"The Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings" brings together the experience and enthusiasm of four of classical music's greatest experts, Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton and Paul Czajkowski, to create an essential guide to the best recordings. Downloads, CDs and DVD mean it is possible to listen to hundreds of thousands of classical recordings today - but how do you pick your way through the vast array of music now on offer? With clear, simple, easy-to-use A to Z listings of composers and performers, the pick of the latest CD releases, as well as established landmark recordings, short guides to ballet, opera and the history of recording, and indications of budget and mid-range price CDs, this guide offers a treasury of outstanding music, whether you are just starting to build a collection or tracking down a particular favourite.
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About the Author
Ivan March is a well-known lecturer and broadcaster, he has contributed to a number of record-reviewing magazines. He now reviews solely for Gramophone. Edward Greenfield, until his retirement in 1993, was for forty years on the staff of the Guardian, succeeding Neville Cardus as Music Critic in 1975. Robert Layton is an author, translator and critic, specializing in the music of northern Europe. Paul Czajkoski has been a fanatical record collector from almost the age he could walk to a record shop.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
he purpose of the Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings is succinctly stated in the Introduction. It provides "a new approach to advise readers as to the most desirable recordings available." A bit later, they say:
"Although our coverage is wide, this survey is in no way intended to be a balanced one. But all the recordings listed and recommended are indispensable to one or all of us, and we hope our readers will find our comments to be a guide to their discovery and acquisition."
This Guide recommends recordings the authors find indispensable, not me or other readers. So, it is not the same as the other Penguin Guides to recorded classical music. But, the Penguin Guides do give the views of several people, not just one, and so reflects a variety of tastes. I think this helps account for the popularity of the Penguin Guides. The main objections to the Penguin Guides are basically three, and can easily be answered:
1) The objector does not agree with many of the recommendation. But then, neither do I. Tastes differ and it is not reasonable to suppose everyone will like the same recordings.
2) The Guides are not comprehensive. Of course, this is scarcely possible nowadays, and this edition does not pretend to be comprehensive.
3) The Guides are too oriented towards British readers. Well, that's what you might expect from a British publication. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the authors try to accommodate American and other readers, too.
As far as I am concerned, while the objections are factually true, they are not justify a poor rating. It seems to me that the Guide does what it was intended to do.
This edition includes some new features. There is a Forward giving a summary history of recording technology. There is a short essay on Ballet Music and also essays providing timelines for key composers and opera. Nothing too deep, but these features are probably useful to some readers.
The listings include entries listing some anthologies of recordings by some famous conductors, singers, and instrumentalists. A few are Ansermet, Beecham, Fistoulari, Furtwaengler, von Karajan, Bartoli, Callas, Fischer-Dieskau, Pavarotti, Peter Pears, Julius Katchen, Dinu Lipatti, and Ruggiero Ricci. The selection here is quite haphazard, I think, and a Guide to such anthologies might be a good idea.
There are some recordings that seem to me to be notable omissions some of which they have rated very highly in the past. They do not recommend any recordings of Brahms' Hungarian Dances, not even Bogar on Naxos, nor any recordings of the orchestral versions of six of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, for which I would include the classic Dorati versions and the new Fagen recording on Naxos. For Smetana's Ma Vlast, they list Kubelik but not Antoni Wit. They leave out Sir Thomas Beecham's wonderful recording of Puccini's La Boheme with De los Angeles, Amara, Bjoerling, Merrill and Tozzi.
I am sure many will prefer some other recordings to the ones in the Guide. Reiner's recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is very good, but I would put Karajan's 1966 recording as its equal, and I prefer Ansermet's to either one. Reiner's recording of Respighi's Pines and Fountains is very fine, but I would much rather listen to Dutoit's splendid recording with the Montreal Symphony.
They recommend Heifetz's recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms Violin Concertos. The Brahms is great, but surely he took the Beethoven way too fast. Recordings of the Beethoven VC by Francescatti and a number of others seem to me to be much better musically.
They recommend the complete Mozart Symphonies conducted by Jeffrey Tate. I haven't heard all of them, but I have heard most of the late ones, and they leave me cold. I like Pinnock's HIP set very much, and a number of separate recordings by Colin Davis, Leibowitz, Krips, and Casals.
However, the Penguin Guide can hardly take account of my own preferences. As far as I can tell, the recommendations are generally outstanding recordings, so one is unlikely to go far wrong in buying some of them. It seems to me that this Guide substantially achieves its objectives. It will be useful to a lot of people. Accordingly, I think it deserves a top rating.
