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.

When I lived in the Chicago area, I listened often enough to WFMT, but I was not much into chamber music then and was only barely aware of the Fine Arts Quartet. Several decades ago, I got my first Concert-Disc LP of the Fine Arts Quartet. It was either their outstanding recordings of the Debussy and Ravel Quartets or Beethoven's Op. 59, No. 1, or perhaps, I got both of them at once. I have enjoyed them periodically ever since and their recordings of the Debussy and Ravel Quartets remain my all-time favorites, although there are other fine recordings of them.

This set has 8 CDs of recordings of music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms and 20th century composers Bartok, Hindemith, Martinon, Husa, and Shifrin. It starts off with 2 CDs of gracious performances of Beethoven's three "Rasoumovsky" quartets, Opus 59, and includes Op. 132. A fine performance of an early Beethoven quartet, Op. 18, No. 1, is on CD 7, which also has the Brahms' Trio for Violin, Piano, and Horn, Op. 40, and Mozart's Horn Quintet, K. 407, both with the great Barry Tuckwell.

The third CD has three very early Haydn quartets, but also includes the more substantial Op. 20, No. 5. CD 4 has fine performances of three of Haydn's later quartets, Op. 64, No. 6 and Op. 76, Nos. 4 and 6.

CD 5 includes has performances of Mozart's K. 458, one of the six dedicated to Haydn; Quartet K. 499; and a sensitive performance of a Piano Quartet, K. 493, with pianist John Browning, who obviously enjoyed working with the Fine Arts Quartet.

CD 6 includes Mozart's Adagio and Fugue for string quartet, K. 546, and Brahms Quartet Op. 51, No. 2, and two 20th century works, Husa's String Quartet No.3 and Shifrin's Quartet No. 4. CD 8 has Bartok's Quartet No.3, Hindemith's Quartet No. 3, and Jean Martinon's Quartet No. 2. Like the Husa and Shifrin quartets, these are very modern sounding quartets, not as pretty and melodic as those by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. They seem very well played. The Hindemith isn't bad and I actually am beginning to appreciate the Bartok and Husa quartets.

I got this set almost a year ago and I did not want to write a review before having lived with it for a while. As I indicated, I have been quite impressed with the FAQ for years based on the few of their LPs I have found over the years, and more recently, on the CD reissues of the six Bartok quartets and their beautiful recordings of the Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets with Reginald Kell, an eminent clarinetist.

The recordings in this set are said to be of broadcast performances from 1967-1973, sometimes with an audience--always extremely well behaved, it seems, as their presence is heard only with the applause at the end.

The set contains a great variety of good music with some really fine performances. It shows the Fine Arts Quartet in fine form a few years before the end of what is sometimes called Sorkin-Sopkin era. The CD booklet says:

"The quartet of those years, however, lives on in the esteem of many of today's established chamber musicians, as well as of young entrants into the profession, who grew up listening to the recorded performances of the ensemble."

The set appears to meet its objectives of presenting the work of the old Fine Arts Quartet, and so I give it a top rating. The recording quality is good to very good.

I first heard this recording many years ago at a student/faculty Christmas party. There was a console record changer playing Mario Lanza's Christmas LP, which for me is ho-hum. The next record dropped and out came the sound a beautiful, rich tenor voice with perfect control singing "Bel astre." "Who on earth is THAT TENOR?" I asked myself. The answer was Richard Verreau. I understood hardly any French at that time but I marveled at the consistency of his voice and the ease of production. He did not have the instrument that Mario Lanza had but he had a very good one, and unlike Lanza, he really knew how to use it. I heard of Richard Verreau before because I had heard his magnificent performance in the Markevitch recording of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust on the radio and remembered the name.

Eventually, I found a copy of the LP and learned "Bel astre" and other French carols. I also found the words to many French carols, and discovered that "Bel astre" has very beautiful words covering much of Christian spirituality. I learned the words to it and have sung it many times since. Of course, everyone one wants "Minuit, chrétiens/O Holy Night," and I'll do that, too, but it's not my favorite. If you want to hear Verreau's magnificent performance of "Minuit, chrétiens," you can get another CD, "A L'eglise," or simply look it up on YouTube. As far as I'm concerned Richard Verreau could sing rings around Mario Lanza. He had a marvelous sense of line and had really thought out how to do the songs. It doesn't sound like he read over them the night before the recording session--I won't mention any names! Of course, Verreau no doubt knew all of these songs from childhood.

Les choeurs de la Bonne Chanson sing enthusiastically and are really quite good.

It was these recordings which turned me on to French Christmas carols.

