Mozart: A Cultural Biography: Gutman, Robert W.: 9780156011716: Amazon.com: Books

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Customers find the book interesting and informative. They appreciate the detailed historical events that shaped Mozart's life. The book provides an excellent overview of the cultural times in which Mozart lived. However, some readers found the reading pace choppy and the author's writing style overworked and sloppy at times.

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars Lux Perpetua

  Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2006

  This is a superb biography: dense, profound, vast, and multi-faceted. As its subtitle promises, it provides a fascinating cultural framework to the most complete (and myth-shattering) portrait of Mozart's character I've read so far. Without the use of a single cheap device, it put me so close to the events that I felt I was in the houses and theaters witnessing them. The poisoning plot is relegated to where it belongs: a dismissive footnote.

  I agree with another reviewer about the revelations concerning Leopold. Far from the one-dimensional Mother of All Stage Fathers he's been so often depicted as, at some moments he comes off as admirable, an authentic figure of the Enlightenment. His eventual self-destruction - the pettiness and jealousy that poisoned his relations with Wolfgang and the role he played in estranging Nannerl from her brother - is nothing short of tragic.

  For my one quibble I'll paraphrase Emperor Joseph's apocrypha: Too few notes, Mr. Gutman. The book has not a single musical quotation, which the author explains in the preface by citing the abundance of scores and recordings available. This made for somewhat choppy reading (along with the too many footnotes, Mr. Gutman). Still, the inducement to go beyond the text led to a few discoveries, both by the Apollo incarnate himself and by some of his contemporaries - all of which added immensely to the enjoyment of this book.

  15 people found this helpful

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for anyone interested in the development of music in the 18th Century.

  Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2014

  The previous reviews are exhaustive and many are quite detailed. I want to add that this is by far the best and most nuanced of the six or so Mozart biographies I have read. In my view, art attains greater depth and meaning when historically contextualized; Mr. Gutman accomplishes that marvelously! I think it is important to know, for example, that funds for support of the arts dried up when Austria engaged in expensive and disasterous wars just as Mozart was reaching the pinacle of success in Vienna. Not only were funds within control of the monarch limited, but private subscribers to his works left town for their "country" homes.

  In all events, this book is a must read for anyone interested in this dynamic, transitional perid in the move from Germanic Baroque (JS and Christian Bach) through a strong Italluan influence (Mozart's operas and extracts and evolutions from them) into Beethoven.

  One last note: I found Gutman's commentary on the Monarchs and their inter-family relationships quite interesting apart from their respective roles in music and Mozart.

  10 people found this helpful

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars Good scholarly work

  Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2016

  A good scholarly work of Mozart's life. Gutman puts Mozart into a cultural context by informing us of the political and cultural landscape in which Mozart lived as well as presenting well researched facts of the composer's life.

  I found his analysis of Mozart's works to be a bit subjective, but the rest of the book was highly engaging and informative.

• 4.0 out of 5 stars Good but.....

  Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2009

  It's hard rating this book because on the one hand the subject matter is so fascinating and wonderful to read about, but on the other hand, the author's writing style is overworked and, at times, sloppy. I didn't mind the abundance of footnotes, but his language seemed unnecessarily florid. It was however, filled with interesting facts and did not have TOO much conjecture (which I hate in history books, just the facts please!). I've read several other books on Mozart which had mainly focused on his later Vienna years, so I will say that it was enjoyable to find out so much about the whole "wunderkind" years. So I recommend this book for serious lovers of Mozart, but it may not be the best choice for the casual fan looking for a fun read.
  

  5 people found this helpful

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars A superb definitive biography

  Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2017

  This is a book that I found very interesting and well worth reading it is not for those who are looking for a quick biography but one who wants to look deeply into the life of this tortured genius
  

  One person found this helpful

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• 3.0 out of 5 stars Tedious - Not really a biography

  Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2020

  This book is really three books that have been co-mingled into one giant puzzle. The book could have been divided into three different volumes -- Biography of Mozart, Analysis of Mozart's Individual Pieces, The Times of Mozart. I was interested in reading about Mozart's life, and slogged through hundreds of pages before changing my reading approach. By page 500, I had started to skip over the description of each musical piece, as well as minutia concerning political factions of the era. If you approach the book in this manner, make the switch early on. It'll save you a lot of time and you'll probably enjoy the book more.
  

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