The Last Master Passion and Glory by John Suchet

The Last Master Passion and Glory Reviews

• 
  Harvey Tordoff

  At over 1400 pages the trilogy demands a big investment of time and patience. The time spent is rewarded by Suchet's unique vision of the inspiration for this most marvellous music. Unfortunately, I found myself losing patience long before I reached the end, not just with the detailing of the agonies of deafness on almost every page and Suchet's endless repetition of stock phrases, but with Beethoven's daily dealings with the people in his life. Bullied by his father, Ludwig appears to have responded by verbally abusing everyone he met. He was constantly and consistently rude to his parents, his brothers, his friends, fellow musicians, his patrons; he even snubbed the Empress! It does not make for uplifting reading! Either this was a man I am glad I never met, or Suchet is unduly harsh on his subject.
  
  I can accept that with the passing of years and frustration at losing a musician's most important sense, Beethoven became an angry and bitter old man. But was he always that way? Would he have made life-long friends in his youth if he was as unpleasant as Suchet would have us believe? Suchet describes the young Ludwig as never close to his parents, but Ludwig later wrote of his mother: "she was such a wonderful mother to me, my best friend."
  
  As far as the music is concerned, I was happy to rely on Suchet's intimate knowledge, and I was moved by his accounts of the creation of the pieces that I know, that I could hear in my head as he described them. I was left with one disappointment, however. Before he left Bonn Ludwig wrote themes, which he discarded, inspired by the Rhine and the ancient myths surrounding that great river. I knew that his last symphony had drawn on earlier themes, and I fully expected Suchet to make the connection. Apparently, there is no connection. A pity.
• 
  Mandy Holzer

  Overall the 3 book series is interesting, entertaining and well written. It would have been nice to see some things in the composer's life depicted that weren't even mentioned. The author spent a large amount of time on Fidelio. While I agree it's a great work as Beethoven never composed anything bad there's no way it's more significant than the Seventh or Ninth symphonies. Read it with a grain of salt.
• 
  Diane Acosta

  A fictionalized idea of who Beethoven was, written by someone who has spent much time researching the composer's life. I find that the fictionalized account really follows the events in his life well, as well as makes the reading more engaging that your average text on the long-dead genius.Beethoven comes across more so as a real person with feelings, love,anger,family problems,and the whole range of human-ness that we often forget about when we are in awe of his amazing music Kudos for Mr.Suchet for taking on such a tough job! That said, there are times in this series where the characters are a bit too contrived and soap-opera like.. But I suppose that is necessary to add the human emotional element. I have quickly gone through the 3 books in this series. I do recommend this for people who are beginning to learn about Beethoven's life who also find biographies tedious to read. This series brings a bit of life from the past.
• 
  Welton Barker

  *****SPOILER ALERT*****
  
  This whole trilogy was a wonderful way of putting most of the known facts about Beethoven into perspective. I thought Mr. Suchet did an admirable job of keeping it interesting while including a great deal of information. Since Beethovenology is an active field, this only represents what was believed at the time of writing, but most of the facts are pretty straightforward. The identity of the "Immortal Beloved" is still controversial, despite all of the concrete assurances offered through the years. Suchet chooses to side with Maynard Solomon, which is a relatively conservative choice.
• 
  Linda

  Was given the boxed set of this trilogy for my birthday in 2013 as Beethoven is one of my favourite composers.
  
  I do agree that there is too much mundane detail and too many repetitions in these volumes but I admired the amount of research that went into the trilogy and was interested to learn more about the life of Beethoven.
• 
  Alex

  Q. interesting