Beethoven's Shadow book review

Music is one of the greatest pleasures of humanity and sometimes a bit of information or background knowledge can enhance the experience. Not only composers and listeners are relevant in the music communication, but performers frequently have a say.

In his book, Beethoven's Shadow, American pianist Jonathan Biss shares his performer's view on music in general and on Beethoven in particular. Not long ago he agreed to record the whole of Beethoven's piano sonatas and this book is a companion of sorts to the project.

It is a short book. It also has no obvious structure. Rather, Biss writes something closer to an extended essay. In it he explores, the project at hand,  recorded vs live music, virtuosity Fleisher, Schnabel and Serkin, with emphasis on the latter's philosophy, his (Biss') relationship with the sonatas and the quest of the 'ultimate' performance. The result is that more than listening/reading a lecture one feels he has him on one's living room having tea.

He has too much respect for the sonatas. From the start one can feel even something close to fear from his part seep here and there until he finally admits to it, defuses it and lays it to rest; all without losing admiring wonder.

The only thing that's missing are clips of the pieces he talks about.  I guess that those really interested can find them, but it would have been nice to have had them on the spot.

Now a short ramble on my impressions.  What I liked most was how he, being one of the most overexposed persons to the pieces, still find new aspects and secrets in them. My trepidation with music I like is listening too much to it and getting too familiar with it. Should that happen I fear getting some sort of diminishing returns by liking the piece less, not more. Biss sets my mind at ease. In other matters his impression on what ultimately is music echoes what Gleick describes in The Information when early theorists were trying to define the same question. Is it the scoresheet? A certain recording? The sum of all performances?

Both the audio and kindle editions are under $2, so, if you play an instrument or really listen to music, why not?

Two star audiobooks

Sometimes you find pearls in the mud, sometimes it's the other way around. So far, I have found many great audio books at audible. Yet, there are some that I regret purchasing (well maybe regret is too strong a word). Here are four books that I cannot rate higher than two stars.

Love and sex with robots by David Levy

I admire Mr. Levy because he's the hero of the famous Levy bet. Since then he has been an expert in artificial intelligence. In this book he presents what may become the biggest wave in the field ever. Although the theme is alluring, the book ends up being too dry and not very appealing. Oh, and it may be outdated very soon as new technological developments unfold.

Still, it may be worth a read only if you have special interest in the area.

Coal by Freese

Nowadays there seems to be a plethora books that try to unearth the fascinating stories behind the mundane like Mary Roach's Stiff or Bryson's At Home. On the whole, and in my opinion, this has proved to be a fertile field with many nice titles out there. Coal is not one of those. It relates the story of this important energy source but in the end it doesn't rise above ground by much and remains boring. I mainly blame the writing which reads more like a Chamber of Commerce briefing than a spellbinding account of the topic.

Selling the fountain of youth by Weintraub

This book is not an account of the beauty cream industry as one might surmise from the cover art. It is rather an exposé of the unregulated anti-aging industry. The seemingly unending stream of ploys and cases makes me wish, for once, to have purchased the abridged version… Oh wait, just checked; there is no abridged version. Once more, it might be of interest if you are involved to the subject matter in some sort or fashion; say, if you're a doctor, regulator, patient or family member of a patient; otherwise, it is better to spend your credits on something else.

The new new thing by Michael Lewis

This one presents us the story of Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape. One expects to get a closer look at a critical period of the information age out of this book. It somewhat delivers, but the central figure is unlikable and the book spends too much time relating the antics of his computerized yacht. Better than the other three, but just barely.

Audiobooks & I

Most of the book that I read nowadays are in audiobook format. My two sources for them are Librivox.org and audible.com. I got into these sites when I had health problems some years back and their content has been a blessing ever since. Audiobooks let me get more reading done because, although listening to them is slower than actually reading the printed words, you can fit more of them by listening at odd times, say on the gym or while driving; you don't get demotivated by the prospect of getting through a large printed work, which can be intimidating when you first look at it and feel its weight; and because (I concluded this recently) the flow of the narrative is easier by listening than by fixing your gaze on a page; at least, this is true for me.

The Librivox site is my first stop when looking for audio books because all of their titles are free of charge. This is possible because volunteers read out of copyright books meaning you get most of the classics up to somewhere around the 1920s; there's Lovecraft for instance, but not all of his works. Some of the readers do have poor voices, but you can mostly get by with some patience.

Audible on the other hand is up to date with the latest titles and bestsellers. They do not have everything, but you're very likely to find what you're looking for or close. The site works through credits which you buy beforehand and apply them to the book of your choice. Depending on the plan, you could potentially get almost any title for less than $10 which favorably compares with a printed book. Plus, you get it right away by download. And that's not all: you also get a complementary subscription either to the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times in audio format (about 40 min. per day with the top news and most important articles), and what seems almost weekly offers and sales only available for members. The sales let me get even more value for my subscription. I should mention that you could select the title à la carte, but that's expensive.

I listen to my audio books on an iPod.

Many of the books that I will be reviewing in the future will come from these sites. If you have not seen these I would advise you to take a look.