Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Story In Bloated Form
Review: It is impossible to damage this book. That's because it has so much padding it probably could survive any shock.Initially you are expecting to read a story about how a lock of Beethoven's hair snipped by a 17 year old Ferdinand Hiller (the later composer) wound up by various means in the U.S. 200 years later. That interesting story could be told in about half the space taken up in this book.
Beethoven dies, the hair is snipped and then we get a mini biography of Ferdinand Hiller. Beethoven is next ressurected and we get a chapter of his first decade in Vienna with much repetition. Don't worry you'll get the rest of his life a chapter here and there. Then Hiller dies and we get his obituary which retells what we got two chapters back. You get the idea. Every now and then something else about the hair and later chapters about the 2 guys who bought the lock at auction.
What this book sorely needed was an editor to organize it and cut out the repetitions, paragraphs entirely made up of questions(most of which had already been answered) and unsupported speculation. When I tried to check the bibliography to find out where some of this stuff came from I was some how not surprised that there was none. Here is a case of a book that will probably work better in a Reader's Digest condensed version.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Story
Review: It truly is a fascinating story. Like another reviewer, I once considered Mozart the greatest. I have now switched my allegiance to Beethoven. I found his life story powerful and amazing, but didn't always enjoy the sections of the book dealing with the lock of hair's buyers. It was very well-written and opened my eyes on many things, but I didn't appreciate the speculation on how the hair got to Denmark as it didn't lead to any conclusion. All in all, however, it was a terrific, intriguing book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in Beethoven--or even just finds the title gripping.
Rating: 
Summary: A good idea but bad execution
Review: Many of the previous reviewers were correct in saying that this made a better magazine article than a book. I don't know what was so captivating about this book. There were several times when I did some serious skimming. At times, this book reads like a spotty history of European Jewry, a mini-biography Beethoven, and a history of forensic science. It was as if Martin discovered the process of historical research in this book, and then failed to cut the wheat from the chaff. At one point he spends several pages discussing the exodus of Jews from Denmark. It's interesting reading, but certainly not relevant for a book about Beethoven. Regardless, if you're a fan of Beethoven, this makes good reading, but it's not the paramount achievement in the literature.
Rating:
Summary: Mystery Solved? Not Yet.
Review: Martin's book is a fascinating read and well-researched. The journey
of a lock of Beethoven's hair through time is an incredible story, and
Martin tells it well. It is indeed an "extraordinary
odyssey." My only concern is the assertion that this book
"solves a musical mystery," namely, provides the source of
Beethoven's deafness and chronic illnesses. To the contrary, rather
than answering questions, it simply places more questions on the
biographical table. First, Beethoven started having hearing problems
as early as 1798. Are we to believe that he was massively toxic with
lead for 29 years? I find that difficult to believe. Second, I find it
hard to blame Beethoven's visits to the spa, his habit of drinking
water (out of bottles), his wallpaper, or his dinnerware as accidental
sources of his lead ingestion. No one else in Vienna, as far as
medical history goes, suffered from his massive toxicity, despite the
fact that hundreds of thousands visited the spas, drank the water, ate
fish from the Danube, and ate off glazed dinnerware. To ignore the
possibility of intentional poisoning is remiss. Despite these problems
(and presumptions) the book is a good read. ....
Rating:
Summary: Mystery Solved? Not Yet.
Review: Martin's book is a fascinating read and well-researched. The journeyof a lock of Beethoven's hair through time is an incredible story, andMartin tells it well. It is indeed an "extraordinaryodyssey." My only concern is the assertion that this book"solves a musical mystery," namely, provides the source ofBeethoven's deafness and chronic illnesses. To the contrary, ratherthan answering questions, it simply places more questions on thebiographical table. First, Beethoven started having hearing problemsas early as 1798. Are we to believe that he was massively toxic withlead for 29 years? I find that difficult to believe. Second, I find ithard to blame Beethoven's visits to the spa, his habit of drinkingwater (out of bottles), his wallpaper, or his dinnerware as accidentalsources of his lead ingestion. No one else in Vienna, as far asmedical history goes, suffered from his massive toxicity, despite thefact that hundreds of thousands visited the spas, drank the water, atefish from the Danube, and ate off glazed dinnerware. To ignore thepossibility of intentional poisoning is remiss. Despite these problems(and presumptions) the book is a good read. ....
Rating:
Summary: Splitting hairs, but muss es sein?
Review: Not long before his untimely dead while working on some of the greatest music that mankind ever produced, Beethoven was bothered by his landlord about unpaid rent. When the penny pincher would not let him off the hook, Ludwig asked the immortal question "Muss es sein?" (transl. Does it have to be/ Do I need to be bothered about this), to which his landlord answered in the affirmative with "Es muss sein". Beethoven got enraged. -he after all told Goethe not to bow to the Emperor, but to expect the Emperor to bow to people like them.- Yet, the landlord wouldn't take no for an answer. After cooling down, Ludwig went back to composing and made the most of the situation by using both the question Muss es sein, and the answer Es muss sein, as themes in the final movement of what is currently known as sting quartet opus 135. Strikingly, the famous question sounds very severe and in the minor key, whereas the answer is an inverted version of the question in the major key and is the beginning of a jolly, upbeat finale.Imagining a response of Beethoven to hearing about a book devoted to his hair, another "Muss es sein" would be a likely choice. However, based on surviving descriptions of the great composer's temper, I think Martin would not get off the hook that easily. I heard about this book first about a year ago on NPR's "all things considered". It all seemed pretty unsubstantial to me then. I am afraid that after spending one day reading it, my opinion has not been altered favorably. My review will be divided in two parts. The first part general, for those that have not read the book and are seriously interested; the second part, indicated by a spoiler warning, for those that already read the book or are not likely to buy. What Martin did in this book is using a lock of hair (supposedly Beethoven's) and follow its path through history in a way that resembles the baseball in De Lillo's Underworld, or the violin in the movie The Red Violin. For such an approach to have some validity there needs to be some measure of balance between the attention given to the subject and the context. After all, the title will predominantly attract Beethoven enthusiasts. In my opinion this balance is missing. While the lives of the Hiller family, the subject of rising anti-Semitism, the holocaust, the courage of the Danish people and the lives and times of two Beethoven enthusiasts are all valid subjects in their own right, they are little more than props on a mystery tour of basically unanswered questions. On top of that, the bias towards Ludwig's physical ailments leads to a pretty distorted version of his biography. Read Solomon for example.
Especially, since the scientific analysis and directly related side issues get little critical attention, I cannot consider this book to be anything but a cleverly spun piece of cotton candy, that melts away into less than one grain of sugar upon first contact. ...
Rating:
Summary: Not conclusive
Review: Regardless of whether you are a classical music fan or not, Russell Martin's Beethoven's Hair, is a captivating mixture of biography, history, and modern-day scientific investigation. When musician/composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel heard his good friend, Ludwig Van Beethoven, was near death in 1827, he journeyed from Germany to Vienna to say his farewell. In tow was his most talented student, fifteen-year-old Ferdinand Hiller. Hummel and Hiller visited the dying genius many times during his last two months. Upon viewing the body, Hiller asks, and receives permission, from Hummel to snip a locket of the graying-brown hair as a keepsake. It becomes the boy's most prized treasure. He has it mounted in an oval locket, and it becomes a family heirloom for the next 100 years. After World War II, the locket turns up in Denmark, the custody of a doctor who helped hide, and maybe treat, Jews escaping Hitler's wrath. How and why the locket gets to Denmark and into Kay Fremming's possession can only be theorized. Martin does an excellent job in putting the facts he has been able to gather into a compelling and interesting tale. In 1994 the locket came up for auction at Sotheby's. Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara (not the Argentine radical), both Beethoven zealots, purchase the locket and begin to institute a series of 20th-century scientific tests that ultimately reveals more about the physical deficiencies of the musical genius. Beethoven's Hair is a written in an interesting style, alternating Beethoven's biography and the history of the locket with its sale and decision to perform scientific studies of the 500-odd strands of hair. The story of Beethoven's life and the history of the locket are intertwined and often confusing.... especially when Martin only refers to other musical legends (Bhrams, Hayden, Mozart, etc) without completely defining their relationship with Beethoven. The journey of the locket is the most fascinating part of the book. The tests performed upon the hairs and the creation of a Beethoven center at San Jose State University in California are a little dry, but well worth the time to read. I came away from Beethoven's Hair glad I had learned new information about the great man, intrigued by modern science, and totally captivated by the locket's 170-year journey.
Rating: 
Summary: transfixed
Review: Russell Martin does an amazing job of transporting the reader back and forth across two centuries of not only music history but world history. Only a skillful storyteller could have woven so many disparate historical threads together in such a cohesive and fascinating way. The book enriched my understanding of Beethoven the man and consequently my appreciation for his art, which, given the extent of his physical infirmities, is even more miraculous than I ever realized. I read the book in one sitting, skipping lunch because I simply couldn't put it down, and I NEVER skip a meal.
Rating:
Summary: Story comes together at points, misses at others
Review: Russell Martin writes a very intriguing story that interweaves elements of Beethoven's times and his contemporaries, Danish efforts to help persecuted Jews emigrate to Sweden during the Second World War, and Forensic medicine. The vehicle that keeps these stories together is a locket containing some hair of the composer, and how it is passed on from one owner to another. If you know a lot about Beethoven, or have read other books on his life, you will likely find the first third of the book redundant. It really picks up in the middle section, the strongest part of the book in my view. That part tells the story of how the locket surfaced in the midst of a heroic effort to protect Danish Jews under Nazi pursuit. Martin effectively creates the sense of danger that both fleeing Jews and their covert assistants must have felt. The last part of the book offers new insight on what may have caused Beethoven's terrible suffering and eventual death. However, it is not necessarily a startling finding; only one that hasn't been suggested yet. The book's "mystery solved" subtititle is a little misleading in that respect. Getting back to the real strength of the book, it lies in telling how the boy who originallly clipped Beethoven's hair propehtically expressed concern of the pending "bloodbath" to come in Europe, how his family strove to hide their Jewish identity, and how Beethoven's relic of hair played a role in saving a number of Danish Jews. I only wish the author would have explored more fully the question of how contemporaries of Beethoven (like Wagner and Liszt), who were so moved by the humanity-affirming 9th Symphony, could allow creeping anti-Semitism to become part of their lives. To me, that is the even bigger "musical mystery" to be investigated. Martin does, however, provide enough historical context and sharp insight to point the reader in the direction of some answers. In that respect, reading "Beethoven's Hair" will be just the beginning for those who ponder the darker side of human nature. The book serves as a fascinating take-off point for further investigation. It is well written and keeps a good balance between the three elements of the story. Just don't expect it to be a great biography on Beethoven nor a revelation of startling discoveries about his death. Again, the strength of the book is in the middle section.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful Blend of History, Mystery and Science
Review: Russell Martin's little piece on the history of a lock of the great composer's hair is the perfect nighttime diversion from more serious reading. This book has much in common with other books, such as "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester, "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" by Giles Milton and "The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World" by Larry Zuckerman. These are some of the best from a little sub-genre of meaty and entertaining little historical narratives. The perfect admixture of historical narrative, mystery and the latest in genetic research.
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