Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven: Words + Music

by Jonathan Biss (Author & Narrator)

Length: 1 hr 46 mins

"Beethoven is a humanist, and an arsonist."

In his vivid and profound addition to Audible’s Words + Music series, Jonathan Biss, the world renowned pianist and critical Beethoven interpreter of our time, expounds on the spellbinding hold the classical figure and his work possesses over him. Biss doesn’t just love Beethoven more than other music, he loves it more than most things. It’s the lens through which he understands the world, and has been since he can remember. But in Unquiet Biss reveals the full extent to which Beethoven is also a ruthless lens through which he views himself.

Biss provides listeners front and center access to his long overdue confrontation with a painful truth: Living with Beethoven has essentially amounted to severing all meaningful ties with himself. As we learn in rich detail, amidst the treasures Beethoven’s music has gifted Biss also lies searing self-doubt and heaps of crippling anxiety. Biss’s raw self-reflection is delivered through pitch-perfect prose, delving deep into the fascinating paradox that the greatest pleasure in his life is also responsible for imprisoning him. Beethoven’s defining personal characteristic, for example—his unwavering self-conviction and weapons-grade callousness—only served to mock Biss’s own perceived shortcomings and vulnerabilities. This captivating combination of wit and wisdom Biss readily shares is only interrupted by something even more extraordinary—his new interpretations of movements from seven of Beethoven's sonatas, including the Pathetique and Tempest, and his groundbreaking, awe-inducing final sonatas.

Unquiet both begins and ends with Jonathan Biss staring down the daunting complexity and infinite majesty of Beethoven's last piano sonatas. But between these two points, the singular pianist has traversed a world of healing. An immeasurable weight has been lifted from him—by him. And we have witnessed its dramatic rise. While his journey is a fantastically unique one, if we listen close, we can hear ours too. An endless battle to confront and quiet our greatest pain so that we can embrace something even greater. Take a moment, and heed the sound.

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

Audible Audio

First published December 17, 2020

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughts soon.

[Tom Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible Experience!

I have always been leery of tearing down the curtain between the artist and the art. When faced with a piece of art, be it visual, literary, musical or dramatic, I want to experience the piece itself. If I later think learning about the creator will enhance my appreciation of it, fine, I’ll pursue that information as well. But they’re two separate experiences and I want the wall between them maintained.

This multimedia work has made me question my position deeply. Biss has doubled or tripled my appreciation of the pieces played by not only expressing his deep knowledge of Beethoven’s personality and feelings in composing the sonatas, but also baring his own hopes and fears in attempting to play the music. Following his statements with glorious performances, particularly through headphones, is a powerfully holistic moment engaging mind and heart. Five stars.

[Heather R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was exactly what I needed to hear right now. Jonathan Biss voiced - through words and his emotional renditions of Beethoven — so many of the same feelings I have been dealing with during the pandemic. This is a beautiful, healing work of art. Highly recommended!

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

the ball is dropping as i’m typing this we did IT

[Sher · Rating 4 out of 5]

My love/hate relationship with Beethoven put beautifully into words (and music). No, I could never hate him, although he did some strange things that sometimes make me think again about how much I could hate him, but then I hear his music. I hear someone like Jonathan Biss play The Tempest piano sonata, or I myself get to conduct the sixth symphony, or I hear a performance of one of how many other incredible masterpieces, and thank God for giving this world such a gift, even if it was wrapped up in an odd little man with a huge temper. He did the best he could, and that was more than enough to leave this world a far better place.

Mr. Biss is a wonderfully accomplished musician and I love hearing him play. His thoughts on learning, recording and performing all 32 of the Beethoven piano sonatas blew me away. Thank you, sir, for giving the world your great gift, for the time, energy, and agony it took to learn and perfect each one, and for the joy with which you play. Thank you for sharing it with the rest of us who will never accomplish such a feat, but can live it through you.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this last night and I think I may have to listen to it again. It was heartbreaking at times as I listened to him talk about his struggles with anxiety and about his monumental choice to record all 32 of Beethoven's Sonatas. His narration is interspersed with his playing of some of the movements and while I am not an expert by any means, they are beautiful, poignant, heartfelt. I highly recommend this audio, especially if you love piano music and definitely if you love Beethoven.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a whole bunch of Words + Music titles available as a part of your membership on audible. I’m not exactly sure how this particular title got onto my listing list. I never took piano lessons. I’m not a fan of classical music. I felt a little bit like I was the psychiatrist listening to this guy on the couch in my office, talking about his life struggle with Beethoven. He might claim to be no child prodigy, but he did talk about his reaction to this music at the age of five.

