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Book Review
Sep. 28th, 2011 11:23 pmJean Sibelius
by Guy Rickards
Another of the Phaidon contemporary composer biographies, this one on Sibelius was very interesting. He had a rather interesting career trajectory, achieving great fame and stature by the middle of his life, but then writing nothing in the last 30 years before his death in 1957. Also, Sibelius wrote both great works and trivial commercial pieces (mainly in order to ease his persistent financial troubles). I wish Rickards had explored those issues in more detail, but I suppose that's out of the scope of this kind of book. I did like the way Rickards was frank about Sibelius' self-absorption and alcoholism. He must have been a very difficult person to deal with a lot of the time. His discussion of Sibelius' working methods and creative struggles was quite interesting, though.
by Guy Rickards
Another of the Phaidon contemporary composer biographies, this one on Sibelius was very interesting. He had a rather interesting career trajectory, achieving great fame and stature by the middle of his life, but then writing nothing in the last 30 years before his death in 1957. Also, Sibelius wrote both great works and trivial commercial pieces (mainly in order to ease his persistent financial troubles). I wish Rickards had explored those issues in more detail, but I suppose that's out of the scope of this kind of book. I did like the way Rickards was frank about Sibelius' self-absorption and alcoholism. He must have been a very difficult person to deal with a lot of the time. His discussion of Sibelius' working methods and creative struggles was quite interesting, though.
