The Loves of Great Composers
from archive.org
LibriVox recording of The Loves of Great Composers by Gustav Kobbé.
Read in English by Peter Thomlinson
Gustav Kobbe was a German/US music critic who worked at the time of Liszt and Wagner in particular, and was clearly in the Wagnerian rather than the Brahms camp. His unusual style of writing and his strongly romantic take on the loves of these seven composers makes for entertaining listening, even though his facts and opinions may differ from more academic writers and biographers of these composers. Each composer occupies a section or chapter, with Wagner getting the fuller account in terms of length. In fact Gustav Kobbe claims he knew Liszt and Wagner as well as Cosima Wagner - so this must be quite original and authoritative. The 19C period and its atmosphere is conveyed by Kobbe's unusual sentence construction and reads more like story telling rather than a written work. ( Peter Thomlinson)
For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.
For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org.
M4B Audiobook (78MB)
- Mozart and his Constance (19.3Mb)
- Beethoven and his (18.1Mb)
- Mendelssohn and his Cecile (21.6Mb)
- Chopin and the Countess Delphine Potocka (20Mb)
- The Schumanns:Robert and Clara (18.1Mb)
- Franz Liszt and his Carolyne (21.9Mb)
- Wagner and Cosima (36Mb)
MP3 files hosted by archive.org.