Beethoven's Shadow

by Jonathan Biss

World-renowned pianist Jonathan Biss has written extensively about his relationships with the composers with whom he shares a stage. In 2011, just as he was about to embark on a nine-year, nine-disc recording cycle of all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, he wrote Beethoven’s Shadow, describing the joys and challenges of confronting some of the most beloved piano music in the repertoire. It was the first Kindle Single written by a classical musician. Upon the release of the fourth volume, BBC Music Magazine said, “Jonathan Biss will surely take his place among the greats if he continues on this exalted plane.” Now Biss is seven out of nine discs into the recording cycle, but his behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to prepare for this kind of musical feat is still fascinating for Beethoven-lovers, pianists, and anyone interested in the creative process. He describes how technology has changed the way we listen to and appreciate music. He describes his maturation from a talented young pianist to a fully-formed artist. A member of the faculty of his alma mater the Curtis Institute of Music since 2010, Biss led the first massive open online course (MOOC) offered by a classical music conservatory, Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, which has reached more than 150,000 people in 185 countries. Here, he includes an annotated guide to go along with the listening experience.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography, Memoir, Art, Essays

79 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 14, 2011

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Music is kind of like go — I love listening to experts dissect the esoterica of it and go on about subtleties my unschooled mind can never appreciate. Even understanding the vocabulary is tough — what does that mean, that one sonata is "thicker" than another or that the "color" is different?

The difference is that I know a tiny bit about go and actually enjoy it, whereas I have no musical taste at all, and less talent. I mean, sure, I listen to music, but I don't even know why rock fans say Nickelback sucks or Kurt Cobain was a genius. It's all noise to me, and some noise I like, some I don't. I like Beethoven and Mozart and Chopin, but to me it's all "piano music." I know, horrible, right?

So, this short, really an extended essay about the author's relationship with Beethoven's music, was kind of interesting to listen to but completely lost me, because my last experience with actually performing music was playing the clarinet in junior high school. (I sucked. Really, really sucked.) I've never even touched a piano except to plonk on the keys annoyingly. I could not distinguish between a good but not great piano player and a world-class virtuoso to save my life.

Jonathan Biss is apparently a world-class virtuoso. (Sorry, I'd never heard of him before.) And Beethoven's Shadow is a 19,000-word musing on his musical education, and his project to play all of Beethoven's sonatas. I listened to it because it was a freebie on Audible, and I tend to download those if they look even half-interesting. This was about half-interesting to me, but I'm sure for a more refined and knowledgeable aficionado of Beethoven, or someone who actually knows how to play the piano, it would be much more so.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Jonathan Biss first talks about the process of recording the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, I was somewhat skeptical that this book was going to be something of an info-mertial (although, if it was intended as such, that would be pretty brilliant marketing). Instead, it was a wonderful exploration of Beethoven's music, and the way each musician must struggle to come to terms with Beethoven's genius--whether in performing his music, or composing one's own original music. Now, I want to re-read the book, with cd player on hand, so I can listen to each of the musical examples mentioned in the book (not limited to only the piano sonatas, but also including Beethoven's string quartets, as well as works by other composers).

[Robin Hatcher]

I am not a musician nor someone overly familiar with classical music. But I truly enjoyed this short book with its look inside the world of Beethoven and renowned pianist Jonathan Biss. I had to stop the audiobook several times to write down quotes that applied to all artists, not just musicians.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once attended a yoga workshop with a famous yoga teacher. He began his lecture with a demonstration, and watching him move from pose to pose I suddenly felt that I had never actually completed a yoga pose myself. I had only playacted a yoga practice. Far from being discouraging, the thought was exhilarating. So much to learn and discover. More than I could imagine.

I had this feeling again tonight. I have playacted at playing the piano for nearly 25 years. I've had fun, but I have not begun to scratch the surface. Much of this book was over my head. But all of it was wonderful. I am inspired to play, to play more often, and to play whole-heartedly.

[Caroline Mathews · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a wonderful idea! Beethoven's Shadow would make a resourceful, one-of-a-kind audio book! The author could sit at the piano and play excerpts from the Beethoven (and other) musical examples he is making. I own many of the selections Biss mentioned and was driving myself crazy reading, searching for music, listening, re-reading.

