Amazon.com

The brilliant biographer of a quintessentially American, prototypically modern musician (Charles Ives) proves just as masterful in probing the life and art of a 19th-century German composer. Writing with passionate clarity that perfectly matches the genius of Brahms (1833-97), Jan Swafford traces the emotional wellsprings of this secretive man's music without trivializing art into mere autobiography. A composer himself, Swafford understands and lucidly conveys Brahms's unique position in musical history: beloved by many, emulated by few, the triumphant yet melancholy heir of a tradition coming to an end in his lifetime. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The New York Times Book Review, Edward Rothstein

It is a measure of the accomplishment of Jan Swafford's biography of Brahms that ... sadness becomes palpable. Though Johannes Brahms: A Biography would have been still more of an accomplishment if its author had been as ruthless in pruning as Brahms was, it manages ... to construct a full-bodied human being in the midst of it ambling meticulousness. Swafford retains the genre's requisite wonder ... tempered with a skeptical imagination.... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.