for all its forbidding look, on the whole Abert's book is relatively handy -- although not enough to stick in your pocket going to your favorite coffee-shop, or even in your bag going to the park or the beach for summer reading.
The major problem with this thickness is that, ploughing through this 1,500-page Mozart book, it proves very difficult to write your own notes in the margins once the mammoth book is open flat on a table (forget about reading this on your lap!) The wrist having no support, you must find it necessary to haul a thick dictionary to place alongside and give your hand an even support to scribble your own sagacious comments.
The book being published by Yale, it was reasonable to expect it to be an American book. Far from it. This is a British book throughout. The translation is by Stewart Spencer, who used to be an academic at London University, and who must be lauded for what must have been a Herculean job. His translation style is formal, elevated, and very "proper" English -- to us sounding a bit dry and lacking in humour. Don't expect any Americanism or colloquial English in this book. The English text had to respect the dignified German language used by Hermann Abert. You'll never find an opportunity to laugh, giggle, or even repress a smile, reading this text. This is seriousness as heavy as it can come.
The German book was published 90 years ago. Since then, research has continued and modified many of its original conclusions -- often reverting them. The constant updating comes in excellent and copious notes written by Cliff Eisen, another academic, at King's College in London who is also a most respected Mozart scholar. These notes, printed at the bottom of all pages, correct, amplify, or, most importantly, debunk some of Abert's assertions.
One valid complaint is that the print of these immensely valuable notes is so small that they are extremely difficult to read, and even more difficult to underline when they make an important point, which is practically all the time. This beef is much more serious than any objection to the weight or thickness of the book. That a microscopic font has been selected for the most important aspect of the book seems a major mistake. Saving space was the obvious goal, but it is no saving at all and a disservice to the passionate readers.
Theses notes are truly invaluable and a good part of the interest of this book, since they define the current state of Mozart scholarship. For that reason alone, yes, an edition in two volumes, keeping the 127 pages of indexes at the back of the second volume, but with a normal font size for the notes, would have been a welcome presentation. Even a total of 2,000 pages would have been acceptable, but then in two volumes. Mozart enthusiasts, who are the only buyers of this massive tome, would have been willing to pay for the extra cost. No expense should have been spared, and the British practice of an uncomfortably tiny font for notes is not completely right for us, Mozart fanatics.
A final remark on the physical presentation: This book was printed in Great Britain, and to our dismay, on somewhat cheaper paper, not unlike blotting paper. The publisher balked at using high-quality glossy paper, as used in the great dictionaries like the the Random House Unabridged, 2d edition, one of the most superb big books ever published for the mass market.
You can't write comments in this British book's margins without the markings appearing on the other side, which is terribly annoying. And never drop some of your coffee on a page, as it would surely instantly dissolve. This is infinitely regrettable, as this is a capital book, a Bible for Mozart enthusiasts and scholars, and it should have been published with top-quality paper.
Again we have to suspect the British tendency for strict economizing on the unit cost of production to be the main reason. Book lovers would have much preferred a first-class American printing job with high-quality textbook-like paper.
Otherwise, the presentation of the text itself, the font type, the layout, the binding and cover are all irreproachable. Cliff Eisen's editorial notes (of 2007) are most interesting, while Hermann Abert's own preface of 1919 most enlightening. And the 127 pages at the end covering bibliography (brought up to date), the whole Köchel listing, the index of Mozart's works by genre, and the usual index of names and subjects, make this book invaluable for any study concerning Mozart.
All considered, for the right user, this is a fabulous book. But, physically, it could have been a bit better.
With respect to Abert's text itself, the key thing to keep in mind is that he was also another academic, publishing in 1919, with the Weltanschauung of a German scholar. He did a lot of his research during the First World War, and was still deeply steeped in the Romantic view of Mozart and his music.
Abert's style is academic to an extreme. His approach is imbued with the German scholar's typical "deutsche Gründickkeit" (German thoroughness), and his product is a temple of exhaustiveness. Not a stone is left unturned, and not a flicker of thought left unsaid.
What's exceptional in this text is that all Mozart's works (about 700 of them) receive individual attention and analysis. Nowhere else has this kind of loving attention to detail and "Gründlichkeit" been lavished on analyzing each work of Mozart.
Of course, Abert's view of Mozart is still strongly colored by the Romantic image of the "genius" as an outworldly artist who follows his own artistic urges, trajectory and destiny, nearly always in battle with his philistine social environment. For the Romantics, Mozart's life was elevated and revered as the emblematic example of genius against society.
This 19th-century Romantic view tends to deify a great artist, turning him (practically never "her") into an iconic figure obeying different rules of behavior and artistic pursuit, and ultimately driven by an inner engine and fueled by a personal flame to overcome all obstacles and resistance to his miraculous creativity. The script is always "Extraordinary Creativity Triumphing over Conformity" -- usually at a painful cost. Mozart became a vivid illustration of this cultural myth.
No attention was paid to the fact that this ideal image didn't even apply to all great artists of the 19th century. Rossini, for instance, who spent all his time and money eating the most delicate French foods in Paris, did not seem to have suffered much. Verdi and Puccini had fairly happy lives, and even Wagner was pretty successful in organizing the practicalities of his personal triumph. Bizet, in France, could have been another example of the unrecognized great artist.
However, we've fortunately come a long way from this Romantic iconic image of Mozart. The debunking of the "divine" Mozart image is the healthy product of modern scholarship, which has brought back Mozart to the level of us, human mortals, without denying his one-off miraculous talent.
We thus have restored Cosi fan Tutte, previously rejected and abhorred by Beethoven and the whole 19th century as "immoral", to its legitimate place as perhaps the most brilliant and psychologically profound opera of Mozart.
In the same spirit, modern publishers have stopped suppressing the delightful "Bäsle" letters to his charming cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart in Augsburg, who became Mozart's famous sexual playmate in his early 20's. And thank God for this, because those letters are a true classic.
And most importantly, the 20th century finally stopped bowdlerizing Mozart's precious letters, restoring his scatological outbursts, his delight in joking, fun and unbounded nonsense.
For instance, publishers started reintroducing the suppressed original texts of the famous scatological canons such as " Leck Mich Im Arsch," K 231, in the body of his music, that nobody before wanted to mention in the original, ashamed and unbelieving that the "divine" Mozart could indulge in such low-class language.
Abert, for all his "deutsche Gründlichkeit" could not bring himself to print the original Mozart text of these canons, coyly apologizing that it "is better never repeated here". Similarly, Abert mentions only the bowdlerized and sanitized text for K 233, where the original reads "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber." Abert must have fainted the first time he encountered this canon. How could one reconcile this with the Great Mass in C minor, K427?
It is only in the late 20th century that a truer picture of Mozart the man has begun to appear in all its crude and sublime expressions. Suddenly Mozart does not look any longer like the music director of God's angels, but much more like another great earth-bound genius such as, for instance, Shakespeare...
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