Mozart: The Reign of Love

Product Description From acclaimed composer and biographer Jan Swafford comes the definitive biography of one of the most lauded musical geniuses in history, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.From his earliest years it was apparent that the singular imagination of Wolfgang Mozart was tirelessly at work. He hated to be bored and hated to be idle, and he responded to these threats with a repertoire of antidotes mental and physical, going at every part of his life with tremendous gusto. His circle of friends and patrons was wide, encompassing anyone who appealed to his boundless appetites for music and all things pleasurable and fun.As a man, Mozart was an inexplicable force of nature who could rise from a luminous improvisation at the keyboard to meow like a cat and leap over the furniture. He was forever drumming on things, tapping his feet, seeming both present and apart. But he also might grasp your hand and gaze at you with a profound, searching and melancholy look in his blue eyes. It was as if Mozart lived onstage and off simultaneously, a character in life's tragicomedy but also outside of it, watching, studying, gathering material for the fabric of his art.Like Swafford's biographies Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Charles Ives, Mozart is both wide-ranging and intimate in its exploration of a genius in his life and his setting: a man who rose from a particular time and place, whose art would enrich the world for centuries to come, who would immeasurably shape the future of classical music, who from his age to ours has stood as the definition of a prodigy. As Swafford reveals, to understand the evolution of music it is vital to understand this singular genius as a man and an artist. Review A biography of the Mozart that is so vivid, you feel you could shake hands with him ...Few hearts fail to melt upon encountering his humane, joyous and ravishingly beautiful music. The challenge for any biographer is how to articulate where this elusive magic comes from ...Jan Swafford has met that challenge head on...For many [Mozart's] works are dear old friends. You can come away from this book feeling that he is too . -- Jessica Duchen ― Sunday Times Published On: 2020-11-22 [An] outstanding biography ... accessible and authoritative ... beautifully written and full of astute critical judgements and incisive notes on the works. ― Economist Published On: 2020-11-28 'Swafford is a musical authority who certainly understands his subject, leaving almost no stone unturned in pursuing the specifics of Mozart's life and works. The book is stunningly well researched.' -- Stuart Isacoff ― Literary Review If tackling an 832-page biography of anybody seems daunting for the general reader, Swafford makes it almost effortless with Mozart, animating his genius. As a composer himself, [Swafford offers] an astute yet thoroughly approachable analysis, almost piece by piece, of the composer's entire canon, lingering fittingly on the composer's major operas. A virtually indispensable volume for the music collection. ― Booklist, starred review The prodigious career of a musical icon.Composer and biographer Swafford brings expertise and insight to bear on a comprehensive, animated life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.deftly [capturing Mozart's] brilliance in a challenging narrative that is sure to thrill classical music fans. An admiring, authoritative biography. ― Kirkus Reviews 'A terrifically engaging new biography . written with a wit, grace and compassion that well befits its subject.' -- Kate Wakeling ― BBC Music Magazine 'A compelling, eminently readable life-and-works . Swafford encapsulates the essence of the music.' -- David Threasher ― Gramophone Book Description A vivid new biography, toppling the many myths surrounding Mozart, which will undoubtedly be the standard biography for years to come. About the Author Jan Swafford is a composer and writer whose music has been played by orchestras and chamber ensembles including the Symphonies o