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Beethoven's Tenth
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ashes to Ashes
When the assistant manager of a hardware store in rural New Jersey shows up at the offices of Cubbage & Wakeham, an elite New York auction house, with a worn musical manuscript he hopes to sell for a small (or perhaps hefty) fortune, he is greeted with subdued snickers—and not surprisingly. The title page of the document reads, “William Tell: A Dramatic Symphony” and is signed “Ludwig van Beethoven.” The bearer of the composition claims he recently came upon it in an old attic trunk while cleaning out his lately deceased grandfather’s home in Zurich; several accompanying documents suggest the work was written there during the summer of 1814.
Since virtually all lovers of classical music—and many others who can’t tell Stravinsky from Springsteen—know that Beethoven wrote nine sublime symphonies, and so evidence of a new-found tenth one by the supreme master of that musical form sets off an instant international uproar. Is the seemingly miraculous discovery the genuine article or an ingenious hoax?
To solve the tantalizing puzzle before placing the manuscript on the auction block at risk of becoming a global laughingstock, Cubbage & Wakeham’s management organizes a team of intensely skeptical investigators, among them the world’s top Beethoven scholars and forensic experts, all of them out to prove the find a fraud. But as evidence to the contrary begins to pile up, tensions rise among the corps of authenticators, the financial stakes soar as would-be exploiters of the symphony gather, the governments of five nations seek to claim the work as a national treasure, and the mystery artfully spun by novelist Richard Kluger deepens by the day.
Among the beguiling questions that demand answers:
The mountain of archival documentation on Beethoven’s life and works is silent about his activities and whereabouts in the summer of 1814, but why would he have gone to Zurich then and written a symphony in tribute to, of all people, Swizterland’s great folk hero?
Why are the form and structure of the Tell symphony—each movement contains a number of vocal interludes seamlessly blended with the instrumental passages—so different from all the other Beethoven symphonies?
And why, if he had produced such a monumental work, would Beethoven have abandoned it? Did he think it below his incomparably high standard of artistry? Was it stolen from him? Or did he fear pressing political considerations back in Vienna, where he had long resided, that could have endangered his career if the new work were to be publicly performed?
The answers—and a cast of feisty characters with conflicting stakes in the quest—make Beethoven’s Tenth a deftly twisty and challenging detective novel, enriched by the prodigious research of author Kluger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning social historian.
When the assistant manager of a hardware store in rural New Jersey shows up at the offices of Cubbage & Wakeham, an elite New York auction house, with a worn musical manuscript he hopes to sell for a small (or perhaps hefty) fortune, he is greeted with subdued snickers—and not surprisingly. The title page of the document reads, “William Tell: A Dramatic Symphony” and is signed “Ludwig van Beethoven.” The bearer of the composition claims he recently came upon it in an old attic trunk while cleaning out his lately deceased grandfather’s home in Zurich; several accompanying documents suggest the work was written there during the summer of 1814.
Since virtually all lovers of classical music—and many others who can’t tell Stravinsky from Springsteen—know that Beethoven wrote nine sublime symphonies, and so evidence of a new-found tenth one by the supreme master of that musical form sets off an instant international uproar. Is the seemingly miraculous discovery the genuine article or an ingenious hoax?
To solve the tantalizing puzzle before placing the manuscript on the auction block at risk of becoming a global laughingstock, Cubbage & Wakeham’s management organizes a team of intensely skeptical investigators, among them the world’s top Beethoven scholars and forensic experts, all of them out to prove the find a fraud. But as evidence to the contrary begins to pile up, tensions rise among the corps of authenticators, the financial stakes soar as would-be exploiters of the symphony gather, the governments of five nations seek to claim the work as a national treasure, and the mystery artfully spun by novelist Richard Kluger deepens by the day.
Among the beguiling questions that demand answers:
The mountain of archival documentation on Beethoven’s life and works is silent about his activities and whereabouts in the summer of 1814, but why would he have gone to Zurich then and written a symphony in tribute to, of all people, Swizterland’s great folk hero?
Why are the form and structure of the Tell symphony—each movement contains a number of vocal interludes seamlessly blended with the instrumental passages—so different from all the other Beethoven symphonies?
And why, if he had produced such a monumental work, would Beethoven have abandoned it? Did he think it below his incomparably high standard of artistry? Was it stolen from him? Or did he fear pressing political considerations back in Vienna, where he had long resided, that could have endangered his career if the new work were to be publicly performed?
The answers—and a cast of feisty characters with conflicting stakes in the quest—make Beethoven’s Tenth a deftly twisty and challenging detective novel, enriched by the prodigious research of author Kluger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning social historian.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published August 14, 2018
9 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Richard Kluger
28 books55 followersRichard Kluger is an American social historian and novelist who, after working as a New York journalist and publishing executive, turned in mid-career to writing books that have won wide critical acclaim. His two best known works are Simple Justice, considered the definitive account of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark decision outlawing racially segregated public schools, and Ashes to Ashes, a critical history of the cigarette industry and its lethal toll on smokers, which won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.
