Victor Hugo once said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” Indeed, music has the power to inspire, influence, and comfort.
We celebrate September, Classical Music Month, with a playlist of nonfiction and fiction audiobooks about classical music, musicians, and composers.
Nonfiction lovers:
Acclaimed biographer Simon Callow evokes the intellectual and artistic climate in which Richard Wagner lived, and takes us through his most iconic works and profoundly problematic legacy.
Listen to an excerpt Being Wagner
Part Beethoven biography and part history, The Ninth brilliantly explores the intricacies of Beethoven’s last symphony—how it brought forth the power of the individual while celebrating the collective spirit of humanity, and how the masterwork becomes a prism through which we may view the politics, aesthetics, and climate of his era.
Listen to an excerpt The Ninth
Thad Carhart stumbled upon Desforges Pianos, a demure shopfront in his Paris neighborhood, where Luc, the atelier’s master, serves as an excellent guide to the history of the most gloriously impractical of instruments. Locals—from university professors to pipe fitters—gather in the shop on Friday evenings to discuss music, love, and life over a glass of wine.
Listen to an excerpt The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
This groundbreaking life of Robert Schumann, a key figure of Romanticism, details his deep involvement with the composers of his time, his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, his courtship of young pianist Clara Wieck, whom he would marry, and of course, his music.
Listen to an excerpt Schumann
Fiction lovers:
An addictive novel about four young friends navigating the cutthroat world of classical music and their complex relationships with each other, as ambition, passion, and love intertwine over the course of their lives.
Listen to an excerpt The Ensemble
A reimagining of the love story of thirty-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the young English soprano Anna Storace, who was his muse.
Listen to an excerpt Vienna Nocturne