Beloved Vision

A rich and luminous biography of nineteenth century music from the acclaimed author of Debussy: A Painter in Sound.

When one thinks of "great" classical music-music with the most emotional resonance and timelessness-we harken back to the nineteenth century and the Romantic tradition.

The emotional resonance of nineteenth century has moved generations muscians and resonated with countless listeners. It has inspired artists and writers. But no writer until how has adopted such a vividly insightful narrative approach as Stephen Walsh.

With authority, insight, and passion, The Beloved Vision, links the music history of this singular epoch to the ideas that lay behind Romanticism in all its manifestations. And through this we understand Beethoven, Mahler, Schubert, Chopin, and Wagner anew.

Walsh moves deftly from composer to composer, musician to musician, and crafts a brilliant intellectual biography of the period that helps both the expert musician and music lover to appreciate the aesthetics and poetics of the Romantic era that reshaped music and art. The Beloved Vision is a cultural tour de force, by turns bold, challenging, and immensely stimulating.