Hmmm...it seems to me that the more one reads about late 18th/early 19thc composers - Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, etc (even Brahms) the more one loves them as people. With 20thc giants such as Stravinsky, Strauss, Debussy, that's just not the case. What does that signify?
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Replying to @StevenIsserlis
Hmmm indeed! Although we tend to have more credible and direct evidence about the recent ones and, therefore, our perception of them is perhaps less idealized as a result?
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Replying to @ShaiWosnerPiano
Hmmm...I think we have as much evidence about the life of Schumann as we do of that of Debussy, don't we? And one is a LOT more attractive as a person - tragic though he was - than the other...
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Replying to @StevenIsserlis
True, but do we really have a complete picture of, say, the nature of Beethoven's interaction with people? I love them too as people but it's the kind of unconditional love one would feel towards even a far-from-perfect parent without whom one couldn't live.
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Replying to @ShaiWosnerPiano
Well, actually Beethoven is the first composer (with the POSSIBLE exception of Haydn) that I feel we really DO know personally. Have you read Impressions by his Contemporaries? It builds a very convincing picture.
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Replying to @StevenIsserlis @ShaiWosnerPiano
Oo, how exciting! Have just ordered it. I'm expecting lots of dishevelment, rudeness and unpaid bills. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Impressions-Contemporaries-Dover-Books/dp/0486217701 …
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Don't forget imperious condescension!
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