There are a couple of downsides. The orchestral arrangements are rather syrupy and sentimental, and Richard Verreau's voice comes from the right channel only. I had hoped it would have been remixed for the CD, but it wasn't. The recording quality is pleasant enough, but not very detailed. However, Verreau's wonderful singing overcomes any doubts so I give it 5 stars.

These recordings are sheerly beautiful, transcendent. The old Chicago Fine Arts Quartet and great clarinetist Reginald Kell are graceful and romantic. I haven't heard every recording the Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets, not even every one the critics recommend, so I can't say there are no others as beautiful. I just find these to be wonderful on their own terms. The performances are gracious and lyrical, but with excellent intonation, and the performers are very much together. There's nothing sloppy or poorly thought out here.

I have some other great recordings of both works. For the Mozart K. 581, there is the excellent 1979 recording by Anthony Pay and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble on Philips, long beloved of the Penguin Guide and Amazon customers. The recording by Bohuslav Zahardnik and Le Quatuor Talich on Calliope is superb. It is almost as graceful as the recording by the Fine Arts Quartet and I like it a lot. I have a fine recording of the Brahms Opus 115 with the famous clarinetist Karl Leister and the Amadeus Quartet on LP, DG 139354, along with some other fine performances I don't like as well. It is really a great performance and it has been a favorite of mine for years. But now I prefer the recordings of both works made by the Fine Arts Quartet.

Many years ago, I came across the Fine Arts Quartet's LP of the Debussy and Ravel Quartets on Concert-Disc CS-253. I did not have a recording of either work and it was cheap, so I bought it. That was my introduction to the Fine Arts Quartet. It has remained my favorite recording of those works, though I like the Philips recording with the Quartetto Italiano very much, too. The sound is superb. The LP projects a wide image and sounds very natural. It has been thus with the the few other Concert-Discs of performances by the Fine Arts Quartet I have found since: great performances and very natural sound. And so it is with this recording on CD. The image is very clear with the clarinet in the center, the violins on the left. and viola and cello on the right. The sound is warm and spacious, with a nice ambient glow, and the performances are first class.

Just to avoid any confusion, this is the old Fine Arts Quartet, with Leonard Sorkin and Abram Loft, violins; Irving Ilmer, viola; and George Sopkin, cello. I understand the present group is very fine, too, but I am not very familiar with them.

I recommend this CD very highly, and it can be obtained at a moderate price.

Toshiro Mayuzumi's tone poem, "Samsara" (1962) is an old friend, actually. I have long had it on a Louisville LP, LS-666, conducted by Robert Whitney, which is very good. There is a CD reissue with two other interesting pieces but it seems to be virtually impossible to obtain now. Samsara is structurally so strong that the 'Let's do this phrase, now let's do the next phrase' approach of the Louisville Orchestra works very well. Subsequently, I also acquired some recordings of the Mandala and Nirvana Symphonies, which are also unusual and interesting.

The Marco Polo recording of "Bacchanale," "Phonologie symphonique," and "Samsara," with Yoshikazu Fukumura and the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra is of excellent quality, dynamic, clear and with a wide and deep image. I doubt if the performances could be bettered.

This music is not to everyone's taste, I have to warn you. The big tone poem, "Samasara," is very well organized, but sounds rather dark and quite clangy. Like Rachmaninoff, Mayuzumi liked the sound of bells, but not the same kind of bells. Some people find it dark and depressing, though I think this is perhaps a Western prejudice. I think the darker, slower parts more or less depict Nirvana, while the higher, more percussive parts represent the vicissitudes of desire, which it is the aim of classical Buddhism to eradicate. There is at one point a sort of battle between the drums and the higher winds. I take it that the drums beat down of the winds, beatinng down unruly desires which lead only to dissatisfaction. This leads out of samsara, the cycle of births and deaths, into Nirvana. One need not be a Buddhist to understand that it depicts a liberation, but one needs to take time to listen to the whole piece. It's just not what we might expect.

Anyway, I find it strangely relaxing. I listen to it several times a year, anyway.

"Bacchanale" (1952) is an experimental work written after his return from a sojourn in France. It is quite a dynamic piece, with some strong percussion, sometimes dark, and sometimes more lyrical. Whether this connotes a bacchanale, I don't know, but I suggest listening to the work on its own merits, appreciating its various sound structures.

"Phonologie symphonique" (1957) sounds rather like a study for "Samsara," as it uses many of the same sounds and techniques. Mayuzumi is said to be influenced by Edgar Varese and serialism. This is also a very interesting work, though I don't think it is as tightly organized as "Samsara."

The CD is rather short, something over 43 minutes, and HNH could put another half hour or so of material on it. I debated whether to downgrade it for that, but decided that would be pointless. These are quite unique works, and I don't know of any other recording of Bacchanale and Phonologie symphonique on CD.

