- Paperback: 1202 pages
- Publisher: Backbeat Books; Softcover edition (July 1 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0879306386
- ISBN-13: 978-0879306380
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 18.9 x 5.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #495,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
This excellent guide to classical music discography ranges over the entire history of recorded sound, with 50-plus contributors covering some 500 composers. In contrast to most guides of its kind, headnote information (e.g., label, disc numbers, performers, and the like) is presented in the text in summary form only, with boldface alerting readers to particular performers and recommended recordings. Usually, a composer entry begins with a short assessment of the composer's work and historical significance, followed by a discussion of the recordings. Besides the main 1100-page composer section, editor Morin, a contributor to several prestigious musical publications, allotted sections to genres and instruments/artists. The main competition to this work is The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs, out in a new edition this year. Both are mammoth works, but some minor composers/works in one are not in the other (and vice versa). For certain major composers, Penguin is superior, but in general the nod goes to the newcomer, especially for its coverage of "genre" music not included in Penguin (the film music of Korngold, for example, is not mentioned in Penguin) and more complete entries on important minor composers (such as Viotti). Ideally, libraries should own both books to cover the classical scene fully. (The "About the Book" section of Classical Music states that, like Penguin, it will be updated periodically.) This fascinating and readable survey is recommended for all libraries.
Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib., Kingsville
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib., Kingsville
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Ranging from Gregorian chant to Philip Glass, this well-balanced guide to historical and contemporary classical music examines major works by 500 composers worldwide. It focuses on exemplary recordings of symphonies, operas, concertos, choral pieces, chamber music, piano pieces and other works performed by an international spectrum of premier conductors, musicians and vocalists. Incisive, often anecdotal critiques define the distinctive style and interpretation of thousands of selected works and recordings. Composers profiled and reviewed include: Bach, Beethoven, Bernstein, Brahms, Chopin, Copland, Czerny, Debussy, Gershwin, Gilbert & Sullivan, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Prokofieff, Puccini, Reich, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Varese, Wagner and hundreds of others.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
A friend of the young Mozart, a colleague of Johann Christian Bach in London, a virtuoso on the viola da gamba (for which he wrote a good deal of music), composer of more than 200 works including 46 symphonies,18 string quartets, and 16 concertos, Abel was in touch with the needs of his time. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
A friend of the young Mozart, a colleague of Johann Christian Bach in London, a virtuoso on the viola da gamba (for which he wrote a good deal of music), composer of more than 200 works including 46 symphonies,18 string quartets, and 16 concertos, Abel was in touch with the needs of his time. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful but limited by one person reviews,
This review is from: Classical Music: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion (Paperback)
Third Ear competes indirectly with Penguin Guide in the field music criticism but is limited by having only one person review an entire composer or a selection of a composer's genre. So, unlike Penguin Guide, the reader only gets the opinion of a single person (along with now-deceased editor Alexander Morin) instead of the combined opinion of the three authors of Penguin Guide. Otherwise the book fares well against its more established competitor. Among Third Ear's greatest value -- it contains music often not found in Penguin Guide. It usually contains multiple listings of music deemed unsuitable for the British publication, such as Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory". Another example is its review of the burgeoning recordings of Crusell's three Clarinet Concertos, where Third Ear offers a far more comprehensive view than even the 2003-04 edition of Penguin Guide. But there are serious drawbacks in this publication, too. For reasons that could never be explained, Third Ear dedicates less than two pages to the entire output of Anton Bruckner, whose nine symphonies have been recorded many times since middle 20th century. This is a criminal oversight that cannot be forgiven, especially since Third Ear dedicates almost a page to every one of Gustav Mahler's symphonies, the composer most akin to Bruckner. I should grade this book down an entire star for this hideous omission, but I won't since I've found it countless times to be an exciting and interesting volume. Most of the authors are known to veteran collectors and many are current or former contributors to American Record Guide, including the late, esteemed editor and Harold C. Schonberg, who wrote the foreward. Both the late Messrs. Morin and Schonberg were estimable critics who never sought to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse when discussing a record, CD or live performance. While the one reviewer to a section mandate of this book can be limiting -- not to mention the way it projects the the biases of a reviewer (see the comments on Roger Norrington's Beethoven symphonies; a critic calls one "spew")-- it is not enough to deny the greatness and value of this book to record collectors. Third Ear joins the Penguin Guide, Rough Guide to Classical Music and now-deleted Insider's Guide to Classical Recordings by Jim Svejda to offer buyers information on the many choices available on Amazon.com and elsewhere in the wonderful world of classical music.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than Penguin, Are You,
By A Customer
This review is from: Classical Music: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion (Paperback)
At last, a comprehensive classical CD reference work that outdoes the Penguin, long my mainstay to guide one through the thickets of building a CD collection.Physically--larger pages, white paper, easier to read, smaller type; table of contents and index, lacking in Penguin; Authors: a slate of 54 writers, mostly American, some music journalists (the Penguin staff is largely British professional musicians and reviewers) and many enthiasts, and top names like Harold C. Schonberg; Structure: short introductory essays on the composers and major pieces; more performances included and rated, including deleted ones; reviews flow in a standard paragraph format, rather than having discography information at the head of each collection of performances; easier to find a single work in the haystack. There is no discernable American or British bias, but it does omit, for example, both Daniel and Sidney Jones. Best would be to buy BOTH as happy complements to each other. Definitely better than the Gramphone annual.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fine effort,
By
This review is from: Classical Music: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion (Paperback)
This book comes in direct comparison with the famous Penguin guide. In my view, it is better than the Penguin guide in its coverage of recordings made on smaller labels, and its style of prose is more readable than the "cut and paste-style" of the Penguin guide. On the other hand, the Penguin is more evenly balanced beetween composers (another reviewer mentions the poor coverage of Bruckner. A few errors here and there too, e.g. mixing up the Czech and Slovak republics a couple of times. Alltogether this book represents a fresh and very comprehensive view, with many surprising and innnovative recommendations.
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