Description:
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2023
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
"[A]n immensely valuable source for anyone desiring an accessible overview of this endlessly controversial and chronically misunderstood giant of 20th-century music." --John Adams, New York Times Book Review, cover review
An astonishingly lyrical biography that rescues Schoenberg from notoriety, restoring him to his rightful place in the pantheon of twentieth-century composers.
Brief description: Harvey Sachs is the author or coauthor of eleven books, including Toscanini and Music in Fascist Italy. He lives in New York City and is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Review Quotes: [A] concentrated meditation . . . It may be recommended for anybody with an interest in the work of the Viennese-American composer Arnold Schoenberg--and perhaps especially to those who have never quite been able to "crack" his music . . . Despite his postwar decades in California, Schoenberg--with his rattles and shimmers, his craggy melodies and pervasive angst--never quite escaped the nightmares of what was then a crabbed and bloody Old World . . . Mr. Sachs's fine study should inspire a fresh understanding of his life and work.--Tim Page "Wall Street Journal"