The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven

I even pick it up and read it just for pleasure from time to time!


Rosen's The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven   June 23, 2000
 37 out of 48 found this review helpful

I am not a Classical Music Expert but I am slowly learning it (most of my book reviews are in mathematics and physics). One of the reviewers criticizes Rosen for some technical reasons that I cannot evaluate. However, I do know that many universities recommend Rosen's book, so the critic is not entirely without his own critics. I find this book endlessly engrossing, as some of the reviewers have. You cannnot come away from this book without understanding many of the main differences between and among Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and between Classical, Baroque, and Romance music. I was especially interested to find that Beethoven, widely touted as an immoral person in some of the popular media, was in fact a person of great moral character (and the popular impression of Mozart seems to be wrong too, although there is less information on this). Those who believe that creative genius is stimulated by severe suffering (Beethoven, Van Gogh in art, Godel in mathematical logic, Galileo in physics and astronomy, etc.) will find much material in this book that seems to indicate the accuracy of this theory more or less. This is also a book that tells you what Haydn learned from Mozart and Mozart from Haydn, what Beethoven thought of Mozart and Schubert, what classical music learned from Baroque music and so on.


Awe-inspiring   November 18, 1999
 8 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is not a book to be read casually -- it's that rare type of book that is worthy of studying and rereading. The author does a great job of conveying the depth of his knowledge.