The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume III continues Alexander Wheelock Thayer’s monumental biography, the foundation of all serious Beethoven scholarship. Working from original documents and firsthand testimony, Thayer sought above all to establish the verified facts of the composer’s life.
This volume carries the narrative through Beethoven’s middle years in Vienna, the period of many of his most celebrated works and of his deepening personal trials. Sober, exact, and richly documented, Thayer’s account remains the indispensable record of these crucial years. As part of the greatest of all Beethoven biographies, the volume is essential reading for anyone studying the composer’s life and art.