The Life and Works of Beethoven

By: Jeremy Siepmann

Narrated by: Jeremy Siepmann

Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

For many people, Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived. In this portrait-in-sound, actors' readings combine with his music to reveal a titanic personality, vulnerable and belligerent, comic and tragic, and above all, heroic, as he comes to grips with perhaps the greatest disability a musician can suffer. No man's music is more universal; few men's lives are more inspiring. In every sense but one - his modest height - he was a giant.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2001 Jeremy Siepmann (P)2001 NAXOS AudioBooks

Enjoyed every minute

True, this doesn't give an indepth account of Beethoven's life, but the production's lively and entertaining--it reminds me of great radio. The Life and Works of Chopin is another great title.

AMAZING!!!!!!

This is really a wonderfull portrait of one of the greatest composers ever. I always tought of Beethoven's music as being a bit too strong because I only knew the symphony's works, but it was totally fascinating.
A+++ !

Good introduction to Beethoven

Musical selections wonderful. Overview of his life informative especially for those who know nothing about him.

more life less music

The program is called The Life and Works of Beethoven, but it is a bit short on the life and heavy on the works. This would not be bad but the sound of the music is not very good and some of the music is played too long. But over all I did enjoy this program.

interesting book, but audio quality of the music..

Where does The Life and Works of Beethoven rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is really great intention behind this book, but quality of audio in parts of actual music is very low. The story is moderately interesting. There are better books in print about Beethoven, but this definitely one, that you also will enjoy, as a true fan of the composer.
It will be great, if the same book (books about other composers), but with good quality music will appear in future as part of story. We need more such books, but in higher quality.

Fascinating bio interlaced thoughtfully with music

Fascinating bio of the artist interlaced thoughtfully with all his,major works,of music. Very well executed.

Fine overview of the life, but the music quality is unacceptable.

Siepmann's text is interesting and objective, and I find his narration pleasant and intelligent. But the musical examples, drawn from the Naxos catalog, and which comprise about half of this audiobook, are terribly distorted. The Naxos recordings are actually quite good, but unfortunately the engineers didn't insert them (or so I guess) correctly here.

Functional but uninspired

Audio is of course a natural format for a musical biography, and this delivers a competent short biography of the great man (turns out, not as stone deaf as the popular image). But this won't grab you like a novel the way a really good biography should, which is a shame considering he was such an interesting and iconic character. It's a bit dull - somehow I never quite connected with the subject at an emotional or psychological level; but you get the facts - often quite sad -without any sensationalist speculation or idle dallying. The splendid thing is the musical excerpts - I could have done with many more, and more musical analysis. Perhaps they were tacked on as an afterthought for the audio edition.
For drivetime, only recommended if you a strong pre-existing interest in Ludwig van.

beethoven's life and works

Read by the author, the reading is fluid and beautifully nuanced. Yes, the illustrative musical passages are sometimes a bit long, and not of the highest audio standard, but the quality is adequate for getting the author's points across. There is a good balance of life and works in the portrayal, my only complaint being that I would have liked a bit more discussion of the musical dynamics in LVB's compositions -- the presentation is light in this regard. The voice of LVB in quotation is absolutely wonderful, positively surly. LVB's life was cosmically tortured, and the story itself is utterly gripping. The author does a wonderful job of contrasting LVB's transcendent music with the pedestrian sorrows of his life. I've listened to this audio book perhaps 5 times -- it's one of those books that you can listen to over and over without losing interest. Warning: after listening to this book, you will want to listen to every composition LVB ever wrote. It's a great introduction to Beethoven.

mostly music, light on biography

This title is mainly music, with small pieces of biography interspersed. If you are looking for music of beethoven, from various genres, with a small amount of anecdote placed in between, this is just the ticket. If you are looking for a biography, or for music with musical analysis, it is not (see the Teaching Company for the latter). I enjoyed it. I have left it on my IPOD for its musical qualities (as if it came from iTunes).