Otherwise, Beethoven's Shadow was a research paper....a professional pianist holding forth on a fascinating subject but only to other musical brilliants. I couldn't hear the descriptions of the performances, was not familiar with the pianists Biss was writing about, and thought him to be rather on the dry side himself.

I could overcome my objections, however, had I not spent so much time searching my music library!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful. Jonathan Biss brought me back to what I love about music, and the glory of all there is to learn. He also made me realize how my current facilitation work is connected to my roots in piano performance. I love the thought of needing to "suppress safety in the pursuit of courage" and how he studies the connection of notes and phrases and context to prepare. Without a music background, this could be hard to approach.I read this as part of research I'm doing on music as metaphor - I definitely got some ideas.

Plus in reading more about Biss, I learned he has a Mooks course from Curtis about the Beethoven sonatas that started in early September. 32,000 students from around the world (including me) have signed up for this course.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Im personally kind of torn on this book. While it is well written, very well organized, and an interesting topic, it reads more like a thesis paper than it does an actual book. It doesn’t help that it tops out at 56 pages either, since the brevity keeps it from dropping squarely as solid hardcover.

For the casual reader and classical music listener, I can honestly say this likely isnt for you. The book details a lot of the works of Beethoven and various other composers in comparison but takes for granted that you know each work implicitly. Removing much of that, and the questions within the book more center around the way that our enjoyment and consumption of music has changed over 800 years, and how the recording industry has bastardized something that was once so much more human. But removing those specifics on the various works, and you would come up with a shell of a book. Heh. kind of an odd place to be. If you are a classical music lover who is particularly in love with Beethoven, this might be the perfect book for you. For me though… not so much.

Jonathan Bliss – It’s a fantastic thesis style book that is well thought out and well presented. I’m just not personally your ideal audience.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short interesting audiobook gives the listener an insight into how a musician prepares to record or perform a piece. Bliss tells how the act of recording is different from the act of performing. Bliss mentions two pianists who influenced him: Arthur Schnabel and Rudolph Serkin and explains how their playing of Beethoven's sonatas differ. The only drawback to the audiobook for me was the exclusion of any music to explain what Bliss was saying about certain Beethoven sonatas - unless the listener is a trained classical musician and/or very familiar with the mentioned sonatas, he or she would have a difficult time understanding Bliss' dissection of the music. This book did spur me to check out the pianists on youtube to get a flavor of their playing. And I will definitely see if my vast record collection contains any of the sonatas.

The narrator was easy to listen to and added to the enjoyment of the audiobook.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly good read. Mostly, this book covers the music of classical composers (particularly Beethoven), how the music world has evolved with the development of recording techniques, the relationship between a musician and their music, and other snippets of wisdom that are useful to any musician. The reading was difficult as he tended to use a lot of big words and elevated speech, so I would have to stop occasionally and think about what he was getting at. I would definitely recommend this to any musician, especially pianists who know something of Beethoven and his music.

[Nathan Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that will have a very unique, very narrow audience. This is like a long philosophical journal entry of Biss as he reflects on the joyful burden of interpreting and recording all 32 of Beethoven's sonatas over a period of 9 years. Master musicians and performers may be able to relate to many of Biss' reflections, but I was not. Nonetheless, I love Beethoven and I can read a short little book like this purely out of admiration for him. But I certainly wouldn't have finished this book if it was any more than 100 pgs.

[Eugenio Gomez-acebo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biss explains his voyage towards recording all 32 piano sonatas by Bebthoven. He talks quite eloquently and passionately about the music itself, about the problems of recording vs playing live, about the great pianists of the past (Schnabel and Rudolf Serkin), about the differences between Mozart and Beethoven, and many other topics.

What a missed opportunity to have an audiobook without a single music note!

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artist's Perspective (Audiobook)
I do enjoy Audible giving the members free books & chapters, it forces me to listen to genre I wouldn't normally purchase and there are some that I have really enjoyed that lead to future purchases.

