The Beloved Vision, Stephen Walsh
The Beloved Vision, Stephen Walsh
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Beloved Vision
A History of Nineteenth Century Music

Author: Stephen Walsh

Narrator: Michael Page

Unabridged: 15 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/16/2024


Synopsis

When one thinks of "great" classical music, we harken back to the nineteenth century and the Romantic tradition.

The emotional resonance of nineteenth century has moved generations musicians and resonated with countless listeners. It has inspired artists and writers. But no writer until how has adopted such an insightful narrative approach as Stephen Walsh and he shows how there is more to Romantic music that meets the eye—and the ear.

The Beloved Vision links the music history of this singular epoch to the ideas that lay behind Romanticism in all its manifestations. In this account, we come to understand the phase in music history that has become the mainstay of the twentieth and twenty-first century concert and operatic repertoire.

The narrative begins in the eighteenth century, with C.P.E. Bach, Haydn and the literary movement known as Sturm und Drang. The windows are flung open, and everything to do with style, form, even technique, is exposed to the emotional and intellectual weather, the impulses and preferences of the individual composer. It's a colorful story, told with passion but also with the precision and clarity of detail for which Stephen Walsh is so widely admired.

About Stephen Walsh

Stephen Walsh is Emeritus Professor of music at Cardiff University and the author of a number of books on music including Debussy: A Painter in Sound, Musorgsky and His Circle, and the prizewinning, two-volume biography of Igor Stravinsky. He served for many years as deputy music critic for the Observer and writes reviews for a variety of publications.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Susan on February 21, 2023

An excellent overview of Romantic era with many insights. Seemed like a third of the book was about Wagner and heavy focus on opera. Not enough focus on instrumentalists.......more

Goodreads review by David on November 25, 2022

This is a well-written overview of classical music written (for the most part) in the 19th century (there is a little about Haydn and Mozart to begin -- and some composers who lived and worked into the 20th century appear in the last chapter). What I most appreciated about this volume is the way the......more

Goodreads review by Michael on March 28, 2023

To be honest, I gave up on this book after reading about 60 pages and skimming much of the rest, but I know I'm not the intended audience. I'm a more or less casual fan of classical music, and this is written for someone already well-versed in the music, culture and history of the era. It's dense bu......more

Goodreads review by Justin on July 16, 2024

I struggled through Walsh's 'Debussy,' but thought that might have been a one-off incompatibility. Nope. What is going on here? What is with all the five star reviews? This is mostly a long list of compositions, occasionally leavened by opera plot summaries. If you already know the music, you don't......more

Goodreads review by Tom on March 20, 2023

Good book, dense and very fluid writing and if you don't pay close attention you miss a lot, so I did lots of backing up and "what'd he say about who?"......more