Mr. Beethoven

What if Beethoven had travelled to the United States? Taking up a commission to write a Biblical oratorio for Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society?

As Mr. Beethoven wrestles with his librettist and his muse, he comes to rely on two women. Thankful, who conducts his conversations using Martha’s Vineyard sign language, and a kindred spirit: Mrs. Hill. Meanwhile all Boston waits in anxious expectation of a first performance Mr. Beethoven will never hear.

Variously admonishing the amateur music society and laughing in the company of his hosts’ children, the immortal composer is brought back to the fullness of life. Griffiths invents only what is strictly possible. His historiography weaves through the text in counterpoint, making this also a story about the fragility of the past and the remaining traces of the man: Mr. Beethoven.

Author Biography

Paul Griffiths is an internationally respected authority on classical music, whose books have been translated into twelve languages. He has worked as a music critic for The Times, The New York Times and The New Yorker. He received an OBE for services to music literature and composition, and has been honoured in France (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) and the US (Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences). His first novel, ‘Myself and Marco Polo’ won a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.