This one, despite being something I never would have considered purchasing was interesting. It felt like one of the in depth stories that National Public Radio (NPR) often does but with more information.

The narrator Jeff Woodman did a very nice job with Jonathan Bliss' introspection on the works of Beethoven and the his process of recording them was enlightening.

[Ally · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thing to know about this book: I did not understand a word of it. I don't know classical music, and even with a film background, sound was never my thing. But it's a very passionate account of a quest for musical perfection (or imperfection). And I really do love listening to people talk shop, even when I haven't got a clue what they're talking about. Plus, it's nice and short. A great read, and free at Audible for right now, apparently!

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a free book from audible and after listening to it I know why it was free. Seriously If I hadn't been on a very long drive yesterday in mountains that have no cell phone service I would have given up on this book about 15 minutes in. The description Audible gave was of a book about Beethoven the person. Instead I listened to a very technical book about music performance and recording. Unless you are serious musician this book is a snooze.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading this little book by Jonathan Biss. From the very first sentence to the very end it is written with passion and love for great music and great performers. I have not been familiar with Mr. Biss's playing until now but he would surely be followed closely now. Because Beethoven simply takes my breath away and so did this book on his music!

[Tom Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing Analysis of the Power of Beethoven’s Music

What Biss does in this brief Essay is communicate beautifully the influence of the Composer on his efforts to perform the Sonatas. He effectively compares the way Beethoven’s work affects him to that of other Composers like Mozart and Schumann that he admires and respects, but their work doesn’t have the visceral and spiritual hold on him that Beethoven’s has.

My listening to Biss’s previous work, Unquiet, was enhanced by his playing and I was disappointed that this work didn’t follow that same pattern. Still, Biss is able to convey quite effectively the feeling that a performer can have for a piece of Music and his discussion of the different performances of the Appassionata and Pathetique by himself as well as Schnabel and Serkin led me to listen and appreciate what he was saying by listening to them myself. This demonstrates the power of the technology that allows the reader/listener of an Audiobook to access a recording of the music the Author refers to. That enhanced my enjoyment of the essay tremendously. Four stars for that experience.

[Jordan Kolby · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting insight into the mind of the musician.
I'm not going to lie, I do struggle with philosophical texts so a lot of it went over my head. I wish there was a little more information on Beethoven himself, but I do understand that is not what this book is about.
As it was an audiobook, it would've been nice if clips from the pieces referenced could've been played for greater understanding of the points the author was making.

[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Simon Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this quite as much as "Coda" or "A Pianist Under the Influence" because it was clear that Biss wasn't quite as passionate about Beethoven's work as that of the other composers he's written about. But this is still an excellent essay. I particularly enjoyed his insights into the way in which recordings of music have influenced the development and performance of classical music over the last century or so.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In film, they tell you that short films cannot be like features - they can only effectively describe a sliver of life, a powerful moment in time. This short work occupies the same niche. Despite its brevity and relative generality, or perhaps because of them, it leaves the impression that nothing more needs to be said.

It is a work of dichotomy, in many ways. Beethoven's authority is paired with the interpreter's doubt, hair-raising coincidences with the daily grind of musical life, and the acknowledgement that the history of Beethoven performance is a two-way street: Schnabel as the supreme realizer of the magic that is Beethoven in the recorded world , but he points both forward and back to other paths, other visions.

An engaging and terrifyingly thought-provoking work by Jonathan Biss, and I hope to see (and hear) more from him. Perhaps Schumann next, from what I hear - and what a world of dichotomy that will be!

[Marc Weidenbaum]

Confused I didn't mention this when I read it, which is several months ago. Been meaning to write something more in depth at Disquiet.com, or elsewhere. In the meanwhile: this book is a pianist talking about the difficulty about recording, by which he means both recording in general, and specifically recording an extended survey of Beethoven's work. Given that he has indeed written a book (or at least a lengthy Kindle Single), he protests a little too much about not actually being an author. It does get him off the hook a bit for logical inconsistencies. This isn't a book to concern yourself about when the author contradicts himself. What's worth focusing on is a musician who is still very much in the live performance tradition writing cogently about the complications of freezing those moments.

