Buch Neuvième de Beethoven

Generally speaking, a souvenir is a token of remembrance, a symbol of a past that is meaningful to its creator, dedicatees, addressees, and the whole community for which it is created. A souvenir may quote, recall, evoke, imply, et al., and the realization of these potentialities is always strictly connected with the what, the how, and the why of its existence, structure, and creative/manufacturing process. As such, along the centuries and throughout the cultures of the world, the souvenir has been actualized, experienced, shared, and interpreted as a personal keepsake, a moral memento, a commercial reminder, a socio-political narrative, and so on.

Il faut songer que tout nouveau livre sur Beethoven doit avoir sa raison d'être. À cette fin, l'ouvrage ne devra pas relater simplement les faits de la vie du compositeur, mais bien les interpréter, Ce qui jusqu'ici a été écrit sur les faits réels de cette vie remplit des bibliothèques entières et, mises à part, à vrai dire, beaucoup d’œuvres négligeables, ces bibliothèques renferment des trésors de matériaux précieux, choisis et assemblés avec respect de la vérité et une dévotion admirables. …

L'ensemble des neuf symphonies, sept concertos et onze ouvertures de Beethoven, sans oublier la Fantaisie pour piano, choeurs et orchestre, les deux romances pour violon et orchestre et la pittoresque Bataille de Vittoria, prend place parmi les plus imposants monuments du répertoire symphonique. …

1801, in Vienna, two young women, his pupils, are in love with him. Thérèse de Brunswick's love remains unrequited even though she and Beethoven are engaged for years; Juliette Guicciardi, whom Beethoven loves but who marries a count, regrets that decision, but by then he and Thérèse are engaged. When Beethoven loses Juliette, he moves to the mill at Heiligenstadt; realizing he's becoming deaf, profound depression sets in. He rejects suicide, holding on to remembered sound and to his work, a dedication assisted by Thérèse and others. In later years, we see his devotion to an ungrateful and thieving nephew, his poverty, the isolation of deafness, and the love of friends.

La vie passionnée de Beethoven. Précédé de : Esquisse d'une discographie par Marcel Marnat.