Steve Schwartz' dubious review of the Andrew Barnett biography ("Among
the stuff you probably already know, a few genuine revelations") calls
to mind another book with brief biographies: Alex Ross' "The Rest Is
Noise".  I found this book on modern music to be full of genuine
revelations; and its one chapter on Sibelius struck me as excellent,
particularly in regard to the special qualities of Sibelius' music.

Steve made note of another aspect of Sibelius' life, namely: "He led a
middle-class existence but remained in constant debt until he was in his
seventies, despite several lucrative passings of the hat among the Finns.
...Respect and adulation don't necessarily put food on the table."  This
was also exactly the case with Beethoven, as recounted by Edmund Morris
in his extremely readable (and here and there revelatory) recent biography
in the Harper Collins Eminent Lives series.

Jon Gallant
Department of Gnome Sciences
University of Washington

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