"Although our coverage is wide, this survey is in no way intended to be a balanced one. But all the recordings listed and recommended are indispensable to one or all of us, and we hope our readers will find our comments to be a guide to their discovery and acquisition."
This Guide recommends recordings the authors find indispensable, not me or other readers. So, it is not the same as the other Penguin Guides to recorded classical music. But, the Penguin Guides do give the views of several people, not just one, and so reflects a variety of tastes. I think this helps account for the popularity of the Penguin Guides. The main objections to the Penguin Guides are basically three, and can easily be answered:
1) The objector does not agree with many of the recommendation. But then, neither do I. Tastes differ and it is not reasonable to suppose everyone will like the same recordings.
2) The Guides are not comprehensive. Of course, this is scarcely possible nowadays, and this edition does not pretend to be comprehensive.
3) The Guides are too oriented towards British readers. Well, that's what you might expect from a British publication. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the authors try to accommodate American and other readers, too.
As far as I am concerned, while the objections are factually true, they are not justify a poor rating. It seems to me that the Guide does what it was intended to do.
This edition includes some new features. There is a Forward giving a summary history of recording technology. There is a short essay on Ballet Music and also essays providing timelines for key composers and opera. Nothing too deep, but these features are probably useful to some readers.
The listings include entries listing some anthologies of recordings by some famous conductors, singers, and instrumentalists. A few are Ansermet, Beecham, Fistoulari, Furtwaengler, von Karajan, Bartoli, Callas, Fischer-Dieskau, Pavarotti, Peter Pears, Julius Katchen, Dinu Lipatti, and Ruggiero Ricci. The selection here is quite haphazard, I think, and a Guide to such anthologies might be a good idea.
There are some recordings that seem to me to be notable omissions some of which they have rated very highly in the past. They do not recommend any recordings of Brahms' Hungarian Dances, not even Bogar on Naxos, nor any recordings of the orchestral versions of six of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, for which I would include the classic Dorati versions and the new Fagen recording on Naxos. For Smetana's Ma Vlast, they list Kubelik but not Antoni Wit. They leave out Sir Thomas Beecham's wonderful recording of Puccini's La Boheme with De los Angeles, Amara, Bjoerling, Merrill and Tozzi.
I am sure many will prefer some other recordings to the ones in the Guide. Reiner's recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is very good, but I would put Karajan's 1966 recording as its equal, and I prefer Ansermet's to either one. Reiner's recording of Respighi's Pines and Fountains is very fine, but I would much rather listen to Dutoit's splendid recording with the Montreal Symphony.
They recommend Heifetz's recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms Violin Concertos. The Brahms is great, but surely he took the Beethoven way too fast. Recordings of the Beethoven VC by Francescatti and a number of others seem to me to be much better musically.
They recommend the complete Mozart Symphonies conducted by Jeffrey Tate. I haven't heard all of them, but I have heard most of the late ones, and they leave me cold. I like Pinnock's HIP set very much, and a number of separate recordings by Colin Davis, Leibowitz, Krips, and Casals.
However, the Penguin Guide can hardly take account of my own preferences. As far as I can tell, the recommendations are generally outstanding recordings, so one is unlikely to go far wrong in buying some of them. It seems to me that this Guide substantially achieves its objectives. It will be useful to a lot of people. Accordingly, I think it deserves a top rating.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.4 out of 5 stars
19 reviews
80 of 83 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Penguin has gone the way of the Dodo
Oct 23 2011
By musicisitnatch
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Folks, it's all over. It's the end of an era. What we used to know as "The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music" (last edition was 2010), has gone from approx. 1500 pages down to a mere 400 pages. Truth be told, the writing had been on the wall for some time. Those of us waiting for the 2011 edition knew something was afoot. Why the delay? Basically, Penguin has thrown in the towel. In their Introduction to this edition they state the the guide "had reached it's maximum capacity" and that their "chosen answer is to plan a more compact survey centering on 1,000 of the very finest issues". No apologies. Just that. THEIR chosen path. What about the buying Penguin Guide public?
I, for one, am bitterly disappointed in this decision. As we all know, there's a deluge of issues/reissues of great classical/historical performances these days, and a major factor must have been: How to keep up?
