Book description
Mozart: A Cultural Biography is a fresh interpretation of a musical
genius, meticulously researched and gracefully written. It places
Mozart's life and music in the context of the intellectual, political,
and artistic currents of eighteenth-century Europe. Even as he delves
into philosophic and aesthetic questions, Robert Gutman keeps in sight,
clearly and firmly, the composer and his works. He discusses the major
genres in which Mozart worked - chamber music; liturgical, theatre, and
keyboard compositions; concerto; symphony; opera; and oratorio. All of
these riches unfold within the framework of the composer's brief but
remarkable life. With Gutman's informed and sensitive handling, Mozart
emerges in a light more luminous than in previous renderings. The
composer was an affectionate and generous man to family and friends,
self-deprecating, witty, winsome, but also an austere moralist, incisive
and purposeful. Mozart is both an extraordinary portrait of a man in his
time and a brilliant distillation of musical thought. Robert W. Gutman
is the author of the critically acclaimed biography
Richard Wagner.
Gutman was one of the founders and directors of the Master Classes at
Bayreuth Festival, where he lectured on Wagner. He was a member of the
faculty of State University of New York, and has taught at The City
College of New York, The New School for Social Research, Bard College,
and Duchesne College.