Born in Paterson, N.J., Kluger grew up in Manhattan and graduated from Princeton University, where he chaired The Daily Princetonian. As a young journalist, he wrote and edited for The Wall Street Journal, the pre-Murdoch New York Post and Forbes magazine, and became the last literary editor of the New York Herald Tribune and its literary supplement, Book Week. When the Tribune folded, Kluger entered the book industry, rising to executive editor of Simon and Schuster, editor-in-chief of Atheneum, and publisher of Charterhouse Books.
Moved by the cultural upheavals sweeping across the U.S., Kluger left publishing and devoted five years to writing Simple Justice, which The Nation hailed as “a monumental accomplishment” and the Harvard Law Review termed “a major contribution to our understanding of the Supreme Court.” It was a finalist for the National Book Award, as was Kluger’s second nonfiction work, The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune. It was followed by Ashes to Ashes and three other well received works of history,
Seizing Destiny , about the relentless expansion of America’s territorial boundaries; The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek, about a tragic clash between white settlers and tribal natives in territorial Washington, and Indelible Ink, about publisher John Peter Zenger and the origins of press freedom in America.
Of his seven novels, the most widely read were Members of the Tribe, warmly praised by the Chicago Tribune said, and The Sheriff of Nottingham, which Time called “richly imagined and beautifully written.” He also co-authored two novels with his wife Phyllis, a fiber artist and herself the author of two books on needlework design. The Klugers live in Berkeley.
Born in Paterson, N.J., Kluger grew up in Manhattan and graduated from Princeton University, where he chaired The Daily Princetonian. As a young journalist, he wrote and edited for The Wall Street Journal, the pre-Murdoch New York Post and Forbes magazine, and became the last literary editor of the New York Herald Tribune and its literary supplement, Book Week. When the Tribune folded, Kluger entered the book industry, rising to executive editor of Simon and Schuster, editor-in-chief of Atheneum, and publisher of Charterhouse Books.
Moved by the cultural upheavals sweeping across the U.S., Kluger left publishing and devoted five years to writing Simple Justice, which The Nation hailed as “a monumental accomplishment” and the Harvard Law Review termed “a major contribution to our understanding of the Supreme Court.” It was a finalist for the National Book Award, as was Kluger’s second nonfiction work, The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune. It was followed by Ashes to Ashes and three other well received works of history,
Seizing Destiny , about the relentless expansion of America’s territorial boundaries; The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek, about a tragic clash between white settlers and tribal natives in territorial Washington, and Indelible Ink, about publisher John Peter Zenger and the origins of press freedom in America.
Of his seven novels, the most widely read were Members of the Tribe, warmly praised by the Chicago Tribune said, and The Sheriff of Nottingham, which Time called “richly imagined and beautifully written.” He also co-authored two novels with his wife Phyllis, a fiber artist and herself the author of two books on needlework design. The Klugers live in Berkeley.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 1, 2025
This book was not what I expected. It's a quite well researched mystery and history lesson with intrigue and suspense and characters with questionable motivations-which leads to the intrigue.
Mitch is a young married attorney working for a reputable auction house in New York when a client shows up with an interesting family heirloom he brought from the estate of a grandfather he hardly knew, who'd recently passed away in Zurich, Switzerland. While there, his grandfather's neighbor, Ansel, a musical prodigy with mental health issues, had been with him when he'd discovered this item stored in a wooden box inside a chest in the attic of the home. Inside were very old manuscripts and notebooks of a musical composition in process, with Beethoven's name on the title page.
Mitch is assigned the job of determining the authenticity of this potential treasure. Is the whole thing a hoax, or is it an unknown masterpiece by the world's most famous composer?
I won't share what happens, but the story takes the reader back and forth from New York to several cities in Europe as Mitch has his charming, brilliant wife, Clara, who is working on her doctorate degree in music, assist him in his investigation. The story becomes very complicated and compelling as various characters are revealed to be less than forthcoming with the truth. Mitch is incredibly skeptical about the entire situation, as his position requires him to be, but Clara regularly challenges him to consider the possibility that the symphony might be authentic. Their relationship, and the love and respect they have for each other, is a pleasant respite in a story of intrigue. I appreciated having one thing I could count on to be true.
Mitch is a young married attorney working for a reputable auction house in New York when a client shows up with an interesting family heirloom he brought from the estate of a grandfather he hardly knew, who'd recently passed away in Zurich, Switzerland. While there, his grandfather's neighbor, Ansel, a musical prodigy with mental health issues, had been with him when he'd discovered this item stored in a wooden box inside a chest in the attic of the home. Inside were very old manuscripts and notebooks of a musical composition in process, with Beethoven's name on the title page.