This is a audible presentation that alternates between this guy talking about his involvement with obsession with Beethoven and how he overcame some problems, he faced as a result. And then there are a number of Beethoven selections. All in all it’s less than two hours. That is actually about the maximum that I probably could have managed to listen to this. None of the Beethoven sounded familiar, so it is clear that I have not had any significant exposure to this guy who wrote music 199 years ago. I do remember that in college I had a gray T-shirt with the head portrait of Beethoven on the front. That is probably as close as I have ever gotten to this famous person!

[Alexios Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second audiobook I listened to, after Malcolm Gladwell‘s talking with strangers, that I thought genuinely represented a new narrative form: the audiobook. I loved the memoir of a pianist interlaced with music that he loved and suffered for so much. It gave me a deeper feeling for the music of Beethoven, and I enjoyed the Dostoevskiesque portrayal of self as perpetually lying to oneself, hiding from oneself, and perpetually peeling away at the onion of the self: anxiety leading to self-doubt, self-doubt leading to ambition, but what originally caused the anxiety? No easy answers, but phenomenal music. Two very well spent hours!

[Jason Holliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the first few chapters, I was going to give this performance two stars until I reached the author's discussion on anxiety and subsequent chapters that helped me understand and experience the level of passion the author feels for music, Beethoven and life itself with its many facets of pain, struggle and the rare but exhilarating triumph. His skill and mastery of words and music are envious. I m obligated to rate this incredibly entertaining and emotional piece as four stars.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was unfamiliar with Biss prior to seeing this on Audible, but gave it a listen after loving Yo-Yo Ma's entry on this series. The highlight was definitely the beautiful piano interspersed among the chapters. As far as the story, it's much about time during the pandemic and the pianist's almost fanatical devotion to Beethoven. I get the sense he's not quite sure who he is, but I did appreciate his vulnerability throughout the recording.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful in its explanation of what it is like to perform. Sublime in its relation of anxiety. As a sufferer of anxiety, I was moved by his insights and honesty.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nailed it.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a searingly honest account of life as a classical musician, and how the sudden pause in concert engagements caused him to question his motivations for doing what he does.

I often look askance at people who describe their passion in an overly-effusive way, like here where he says that Beethoven's music has taught him all he knows about the universe. But I feel like I should cut him some slack, because the rest of his story was so raw and honest, it commanded a reverence and respect that doesn't really brook criticism.

His emotional connection with Beethoven revived something in me, too. I was trained as a classical musician and got a Diploma in Piano Performance. At the height of my playing period as a teenager, I too loved Beethoven's sonatas and loved playing the Pathétique in particular. Hearing him talk about the deep resonance he experienced with these pieces, and the fact that each chapter was partitioned with a skin-tinglingly beautiful performance of a sonata movement by Jonathan Biss himself, brought a lot of that emotion back for me.

The performances alone make this worth listening too, but they work very well in tandem with the account he gives of his struggle with anxiety. In the process, he contradicts what he himself wrote in a book several years ago, which is an odd choice because it makes me less likely to read that book. But I am certainly more likely to continue listening to his performances of Beethoven - they are exquisite.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The child of a concept album and a therapy session, Unquiet is repetitive and out of grasp for people that aren't Classical Music People.

[Scott Wild · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh...I struggled to connect with this one.

[Catherine Puma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Biss is a world renown pianist and Beethoven scholar, and in this Audible Words+Music work, he explains his struggles with Beethoven's music and specifically choosing a life of music performance. Biss brings listeners into his world of obsession with Beethoven's works and opens up about the intense anxiety he has wrestled with and ignored for most of his career. When Biss first got offered a position in a traveling orchestra--the only job he had ever imagined for himself--he was so stressed that he vomited, and yet it is only at this point in his life that he has been able to acknowledge and open up about his performance anxiety issues.

