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HANS VON BULOW A LIFE AND TIMES
Author(s): WALKER (Author)
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication Date: 4 Dec. 2009
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 540 pages
- ISBN-10: 0195368681
- ISBN-13: 9780195368680
Book Description
In Hans von Bülow: A Life and Times, Alan Walker, the acclaimed author of numerous award-winning books on the era’s iconic composers, provides the first full-length English biography of this remarkable musical figure. Walker traces Bülow’s life in illuminating and engaging detail, from the first piano lessons of his boyhood days, to his first American tour, to his last days as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Unearthing Bülow’s extensive and previously unavailable correspondence and writings, Walker conveys amusing and informative anecdotes about this unique musical legend- from his sardonic and clever personality to his meticulous devotion to his work-and reveals enlightening insights on the still-contested sensibilities of musical-compositional style and “idea” at play in the vibrant musical world of which Bülow was a part.
Editorial Reviews
Review
what an enthralling book, finely researched! ―
John Amis, Musical OpinionAlan Walker’s ground-breaking
Hans von Bülow: A Life and Times is the first objective biography of a major player who, for all his social ineptitude, shaped the musical world as we know it today. ― Wall Street JournalThroughout the book, Walker delights the reader with rich insights and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the field, always infusing his elegant prose with a love of detail and irony, anecdotes and connections fuelled with wit and wisdom, all of which brings the subject alive. As a result his book promises to enrich scholars and music lovers alike, and to turn Beethovenians and Wagnerians into Von Bulowians: a must-read. ―
Malcolm Miller, Arietta JournalThis magnificent long-overdue biography is the monument to Bülow that never was… What Truman Capote did in In Cold Blood towards creating a new genre of fiction faction that is to say a documentary with all its existential drama built in, Walker has contrived to do by extension in biography or should we call it biografaction where by connecting up data in the form of letters, civic documents and newspaper reports, together with an uncanny interpretive gift for reading between the lines, he creates a vital context whereby his book, quite apart from its profundity, finishes by being as unputdownable as the latest historical novel by Mary Renault. ―
EPTA Piano JournalWalker’s narrative unfolds with energy, and provides an impressively rounded portrait of his subject, full of flaws as well as strengths… Generously laced with witty, wise anecdotes, copious footnotes, elegant illustrations and a family tree, as well as a hefty index and source list, the book represents a seminal study of one of the movers and shakers of 19th-century music, a relatively unsung hero of musical history. ―
The Wagner JournalWorth the wait… In English, Walker’s book has no competition. Its sixty-three illustrations and programme reproductions add much to the reader’s pleasure… A remarkable repository of information on Bulow. ―
The Hungarian Quarterlya profitable read for anyone interested in the musicians and activities that von Bulow’s life touched ―
David Breckbill, BBC Music MagazineThis study of Hans von Bülow must stand as one of the most important and indeed necessary biographies of a musician published in recent times … compelling ―
Roger Allen, Music and Letters