Mitch is assigned the job of determining the authenticity of this potential treasure. Is the whole thing a hoax, or is it an unknown masterpiece by the world's most famous composer?
I won't share what happens, but the story takes the reader back and forth from New York to several cities in Europe as Mitch has his charming, brilliant wife, Clara, who is working on her doctorate degree in music, assist him in his investigation. The story becomes very complicated and compelling as various characters are revealed to be less than forthcoming with the truth. Mitch is incredibly skeptical about the entire situation, as his position requires him to be, but Clara regularly challenges him to consider the possibility that the symphony might be authentic. Their relationship, and the love and respect they have for each other, is a pleasant respite in a story of intrigue. I appreciated having one thing I could count on to be true.
June 24, 2023
I have so many mixed feelings about this book. First of all, the ending was extremely frustrating! They shredded everything when it was actually authentic! Well, the refurbished copy was authentic anyway. All because of Mus immunization.
And the letter from Cardinal Rudolph explaining that Beethoven was writing this dramatic symphony was real (in this fiction book). But the person organizing everything moved it to where Riker never saw it! It’s like the move Serendipity. Everything is there but people miss the facts for random reasons.
I wanted to give up on reading this book many times because it was very dense. I don’t know how a non-musician would enjoy it at all if I kind of struggled to read it. Or who knows, maybe they’d like it more.
And the letter from Cardinal Rudolph explaining that Beethoven was writing this dramatic symphony was real (in this fiction book). But the person organizing everything moved it to where Riker never saw it! It’s like the move Serendipity. Everything is there but people miss the facts for random reasons.
I wanted to give up on reading this book many times because it was very dense. I don’t know how a non-musician would enjoy it at all if I kind of struggled to read it. Or who knows, maybe they’d like it more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2022
It took me a bit longer than usual to finish this book (the chapters are on the longer side and long chapters have always been a challenge for me), but it was so worth it! The mystery of Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony is riveting, and all of the twists and turns the authentication process takes to the very end of the novel makes the tale even more fascinating. The details get a little heavy in some places, but they mostly have a purpose later in the book. Overall, a very interesting read for both the musically inclined and the not-so musically inclined.
August 24, 2022
Lots of interesting information about Beethoven, authenticating old scores of music, and courtroom procedures, but if your interest lies else ware this book will require more time than the the usual 400 page book.
August 3, 2025
P.S., I've just re-read this. The four stars are still warranted. I do now think it is a much better novel than I first thought. It certainly does show how good a writer Richard Kluger actually is. I highly recommend reading it especially you enjoy Beethoven's music.
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I really want to like this book. It is the first Kluger novel I've read. But Kluger did write the truly monumental Simple Justice. That book alone compels me to read Kluger. Kluger's reputation plus my love for all things Beethoven.... Well, I have to read Kluger's novels. But this one is difficult for me to rate highly. It is a good and thorough tale of a really intriguing idea. It's an idea that true Beethoven fans want to hope could come true. But this is more of a "War and Peace" novel. It is not the light entertainment that one takes to the beach on a sunny day. It is, alas, an overly complicated story. It's long and convoluted. And Kluger has some difficulty creating believable characters. His main protagonists -- a young married couple -- are just too perfect to believe in. Kluger could take lessons from Stephen Harrigan on creating characters you want to follow. Despite my disappointment, this is still a good book to read. It might require more time to read than a typical 400 page novel would. It certainly will require an abundance of concentration. It is, however, a Kluger book. It will display the fruits of prodigious research. It just requires the reader's active time and attention.
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I really want to like this book. It is the first Kluger novel I've read. But Kluger did write the truly monumental Simple Justice. That book alone compels me to read Kluger. Kluger's reputation plus my love for all things Beethoven.... Well, I have to read Kluger's novels. But this one is difficult for me to rate highly. It is a good and thorough tale of a really intriguing idea. It's an idea that true Beethoven fans want to hope could come true. But this is more of a "War and Peace" novel. It is not the light entertainment that one takes to the beach on a sunny day. It is, alas, an overly complicated story. It's long and convoluted. And Kluger has some difficulty creating believable characters. His main protagonists -- a young married couple -- are just too perfect to believe in. Kluger could take lessons from Stephen Harrigan on creating characters you want to follow. Despite my disappointment, this is still a good book to read. It might require more time to read than a typical 400 page novel would. It certainly will require an abundance of concentration. It is, however, a Kluger book. It will display the fruits of prodigious research. It just requires the reader's active time and attention.
November 2, 2018
This had a lot of twists and turns and complexity that made it very suspenseful. And I liked it was related to music.
December 2, 2018
This book was voted a Best of the Best book for December, 2018. See more reviews and recommendations at http://forums.delphiforums.com/stevo1.
November 13, 2018
This book was informative, historical, intriguing. I would have given it 5 stars but it had several minor editing issues and it should have included DNA testing SOMEWHERE in the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews