'The Romantic Generation' brilliantly captures the spirit of the generation of musicians who came to maturity between the death of Beethoven in 1827 and that of Chopin in 1849 - Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Schumann, with shorter discussions of Bellini and Meyerbeer, and a prolonged glance back to Schubert, and in so doing conveys the very essence of Romantic music.
Rosen vividly evokes the cultural and historical background and the particular influences of each composer. Through detailed musical analysis, he shows how they changed the musical language of their era and how their music achieved and achieves the effects it does. Rich with striking descriptions and new insights, Rosen's overview of Romantic music is an accomplishment without parallel in the literature of music.
