Walter Isaacson Quote
What Einstein appreciated in Mozart and Bach was the clear architectural structure that made their music seem deterministic and, like his own favorite scientific theories, plucked from the universe rather than composed. Beethoven created his music, Einstein once said, but Mozart’s music is so pure it seems to have been ever-present in the universe. He contrasted Beethoven with Bach: I feel uncomfortable listening to Beethoven. I think he is too personal, almost naked. Give me Bach, rather, and then more Bach.
Walter Isaacson
What Einstein appreciated in Mozart and Bach was the clear architectural structure that made their music seem deterministic and, like his own favorite scientific theories, plucked from the universe rather than composed. Beethoven created his music, Einstein once said, but Mozart’s music is so pure it seems to have been ever-present in the universe. He contrasted Beethoven with Bach: I feel uncomfortable listening to Beethoven. I think he is too personal, almost naked. Give me Bach, rather, and then more Bach.
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About Walter Isaacson
He has been the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C., the chair and CEO of CNN, and the editor of Time.
Isaacson attended Harvard University and Pembroke College, Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He is the co-author with Evan Thomas of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986) and the author of Pro and Con (1983), Kissinger: A Biography (1992), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), American Sketches (2009), Steve Jobs (2011), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021) and Elon Musk (2023).
Isaacson is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, a New York City-based financial services firm. He was vice chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversaw the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, chaired the government board that runs Voice of America, and was a member of the Defense Innovation Board.