Beethoven, A Life

Jan Caeyers is a conductor and musicologist. One of Europe’s preeminent experts on Beethoven, he is the music director of the Beethoven orchestra Le Concert Olympique and a member of the Department of Musicology at KU Leuven.

• Foreword by Daniel HopeProloguePart One: The Artist as a Young Man (1770–1792)1 • Louis van Beethoven: A Grandfather Figure2 • Jean van Beethoven: The Absent Father?3 • The Early Years4 • Christian Gottlob Neefe: The Mentor5 • The Young Professional6 • Bonn Turns to Vienna7 • Beethoven’s First Crisis8 • A Second Home, and New Horizons9 • Renewed Vigor and the First Major Works10 • Farewell to BonnPart Two: A Time of Proving (1792–1802)11 • Vienna in 179212 • Beethoven’s First Patron: Karl von Lichnowsky 13 • Haydn and Albrechtsberger14 • Career Plans15 • Family, Friends, and Loves in Vienna16 • In Anticipation of Greater Things17 • Lobkowitz’s “Center of Excellence”18 • The Immortal Beloved: Episode One19 • The Road to a Broader Public20 • A Word from the Critics21 • The Disciples: Carl Czerny and Ferdinand Ries22 • The Heiligenstadt TestamentPart Three: The Master (1802–1809)23 • A “New Way” Forward24 • The Laboratorium Artificiosum 25 • Publishing Pains and the “Warehouse of the Arts”26 • Composer in Residence27 • Salieri’s Opera Lessons 28 • The Mystery of the Eroica29 • The Immortal Beloved: Episode Two30 • In Search of the Perfect Piano31 • Leonore: A Work in Progress32 • The Golden YearsPart Four: Crowds and Power (1809–1816)33 • A New Social Status34 • New Prospects35 • An Imperial Pupil36 • Beethoven and Goethe37 • The Immortal Beloved: Episode Three38 • Se non è vero . . .39 • The End of the Classical Symphony40 • Music for the Masses41 • A Lucrative Sideline42 • From Leonore to Fidelio43 • From Coffee and Cake to Congress and Kitsch44 • The Fight for a Child45 • From the “Immortal Beloved” to a “Distant Beloved”Part Five: The Lonely Way (1816–1827)46 • Longing for Greater Things47 • Post-Congress Vienna48 • London Plans49 • A Faustian Sonata and a Diabolical Contraption50 • The Missa solemnis: A Mass for Peace51 • The Circle Is Complete: The Late Piano Works52 • Estrangement53 • Encounters with the Younger Generation54 • An Ode to Joy55 • Decline56 • Karl’s Emancipation57 • Money Matters58 • The Discovery of Heaven: The Late String Quartets59 • Comoedia finita estAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIllustration CreditsIndex of WorksIndex of People

"Beethoven, A Life continues the journey towards a more complex and nuanced picture of the great composer. . . . Caeyers seeks to unravel the networks that influenced Beethoven’s career, to paint portraits of those who supported him, and to outline the many interests that were at play in forming Beethoven both as a man and an artist. . . . The result is a very readable book that, as a byproduct, offers a generous supply of scene-setting detail. This ranges from life in Vienna in the early 19th century to the grinding economic impact of the French revolution and its aftermath, and even the bathing customs in Bohemian spa towns." FT Books of the Year 2020