Mozart

From his celebrated early childhood, Mozart has been caught up in myths: the superhuman prodigy, the adult who was still a child, the neglect, the pauper's grave. None of these myths are true, at least not at face value. Wolfgang Amadè Mozart is not primarily a myth-busting book, but in the process of bringing to vivid life the man and composer absorbed in writing for his public rather than for posterity, the myths topple en route. Swafford portrays a man who had his sorrows like everybody else, but who was a high-spirited, high-living bon vivant fond of games of skill, well-read and thoughtful if also at times playing the clown: in the end fundamentally a happy and happily married man who had a wide circle of friends.

Jan Swafford is an American composer and author. He earned his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College and his M.M.A. and D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. His teachers in composition included Jacob Druckman at Yale and Betsy Jolas at Tanglewood. Swafford is the author of biographies of Ives, Brahms, and Beethoven. Among many honors, his essays for Slate won a Deems Taylor award for online writing on music. He is a long-time program writer and preconcert lecturer for the Boston Symphony and has written notes and essays for the orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto. Among his liner notes for recordings are ones for the DGG Beethoven anniversary release of the nine symphonies by the Vienna Philharmonic. His website is janswafford.com.