affiknittyreads's review against another edition
3.0
I am not a musician myself, but I am an enthusiastic listener of concert music and my younger son is a piano student who is classically trained. Some of this book went right over my head, but I do feel as thought I gained some insight into the experience of learning and playing Beethoven.
grayxen's review against another edition
3.0
this doesn't seem like a subject a book should be about since the only people who would enjoy it are probably genius young musicians like the author. it seems more like academic forum discussion material. i don't see many people relating to his passion for pieces of music. he comes across as obsessed and one-dimensional - like a savant almost. he knows everything about classical music and doesn't know or want to know about anything else. there are many other wonderful things one can be passionate about in life instead of being stuck overthinking every note in every concerto for decades. it does however help those of us who don't constantly focus on classical music understand it from a different perspective.
colophonphile's review against another edition
Confused I didn't mention this when I read it, which is several months ago. Been meaning to write something more in depth at Disquiet.com, or elsewhere. In the meanwhile: this book is a pianist talking about the difficulty about recording, by which he means both recording in general, and specifically recording an extended survey of Beethoven's work. Given that he has indeed written a book (or at least a lengthy Kindle Single), he protests a little too much about not actually being an author. It does get him off the hook a bit for logical inconsistencies. This isn't a book to concern yourself about when the author contradicts himself. What's worth focusing on is a musician who is still very much in the live performance tradition writing cogently about the complications of freezing those moments.
lyriclorelei's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I liked the discussion of playing for a recording vs for a live audience, I would've liked a little more about the music of Beethoven rather than just adoration, but.
lori_c13's review
1.0
I thought this would have more about Beethoven and his life and maybe an interpretation of his music but it wasn't what I thought. It was more like a diseration of someone learning to play his music.
danperlman's review
3.0
Read this book for an online class I'm taking - an interesting personal story of the author's (and professor's) relationship to the subject matter, the Beethoven sonatas.
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