Jan Swafford

[Peter]

Having just finished re-reading his excellent biography of Brahms, I was wondering if anyone here has read his Mozart and Beethoven biographies and can recommend?

[Sorrano]

I started reading one by Robert W. Gutman. Sometime in the near future I would like to get back to it. Time constraints prevented me from getting very far with it, but my impression with that one is that is is pretty detailed.

[Quijote]

Having just finished re-reading his excellent biography of Brahms, I was wondering if anyone here has read his Mozart and Beethoven biographies and can recommend?

I read his Beethoven biography a few years ago and can thoroughly recommend it.

[Zevy]

Having just finished re-reading his excellent biography of Brahms, I was wondering if anyone here has read his Mozart and Beethoven biographies and can recommend?

I read his Mozart biography and I enjoyed it very much. In particular, I liked his description of the overall goings-on of the time.The author put many things (sociological, financial, etc.) in perspective and that was very informative. I recommend this book.

[Peter]

Thanks for the replies and going by Swafford's Brahms biography, I'm not surprised he gets such good endorsements for his Mozart and Beethoven which are definitely on my wish list. I notice also that he has a bio on Charles Ives who I have to say is not a composer I greatly warm to and neither can I recall much mention of him on this forum - anyone here a fan of Ives?

[Sorrano]

I have to confess that I quite like Ives. He is quite unique.

[Quijote]

I have to confess that I quite like Ives. He is quite unique.

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