I can highly recommend this disc for those looking for something modern and different.

Liszt originally wrote 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies for virtuoso piano. He heard various tunes in music played by gypsies, and assumed they were folk music. However, later research by Bartok and Kodaly established that most of them were from popular Hungarian composers, and picked up by the gypsies. Liszt enlisted the help of Franz Doppler, a flautist, composer, and conductor, to orchestrate 6 of them. He said that the orchestration was by Doppler, with revisions by himself.

The performances by Arthur Fagen and the Staatskapelle Weimar for Naxos are excellent and the sound quality is first class. It's a beautiful CD and I recommend it highly.

I have long had the classic recordings with Antal Dorati with the London Symphony Orchestra on LP, Mercury Golden Classics SRI 75018 and 75089 (originally issued on SR 90235 and 90371), coupled with Enesco's Roumanian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2. I thought I would compare the two recordings. The sound quality older Mercury recordings is pretty good. With my LPs, the strings are somewhat thin and the cimbalom (Hungarian dulcimer) is rather forward and sounds rather tizzy (this is consistent with the remarks in the Penguin Guide for the CD reissue, which I haven't heard). However, a slight adjustment of the Tilt control on my Quad preamp (+1 in the bass, -1 in the treble) tames the treble, improves the depth of image, and makes the cimbalom sound more natural.

However, the sound quality of newer Naxos recording is excellent, smooth, warm, and spacious, with a consistent wide image spread between the speakers, nice depth, and good dynamics. The Naxos recording wins hands down for realism and dynamics.

Dorati's use of the cimbalom calls for some comment. It is evidently much closer miked than the orchestra, making it larger than life. But this adds atmosphere in some passages, notably in the 1st Rhapsody, where Fagen uses a harp. However, with Dorati, the cimbalom breaks the mood in the rather elegiac 5th Rhapsody, and here Fagen has better taste.

The performances of Dorati with the London Symphony Orchestra and Fagen with the Staatskapelle Weimar are rather different. Dorati tends to bring the character of each separate section of each rhapsody, which is rather episodic, whereas Fagen tends to find more continuity in the music while still bringing out the color and drama. Dorati's approach works very well in the famous 2nd Rhapsody. However, Fagen treats the 3rd Rhapsody as a continuous, unified piece, and is a clear winner to my mind.

Overall, the performances by both Fagen and Dorati are excellent, and which ones are to be preferred is, well, a matter of preference. I enjoy them about equally.

To sum up: For sound quality, Fagen on Naxos is better, for the performances, it's a toss up.

Heretics is somewhat neglected in Chesterton's oeuvre, possibly because it is an early work (1905), and many of the writers discussed are out of fashion now. Yet, I believe Heretics contains not only his best writing, but it already establishes the main themes of his life's work.

Technically, it is a book of literary criticism, but from an unusual point of view, that of his subjects' philosophy.

"I am not concerned with Shaw as one of the most brilliant and one of the most honest men alive; I am concerned with him as a heretic--that is to say, a man whose philosophy is solid, quite coherent, and quite wrong." (p. 22)

Brilliant though he was, Shaw expected reality to conform to an inhuman ideal:

"He has all the time been silently comparing humanity with something that was not human, with a monster from Mars, with the Wise Man of the Stoics, with the Economic Man of the Fabians, with Julius Caesar, with Siegfried, with Superman. Now, to have this inner and merciless standard may be a very good thing, or a very bad one, it may be excellent or unfortunate. but it is not seeing things as they are." (pp. 62-63)

This is excellent writing, whether we entirely agree or not. It may be a little unfair to Shaw, but it is fair to life.

Chesterton is often called an optimist. But he knew the other side, as anyone reading Alzina Stone Dale's life, The Outline of Sanity, can find out. Joy in living, good beer, conversation, balance, sanity, these were achievements, not just nature.

I have never read, or even found, the books of Mr. George Moore who wrote an autobiography. Chesterton attacks his egoism, the interest in the world as related to his own temperament:

"We should really be much more interested in Mr. Moore if he were not quite so interested in himself. We feel as if we were being shown through a gallery of really fine pictures, into each of which, by some useless and discordant convention, the artist had represented the same figure in the same attitude. 'The Grand Canal with a distant view of Mr. Moore," "Effect of Mr. Moore through a Scotch Mist,' 'Mr. Moore by Firelight,' 'Ruins of Mr. Moore by Moonlight,' and so on seems to be the endless series." (pp. 131-132)

That has to be one of the funniest sentences ever written, and I could barely type it for laughing. A bit later on the page, Chesterton gives his vision of originality:

"Thinking about himself will lead to trying to be the universe; trying to be the universe will lead to ceasing to be anything. If, on the other hand, a man is sensible enough to think only about the universe; he will think about it in his own way. He will keep virgin the secret of God; he will see the grass as no other man can see it, and look at a sun that no man has ever known."

