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Johannes Brahms was twenty years old when
he fell deeply in love with Clara Schumann, wife of Robert
Schumann, mother of eight, and the greatest woman pianist
of the age. He was just as deeply indebted to Robert for proclaiming
him the messiah of music before he had published a single
work, but Robert was then less than six months away from committing
himself to an insane asylum.
Their story provides the spine for a panoramic
vision of the 19th century in music, stretching from 1828
(the year of Clara’s first concert when she was nine)
to 1897 (the year of Brahms’s death). Germany grows
in the hinterland of the story, from 400+ principalities to
one nation under Bismarck and the Kaiser, beginning with the
revolutionary wars of 1848 to victories against Denmark, Austria,
and France by 1871. The great composers of the century (Mendelssohn,
Chopin, Liszt, and Wagner among others) have their entrances
and exits when their lives intersect those of the trio—and
the ghosts of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert are never
distant.
Book One, The Schumanns, concludes
with the death of Robert. Though firmly grounded in fact,
it unfolds like a novel, not a biography, a great read for
the beach, the summer, the winter, a holiday, a holiday in
itself, a book in which one may live for a while—a narrative
of love, insanity, suicide, revolution, politics—and,
of course, music.
Boman Desai was born and
raised in Bombay, but has spent most of his life in Chicago.
He has degrees in Psychology (Bachelors) and English (Masters),
both from the University of Illinois in Chicago. He has published
two novels, The Memory of Elephants and Asylum,
USA, some short stories and essays, and won some prizes.
He has worked in various capacities including farmhand, bartender,
dishwasher, secretary, musician, bookstore clerk, telephone
operator, auditor, and teacher.
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