101 masterpieces of music and their composers [Unknown Binding]

Martin Bookspan (Author)

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• Unknown Binding
• ASIN: B00005V9ZG
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,439,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of yesteryear's premiere classical record review books, August 29, 2010

By 

Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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Martin Bookspan is a New York-based critic, author and commentator whose baritonal commentary graced the PBS series Live At Lincoln Center for three decades. Bookspan authored 101 Masterpieces of Music and Thier Composers and the first edition was published 1960 as a way for a new generation of record collectors to ferret out the mass of recordings coming into record stores. The book inlcuded biographies of major composers and critical reviews of recordings of their greatest works. Later editions, in the 1970s, carried reviews of recordings on the then-new media of reel-to-reel tape and cassettes as well as long-playing 33 RPM records, knowns as LPs.

Unlike today's worldwide market via the Internet and downloads, most people bought recordings in stores in the 1960s and 1970s. Several giants, including a national chain operated by CBS in major markets and college towns, marketed all the new releases on the big half-dozen labels -- Columiba (now Sony,) Angel (EMI), London (Decca), Philips, RCA (became BMG) and Deutsche Gramophon Gesellschaft (now DG) -- and some of the smaller ones like Nonesuch, Everest, Czechoslovkia's Supraphon and discount giant Vox, which was the Naxos of its time.

Bookspan's tome was also helpful because the giant labels all had discount brands intended to 1) compete with Vox, which bought rights to re-release older recordings no longer wanted by the big six labels and 2) to gain a secondary discount market for their recent recordings now superceded by newer recordings with bigger name conductors or soloists. During the 1970s, second hand (used) record stores began to sprout in communities and college campuses around the country, heralding the classical music aftermarket for used products that Amazon vendors exploit today.

Bookspan wrote bios of three dozen composers and reviewed their most popular works, making recommendations on all media available at the time. The book includes a musical glossary that defines terms in layman's words. He called a bagatelle "a trifle" and catavina as "a one-subject melody." So, in some ways, this book is still be relevant and helpful to the new collector almost 40 years after it was last published even if recorded recommendations are discarded.

What probably won't be helpful are Bookspan's biases, which were typically New York-Berlin. Bookspan was the announcer for many of Arturo Toscanini's DVDs and his book is full of loving references to the Italian maestro's recordings, which were available in the period from RCA and its discount label, Victrola, in often horrid mono sound with New York's NBC Symphony Orchestra.

Bookspan also loved Leonard Bernstein, the New York Philharmonic conductor for most of the period of the book, and he hated Herbert von Karajan, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and a man many suspected of being a Nazi or, at a minimum, a Nazi sympathizer during the war. I often wondered if Bookspan, a Jew, was on board with this charge and if it colored his commentary of Karajan's work.

Unlike any other conductor mentioned, the book is full of negative comments on Karajan's recordings, which have gone on to sell more copies than any single conductor in the world. An example is this comment on Karajan's recording of the Brahm's Symphony No. 2: "...(it) is for me even less felicitous than his performance of the composer's First Symphony, for those those impressed by this calculated music-making..." About Karjan's famous recording of the Prokofiev Symphony 5 he said: "I find it superficial and glib."

Karajan and the New Yorkers aside, Bookspan was a normally reliable guide for me when I was a new collector in the early 1970s and used his book for guidance. While I could never get on board with Bookspan's adoration for the recordings of Toscanini and Bernstein, and I never sided with his hatred of Karajan, I found his other recommendations generally accurate. Some of the recordings he recommended I still own today including Ernest Ansermet's Beethoven symphonies Beethoven: Sym Nos 1-4/Coriolan Overture, Beethoven: Sym Nos 5-8/Egmont Overture and Beethoven: Sym No 9/Overtures and Karl Munchinger's wonderful version of Bach's Magnificat Magnificat. A few he told me to avoid -- including one of Leopold Stokowski's most controversial recordings Tchaikovsky: Symphony No4 -- are also still in my library.

For most, this will either be a nostalgic look into the past or open a window to a part of classical music history heretofore not replicated by today's online critics and the major magazines. I suggest it can still be helpful to the burgeoning collector for its recommendations and its other contents. For anyone that finds this look back into history fascinating, I would also recommend Herbert Russcol's 1968 book that reviewed discount classical recordings Guide to low-priced classical records and David Ewen's musicology book for a generation earlier that recommended recordings in the late 78 RPM era and into the LP era Ewen's Musical Masterworks.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference Guide for Recorded Classical Music, November 17, 2009

By 

JBGood (Lansdale USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 101 Masterpieces of Music and Their Composers (A Dolphin reference book no. 081) (Paperback)

Although 30 years old, this is an excellent beginner's reference for those interested in learning about and buying selected classical masterpieces of the great composers. The information in this book is still relevant in the world of CDs. The greatest works of 36 composers from Bach to Vivaldi are discussed with just the right amount of detail. A brief biography of the composer is provided along with several recommended recordings (vinyl or tape) for each work. You would need to, of course, go to the latest Penguin Guide or Grammophone Guide, for example, for the comparable CD recordings. It is interesting to compare yesterday's recordings with the latest CD productions, something I am doing as I replace the vinyl in my collection. This book is not anywhere near a complete reference, but it also doesn't overwhelm the novice, and is therefore a satisfying introduction to classical music.

5.0 out of 5 stars Bookspan a brilliant corrective to the Penguin Guides, October 8, 2011

By 

Joe Highbrow (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 101 Masterpieces of Music and Their Composers (A Dolphin reference book no. 081) (Paperback)

Penguin Guides were always worshipful towards Karajan, who though probably not a Nazi sympathizer, certainly was an egregious opportunist. Bookspan was right to disdain his oeuvre. Karajan was the poster boy for one who knows everything but understands nothing. Toscanini, on the other hand, felt music to the marrow of his bones, as did Bernstein. That's why Bookspan favored them.
The Guides also are also extremely Anglo-centric, filled with paeans to hundreds of years of mediocre British composers.
It's a shame Bookspan wasn't able to update the book in the 90s and since. I would trust his critical judgment above any other as to CD recordings, including sonics.