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Composer and biographer Swafford brings expertise and insight to bear on a comprehensive, animated life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Swafford deftly captures that brilliance in a challenging narrative that is sure to thrill classical music fans. An admiring, authoritative biography.

An amazing biography. Orchestrating words and themes as deftly as any of the composers he has so vividly revealed to date, Swafford transforms a deluge of available information into imaginative yet fact-based contexts that reveal Mozart's talent in a down-to-earth and memorably human way.

If tackling an 832-page biography of anybody seems daunting for the general reader, Swafford makes it almost effortless with Mozart, animating his genius and offering an astute yet thoroughly approachable analysis of the composer's entire canon. A virtually indispensable volume for the music collection.

The copious detail will appeal to musicologists, while the flowing, conversational style will draw in general readers who'd like to learn more about the composer. Heartily recommended to everyone with an interest in the subject.

It is a great pleasure to read about Mozart as a working composer in a narrative written by a working composer. The result is a biography that has an immediacy, a wholly thrilling you-are-there impact.

The book goes well beyond setting the historical record straight. It is an utterly comprehensive look at Mozart's life, as well as an exhaustive reference to his music. Swafford, who is a composer first, brings a keen understanding of music to the task.

Few hearts fail to melt upon encountering his humane, joyous and ravishingly beautiful music. Jan Swafford has met the challenge of explaining that magic head on.

Mozart: The Reign of Love is now the best single-volume English biography of the greatest composer and musician who ever lived.

Swafford is a fluent writer with a sharp eye for detail and capably guides classical music enthusiasts through Mozart's life from its miraculous first act to its denouement.

There may be no one better to tell the exuberant story of the life, loves and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart than composer and author Jan Swafford.

This is an excellent book on Mozart for both musicians and the general reader. The story is told in a lively, knowing style, shot through with unfailingly erudite and impassioned discussion of the composer's work.

A comprehensive and engaging biography. When he's describing music, Mr. Swafford the novelist often becomes Mr. Swafford the poet, finding the impeccable image or unforgettable turn of phrase.

In this masterfully written biography, Jan Swafford presents a richly detailed portrait of one of the greatest classical composers of all time and debunks many of the myths surrounding Mozart's all-too-short life.

Swafford paints a revelatory portrait of Mozart, his music, and his times.

Mozart: Reign of Love provides a new way of looking at the composer, his family and career.

Jan Swafford peppers his biography of a genius with astute critical judgments.

In Swafford, Ives got the biographer he deserves, Thoughtful, witty, instructive, this is one of the best biographies in recent memory, as warm and strangely inspiring as the man and the music it describes.

Though Mr. Swafford is no debunker, he stops well short of the Ives idolatry and ideological camp following that weaken older studies...And yet there is never a doubt about which side of the Ivesian divide he stands on. He is one of those informed enthusiasts whose fervor can be contagious.

In many ways, the book does resemble a work of Ives. It is sprawling, rich with fascinating details, quirky, opinionated, and very appealing. The opening paragraph consists of one 203-word sentence that paints a colorful, Romantic portrait of the Ives homestead...in a manner that will remind readers of Ives's own tonal landscapes.

Jan Swafford's Charles Ives goes a long way toward dispelling or clarifying many of the most prominent myths surrounding the life and music of perhaps America's greatest composer....Swafford's biography presents us with the most complete picture yet of this fascinating and often contradictory man and his music.

A sensitive, specific, gracefully worded, and remarkably clearheaded book that is both an engrossing biography of a craggy, idiosyncratic New England "character" and a detailed examination of the work he left behind.

An extraordinary story, and Mr. Swafford tells it brilliantly...A rich portrait of a great, lovable man...This is much more than a narrowly musical biography: it should be on the shelves of anyone interested in the history of the past century.

Swafford's is a thoughtful and sympathetic telling of Ives's life...thoroughly researched and fun to read...what makes this book so valuable is Swafford's skill in weaving the strands of all these areas of knowledge into a cohesive fabric. It is as close as we may come for quite some time to a complete Ives.

Swafford has written a scrupulously detailed and unfailingly enthusiastic biography of the great Connecticut composer, whom he sees not only as the natural product of turn-of-the-century Progressivism but as a musician "invaded by the future."

The definitive work on Brahms, one of the monumental biographies in the entire musical library.

A meticulous portrait...Swafford has thoroughly mined the existing literature, both scholarly and popular, and has managed to weave it into his narrative in a seamless fashion...At times the writing unfolds with remarkable lyricism and sweep.

Jan Swafford's intelligent, gracefully written biography offers perhaps the richest and most integrated portrait we've yet had of Brahms as man and artist.

Swafford's analysis of Brahms's performing career as pianist and conductor is especially fascinating.

The author of the much-acclaimed biography Charles Ives: A Life with Music, Swafford has produced yet another masterpiece. This voluminous work combines formidable scholarship with an engaging, can't-put-it-down writing style.

I can think of no more entertaining of well-priced instrument of propaganda for the Serious to lay on a recalcitrant near-and-dear with intent to develop...a glimmer of interest in that which consumes you and me....I'll be thumbing through this for edification and kicks long after I've handed in my review.