But surely, Penguin, with all of their resources, could have gone another route? One would have been to continue the "by composer" approach of the original guide, and then (somewhat like their earlier Year Books), published a "by artist" guide separately. They could have introduced a "by conductor" guide also. Maybe have opera spun off etc.etc.
Instead of that we now get (mostly), one pick of various repertoire, still organized by composer. And now, unlike the original format, we now don't even get the entire repertoire of a composer. Basically a "greatest hits" compilation. And if making the guide more compact was the priority why does Percy Grainger get 5 pages. (Brahms gets just over 3). Under Schumann, you won't find listed Furtwangler's 4th with the Berlin Philharmonic. It's not much more than a glorified version of what they did in the back pages of the 2003/4 Penguin Guide Edition.
One of the primary beauties of the old Penguin Guide was that one did read discussions of various interpretations.
This book will have some interest inasmuch as newer issues have come out since the 2010 Guide. (Example: The 21 CD Box Set: Furtwangler - The Great EMI Recordings"). But outside of that it is a bitter disappointment to see this guide reduced to a shell of what it once was. It could serve a function to someone who is virtually entirely new to the classical music arena. But outside of that I can only say that the Penguin Guide has gone the way of the brick and mortar record stores.
At the begining of the afore-mentioned 2003/4 Penguin Guide they stated that they "seek to provide a comprehensive, yet selective coverage of this vast repertoire", and "is in itself of fascinating documentary value".
Sadly, it's much, much more selective, no longer comprehensive, and as a result, not only has it lost it's documentary value, but has also lost it's heart. I will miss the eager anticipation that came with browsing the latest edition of this guide.
I, for one, am bitterly disappointed in this decision. As we all know, there's a deluge of issues/reissues of great classical/historical performances these days, and a major factor must have been: How to keep up?
But surely, Penguin, with all of their resources, could have gone another route? One would have been to continue the "by composer" approach of the original guide, and then (somewhat like their earlier Year Books), published a "by artist" guide separately. They could have introduced a "by conductor" guide also. Maybe have opera spun off etc.etc.
Instead of that we now get (mostly), one pick of various repertoire, still organized by composer. And now, unlike the original format, we now don't even get the entire repertoire of a composer. Basically a "greatest hits" compilation. And if making the guide more compact was the priority why does Percy Grainger get 5 pages. (Brahms gets just over 3). Under Schumann, you won't find listed Furtwangler's 4th with the Berlin Philharmonic. It's not much more than a glorified version of what they did in the back pages of the 2003/4 Penguin Guide Edition.
One of the primary beauties of the old Penguin Guide was that one did read discussions of various interpretations.
This book will have some interest inasmuch as newer issues have come out since the 2010 Guide. (Example: The 21 CD Box Set: Furtwangler - The Great EMI Recordings"). But outside of that it is a bitter disappointment to see this guide reduced to a shell of what it once was. It could serve a function to someone who is virtually entirely new to the classical music arena. But outside of that I can only say that the Penguin Guide has gone the way of the brick and mortar record stores.
At the begining of the afore-mentioned 2003/4 Penguin Guide they stated that they "seek to provide a comprehensive, yet selective coverage of this vast repertoire", and "is in itself of fascinating documentary value".
Sadly, it's much, much more selective, no longer comprehensive, and as a result, not only has it lost it's documentary value, but has also lost it's heart. I will miss the eager anticipation that came with browsing the latest edition of this guide.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
shameful
Oct 22 2011
By dave p.
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I could not find one redeeming thing of interest to me in this new Penguin Guide. It is simply a severely reduced version of past issues going back from the 2010 edition. I gave it one star because it might be helpful to someone just starting a collection and looking for acceptable versions of the works covered.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
The end of the road
Oct 25 2011
By AndrewCF
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I agree with the other reviewers who have found this slim volume disappointing, to say the least. In years past, we've had to put up with their favoritism for English composers, and this issue is no exception. But really, the mediocre composer Coleridge-Taylor gets three entries and Albeniz gets one? The authors have had two years to prepare this book, but there are no 2011 entries, as there are in the Gramophone Guide. The bias towards Solti, Alsop (the most overrated conductor of the last decade), and Pollini seems counter to their previous four-star Rosette ratings for newer releases. This book is chock-full of multi-CD sets of items some of us own individually; these sets are expensive and room-consuming. Those new to Classical music should not go here, and those looking for undiscovered or unappreciated composers are wasting their time.
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2.4 out of 5 stars
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