[Hermine Biasci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beethoven’s Shadow is a profound journey within the mind of an extraordinary maestro and the young and talented pianist Jonathan Biss. It is about the simple realization that music has the uncanny ability to communicate the greatest things in life, it grabs a hold of you and doesn’t let go. At the age of 33 years old, Jonathan Biss is a renowned American pianist, a teacher and a writer. Following in the footsteps of many great pianists who’ve written about performing Beethoven, Biss’s short essay (around 18000 words) gives us four different perspectives on what it really means to play Beethoven.
What is striking about this book is Biss’s fluid narrative and his ability to talk about something oftentimes technical, thereby difficult to comprehend for those who aren’t expert, in such a way that allow anyone to understand Beethoven and appreciate the beauty of his works.

[Nadia Clifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the piece, as it showed how even the prodigy pianists have the same struggles as I do as an amateur. The author gave voice to some of the vague ideas that I had myself but never paused to consider them deeper. Such as that one should never perform a piece after just having learned it. It needs to steep in the subconscious and it will get better, like magic. It was a pleasurable experience to realize that those semi-God pianists are actually humans, and often have the same struggles as I, a mere mortal, do.
The essay is beautifully and eloquently written. However, the author often refers to the specifics and terminologies of the classical music world, expecting the reader to be familiar with them. So the piece would be best enjoyed by classical music lovers and musicians.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this short gem three times already!

Such a wonderful treatise on so many things:
- The perils of techniciization in destroying feeling in recorded performance
- the pressure new musicians are under (now that recording technology has made it possible to expunge defects entirely from recordings rendering them ?perfect?) to work on perfection PRIMARILY of technique largely to the exclusion of thoughtful and heartfelt interpretation
- the changing idea of what a good performance is now that we do not necessarily have to go to a concert hall to hear concert music
- a discussion of the wisdom to know when one is ready to tackle a difficult piece
- finally a brief look into Beethoven and his muses and demons.

Fascinating -- Marvelous -- I will again read it soon.

[Carielyn Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

this doesn't seem like a subject a book should be about since the only people who would enjoy it are probably genius young musicians like the author. it seems more like academic forum discussion material. i don't see many people relating to his passion for pieces of music. he comes across as obsessed and one-dimensional - like a savant almost. he knows everything about classical music and doesn't know or want to know about anything else. there are many other wonderful things one can be passionate about in life instead of being stuck overthinking every note in every concerto for decades. it does however help those of us who don't constantly focus on classical music understand it from a different perspective.

[Alan Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful Kindle Single, a meditation on playing Beethoven, and particularly his piano sonatas, by a world class pianist as he embarks on the daunting task of recording the entire cycle. Along the way, he discusses Beethoven's other chamber music (primarily the quartets, his piano concertos, and a smattering of works by other composers--his point being that everyone was defined by their relation to Beethoven's music.

I found this fascinating and well written. However, my view may have been influenced by the fact that I read it a few days after hearing a wonderful performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 (paired with the 3rd Symphony). I have been on a Beethoven kick ever since!

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this short book, which I stumbled upon quite by accident. I play classical piano (for myself, not professionally) and have played a number of Beethoven's works. This book gave me an entirely new prospective on the music. Biss has a love music and performing that clearly shines through every word. His explanations of what he enjoys and why are clearly articulated and logically presented. Now I need to go back and reread this book with my musical library at hand so I can listen to the specific works he refers to.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the author's ruminations on the nature and essence of music. While reading this, I also viewed the documentary The Wrecking Crew and appreciated the overlap of concepts, despite the very different types of musical recording being discussed. There was a lot packed into this short book.

[Bcoghill Coghill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was a little to much for me. I am not a musician. I am a listener and seldom listen to Beethoven because it is too challenging. I prefer Mozart and Chopin and such.
I did enjoy this much suspect a musician would get much more from a reading.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a non-musical type, I am probably not able to pick up nuances on Beethoven’s style of composition, but that didn’t prevent me from enjoying Biss’s beautifully written essay on what goes through the mind of an artist/pianist as he tries to tackle Beethoven’s piano sonatas.