The audiobook description for this piece states that "living with Beethoven has essentially amounted to severing all meaningful ties with himself(Biss)", but I did not get that sense at all. Biss has such passion for his work that he seems to live and breathe Beethoven and classical music every day, but that does not mean that Biss lacks his own personhood. Biss certainly doesn't seem to think of himself that way, or maybe I just missed that part. This work is a mix between personal reflection, short memoir, and musical performance. The musical sections interwoven with Biss's prose is a great way to experience musical critique, and I wish there were more resources like this out there.

I enjoy attending classical music performances with my husband, but I confess I am not gifted in the musical arts myself and lack classical training of any kind. As such, I would not for the life of me be able to tell the difference between a sonata and a soprano. I know operas from ballets due to the accompanying human acting factor to the stage performance, but I would not be able to tell the difference just by listening to the music itself. The musical inclusions to this work helped me to understand what Biss was talking about, and I even paused the audiobook 2 or 3 times in order to listen to the referenced Beethoven works on YouTube.

I did not appreciate the section where Biss analyzes a chapter in one of his previously published books, because that seemed a bit self serving. I also wish he had gone into more detail with Beethoven's character, because that seemed relevant to Biss's interpretation of Beethoven's defiant music. I am sure someone with more classical learning and background knowledge on Beethoven himself would get more out of Biss's audio production than I did, but this was still an interesting listen and I will be on the lookout for more resources on Beethoven's works and life.

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm impressed! Impressed how articulate and verbose Jonathan Biss is that he could spend nearly 2 hours only to simply say, "I'm obsessed with Beethoven and I have (and secretly relish in having) anxiety." The claim to know what another human, especially one that lived long before the one making the claim, had ever felt or intended with their art is baseless, far-reached, and possibly narcissistic. I could not stop rolling my eyes as Biss repeatdedly over romanticized his struggle to convey feeling as he duplicated someones else's creation. Does is take massive talent to command a piano in such a way, absolutely! Does doing so guarantee to invoke feelings in others, perhaps. I suggest not exactly. The listener has their own perspective, influences, connection or lack thereof to their feelings or introspection of said feelings. I feel it was empty of Biss to continually make this assertion, and wish he had shared something more of himself and relationships he had with PEOPLE. The most interesting aspect Biss shared was of his summer visits to Israel, and that was all too short and without any conveyed feeling or relatable experience. In the end, I did not really learn anything about Biss, Beethoven, or the classical music industry; and therefore this listen was pointless to me. On a positive note, Biss has a great voice for oration and narrating, and I adored his metaphor slinging. I would suggest that Biss learn how to truly let go of fear and control and BE VULNERABLE. Just SAYING, "I struggle," and, "I have anxiety," is neither revealing nor vulnerable. It's like Trump proclaiming, "I'm smart!" Really? Prove it! Show it! Give your audience real stories to connect with and perceive, and they'll come to that conclusion on there own.

[Sarah Pizzichemi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Biss’ mastery of Beethoven is astounding. He truly deserves his reputation as a consummate interpreter of Beethoven’s music, and the strongest parts of this audio book were the gorgeous movements peppered throughout from Beethoven Piano Sonate. I have heard him play before, and hope to see him live again someday.

As a concert violinist and professional within the same sphere, I will keep some thoughts I have on this book to myself as the music world is a small one, but I can definitely identify with the difficulties with Beethoven’s music Jonathan describes. Beethoven has always been a struggle for me to interpret, usually within the string quartet context as that is my main medium.

It was also brave to openly discuss his anxiety and the feelings that the 2020 pandemic have brought as an artist who feels closed to sharing this kind of thing in the past, but I also wonder if his thoughts may have been more fully fleshed out and considered with more time. I can definitely identify with the huge changes 2020 has brought for performing musicians...this is also the longest I have gone without performing since the age of 5.

[Laura K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I could give 10 stars. Incredibly insightful, brutally honest account of Jonathan Biss's srtuggles with anxiety and how his passion for Beethoven's life and music brought understanding and healing.

Insights:

"The more meaningful something is to me, the more anxiety it provokes. Why continue with such a high level of anxiety? It means that much to me."

"You cannot quit anxiety."

"The only anxiety free life is death."

"My instinct to please, to mold myself into whatever shape the situation seems to require, even if it isn't Jonathan-shaped has been the single greatest obstacle to holding onto my center that I've faced in my life"

"The only way you have a chance at becoming what you want to be, is by first accepting, truly accepting what you are."