There is no space to mention all the wonderful writing in Heretics. I will mention his often expressed view of the narrowness of the larger world, where one can choose one's companions, as opposed to the nation, the neighborhood or the family, where one has to take people the way they are, with all their foibles.

"The best way that a man could test his readiness to encounter the common variety of mankind would be to climb down a chimney into any house at random, and get on as well as possible with the people inside. And that is essentially what each one of us did on the day he was born." (p. 190)

As always, Chesterton's ideas are eminently discussable! No commentary of mine could do justice to the variety, wisdom, and good humour in this book. The best thing would be to find a copy and read it.

I have the John Lane, edition, 1905.

I first became acquainted with Mayuzumi when long ago I picked up the LP of the Louisville Orchestra's recording of the Symphonic Poem, Samsara on Louisville LS-666. Although much of it sounds rather dark and clangy to Western ears, I found it a very satisfying work. I'm not quite sure why, but I have always found it to be quite relaxing, though you very well may not. It is a very highly organized work with a cyclical structure, which is appropriate for a depiction of the cycle of births and deaths. The record jacket and CD booklet explain the philosophy as follows:

"The background from which the life experience arises is suggested by a refrain which recurs to contrast the more dramatic material. For is it reading too much into the music to see in the more vital sections that attempt at purging and purification which, in the Buddhist faith, will allow the soul to transcend the process of reincarnation in the normal state."

I think the darker, slower parts more or less depict Nirvana, while the higher, more percussive parts represent the vicissitudes of desire, which it is the aim of classical Buddhism to eradicate. There is at one point a sort of battle between the drums and the higher winds. I take it that the drums beat down of the winds, beating down unruly desires which lead only to dissatisfaction. This leads out of samsara, the cycle of births and deaths, into Nirvana. One need not be a Buddhist to understand that it depicts a liberation, but one needs to take time to listen to the whole piece. It's just not what we might expect.

There is also a recording of Samsara with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Yoshikazu Fukumura on Marco Polo 8.220297. It is very well done, too, somewhat slower. However, the other works are less interesting than the shorter works on the First Edition CD.

The title of the first piece, Pieces for Prepared Piano and Strings, doesn't sound very exciting, but it is very quirky and evocative music. Those who like Takemitsu's smaller works may like this one. The CD booklet shows a reproduction of a letter from Mr. Mayuzumi indicating that he was quite well pleased with the recording.

I had heard of Essay for String Orchestra but never found the LP recording on my travels. It is certainly not what I expected, unlike any other string orchestra music I ever heard. That is not to say music colors are anything but pleasant. The CD jacket mentions a French critic, Jean Cotte, speaking of power and mystery, and quotes Harold C. Schonberg of the New York Times describing it as "creating a whirlpool of tone that goes round and round with a nearly hypnotic effect." That's as good a description as any, I suppose. It's really a very nice work and I have listened to it quite a number of times in the past weeks.

The CD is just under 40 minutes in length, but then it isn't very expensive, either. It also provides three wonderful works by an interesting composer.

Delius music here tends to be very lyrical and subtle, with gorgeous harmonies. Symphony Nova Scotia seems to do them about as well as anyone, and the rcording is very smooth with a nice sense of space and ambience.

The violin concerto is, as Tanya Tintner says in the liner notes, a sort of meditative "soliloquy" for violin and orchestra which should sound like "a wonderful improvisation." It is quite taxing as the violinist has to keep playing through most of the piece but it is not a showpiece for virtuosity, but rather for musicality. Philippe Djokic played this music very sensitively and it is hard to conceive it being done better.

To coin a phrase: highly recommended.

Okay, the music is very pleasant, lively and engaging, very and melodious. Not the greatest depth but these were really competent composers who could write extremely well.

Anthony Camden follows up his fine recordings of several years ago in Italian Oboe Concertos, Volume 1, with more great playing, assisted in the Salieri Concerto in C major by Peter Lloyd, flute. The Salieri is really a lovely work. I hope no one believes the stories about Salieri contributing to Mozart's demise as depicted in the movie, Amadeus. It's a great story but that never happened.

Nicholas Ward and the City of London Sinfonia play virtually to perfection, milking these works for all they have and more.

The sound quality is simply gorgeous, with a lovely, warm, ambience and very wide stereo image. It is so beautiful that I just have give this issue a full 5 stars. But it really is a lovely and relaxing CD.