Beethoven cover art

Beethoven

A Life in Nine Pieces

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Beethoven

By: Laura Tunbridge
Narrated by: Laura Tunbridge
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Featuring integrated music and full orchestra recordings.

Ludwig van Beethoven: to some, simply the greatest ever composer of Western classical music. Yet his life remains shrouded in myths and the image persists of him as an eccentric genius shaking his fist at heaven.

Beethoven by Oxford Professor Laura Tunbridge cuts through the noise in a refreshing way. Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. It's a winning combination of rich biographical detail, insight into the music and surprising new angles, all of which can transform how you listen to his works. We discover, for example, Beethoven's oddly modern talent for self-promotion, how he was influenced by factors from European wars to instrument building and how he was heard by contemporaries.

This tour de force - published for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth - provides a fresh overview and a wealth of material that has never been revealed to the wider public before. It's a compelling, human portrayal of Beethoven and a fascinating journey into one of the world's most amazing creative minds.

©2020 Laura Tunbridge (P)2020 Penguin Audio Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Musician Piano War

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This audiobook was good, but though I'm grateful to have listened to it, it left me not quite satisfied. As it is relatively short, I had thought I would recommend it to friends who are not classic music lovers, but in the end, other books seemed more suitable to draw them closer to Beethoven.

I would have to listen to it again to give more detailed comments, but it's uncertain whether I will given the number of books that beckon.

Good though not entirely satisfying

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Brilliantly written and read. Thoroughly engaging from start to finish. This is how it's done.

Excellent.

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I really enjoyed the book I didn’t understand all of the technical musical bits though

Excellent

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