[Kyra Dawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely STUNNING! Admittedly, I knew I would be biased from the start since I'm such a HUGE Beethoven fan. Yet, as Biss depicted his continual wrestlings with vulnerability, intentionality, anxiety, and the humming blur of all of those combined, I was sold. He lives a very different life than I do, but as a fellow creative, he was able to articulate questions I've been trying to consider by being forthright in saying that the very words to ask those questions are hard to pinpoint. It was as if he articulated the questions by pointing to the gaps in the inquiries themselves, with Beethoven's music traversing the spaces. I'd recommend this book to pretty much everyone.

[Asani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Biss has devoted his entire life to the Beethoven piano sonatas. In this book, he reveals how, his performance life upended by the pandemic, he starts to question whether he is up to the task. He thinks he may not be good enough, and whether the sacrifices he has made in his personal life were worth making for a perhaps unattainable goal. Luckily, he intersperses all the gloom and doom with beautifully played pieces from the Beethoven piano oeuvre. In the end, of course, all is OK and Biss realizes that he is indeed the right person to be the “Beethoven piano guy.” While there was never a mystery about the ending, the journey is worthwhile for the music. The musings may be a matter of taste.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short title felt much longer. I was unfamiliar with pianist Jonathan Biss before this. It sounds both like a doctoral dissertation and a therapy session. He describes his love/hate relationship with interpretation of Beethoven’s music. The tracks alternate between his dialogs and playing Beethoven’s movements. Classical music lovers will enjoy it. It reminded me of music appreciation class, where teachers try instill an appreciation of classical artists in young people. Many of the classical works leave me cold. I love film scores, especially John Williams and his magnificent works, along with other modern composers.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fun read/ listen involves witnessing the musician wrestle with his insecurities, anxieties, and love for Beethoven.

It was good to listen to him process his life as a performing artist being sidelined due to the pandemic, and yet finally have the time to rest and reflect on his deepening connections with the music of the legendary artist.

The author’s reflections are interspersed with beautiful performances of various musical pieces by Beethoven.

Brilliant and honest. I loved it. 4.5 stars (I wished it was longer)!

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beethoven's music is sublime and often troubled, and Biss's tract here follows suit. It is as much about loving Beethoven, as passionate and wretched as he was, as it is about Biss himself, who is similarly passionate, and also a bit wretched, at least the time of writing. (2020. A vintage year for wretchedness.) If you know Biss from his Coursera courses, which are wonderful, you will probably appreciate this peek at Biss himself. I found it a tad self-indulgent, but insightful anyway.

[Victoria Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Unquiet, we are given glimpses into the life of a man who is brilliant, but also human. The brief recording is a broad overview of the authors thoughts about his perspective on life in its current state, and his oration is interdispersed with recordings of a selection of Beethoven’s sonatas. I found it a beautiful listen, and appreciated it’s brevity, as I could comfortably listen to the entire recording over the course of an afternoon.

[JT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the "Words+Music" series from Audible. It was one of my favorites, likely due to my affinity for classical music, Beethoven included. In the beginning of the narrative, I thought it might be too pretentious to tolerate. Then, Jonathan Biss apologized for the introduction he'd forced us to endure. And that bit of laughter set the tone for the rest of the audiobook. A story, a humorous line, a wonderful piece of music. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the opportunity to hear about music and performing from the perspective of a concert pianist, in particular the layers between the audience and the work and the artist playing the work and the internal state of the artist as they give this gift of music. I had hoped I would learn more about Beethoven; this is much more an introspective, and one that very much seems to be a work in progress.

[Shellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really quick listen.
Interesting inside perspective. Plus it includes performances so that’s a huge beautiful bonus. Ya gotta love audiobooks.
Everyone has anxiety, it’s comforting to know this and hear a different personal take.
The strangest, or most interesting thing about this book is how he pronounces Beethoven.

[Stephanie Waterhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

An audio book original.

I was able to have a concert as I listened to the artist.

Mr. Biss played pieces from Beethoven, as he undressed himself to the audience. He truly revealed himself to us as he was dealing with the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.

It was a thrilling piece of work. I truly enjoyed the concert and learning something about Mr. Biss.

Highly recommend.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge - a book with fewer than 1,000 reviews on Goodreads and a book in a different format than what you normally read
This is a "book" with the author speaking and then playing parts of the sonatas he discusses. I picked it off of Audible for the not-usual format but am glad I did.