Customer Reviews

Classical Music: Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a wonderful guide to the sometimes confusing world of classical CDs. It may not supplant the Penguin Guide as the gold-standard, but it is a very illuminating supplement to it, and may be a first choice if you live in the USA. Penguin tends to have a British bias in many of their reviews, while this book comes from a more American perspective -- if you have ever bought a CD because Penguin gave it three stars, and then listened to it and wondered what all the fuss was about, this book may be for you. The reviews are entertaining to read, brief yet informative and often witty, and clearly organized to help you find what you want. The book does not cover quite the range of recordings that Penguin does, but it comes close, and certainly covers far, far more than either the Grammophone Good CD or Rough Guide books do. This is definitely the book to get if you want a second opinion after the Penguin Guide, and would make a highly satisfactory guide on its own. Very highly recommended!!!!!

This is a fascinating buying guide to classical music recordings with many positive attributes. It is full of interesting historical context of the composers and their works and fascinating performer trivia, making it quite entertaining and educational in addition to comparing the many recording choices. Compared to Penguin or Gramophone, it gives MUCH MORE in-depth backgroung on each work's history and significance. Also, there is a lack of any "British bias" (since published in USA) that some cite with Gramophone or Penguin (both UK published). Case in point: American pianist, Garrick Ohlsson's superb eight volumes of Chopin on the Arabesque label. Third Ear is the only guide to extensively review each of Ohlsson's Arabesque CD's while there is not one mention in the 2003 Penguin or Gramophone. Bias? Perhaps more likely the Brits are just not familiar with all the musicians "across the pond." Its really impossible for any one guide to be the "end-all" guide.

A notable and unique feature of The Third Ear Guide is the many pages of great biographies of the FAMOUS MUSICIANS by instrument in the back (pianists, violinists, violists, cellists, wind players, percussionists, vocalists etc). So, here you can find legends from Rubinstein, Horowitz, Pires, Perahia, Grumiaux, Oistrakh, Casels, Starker, Bain, Holliger, Graham, Pavoratti and many other admired musicians/vocalists thoughout the past century. In addition to some curious history and career milestones of these well-loved performers, The Third Ear Guide also cites some of their better recordings - a real valuable feature I found.

However, this guide waxes hot and cold depending on the composer/genre. For example, in the listings of available performances for a huge category like Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, there are SEVERAL entire pages covering nearly two dozen musicians who have recorded those works with compelling insights into their styles, historic performances and careers. Really great stuff for the conoisseur! But, in other categories it is a different story. Most frustrating to some is that in many cases, obvious top recordings and major performers are not mentioned, leaving the reader with an incomplete information. But, the bottom line is that no one guide is the end-all resource, and serious collectors will have this guide along with the Gramophone and Penguin Guides as each really has something valuable and often unique to contribute to the study of the finest recordings.

On the style side, the commentary is not dry and academic but full of human interest and spicy opinions - revealing "nuggets" of fascinating information for the music you most love. Additionally, the editors are not always prim-and-proper, saying only positive things (like Penguin Guide) but actually give critical and insightful comments which truly helps one sort out the pack. In this respect, the Third Ear Guide is the probably the most interesting to read compared to the others. So, this guide is much more than just a guide to look up ratings - it is a fascinating journey into classical music, its vast repertoire and its performers. If you are a serious collector, multiple guides area always the best way to go to get a wide variety of opinion. If you really can only pick one guide, most people would go with legendary Penguin Guide. But, my second guide would definately be Third Ear (over Gramophone) as it often lists recordings suprisingly not listed in Penguin. Also, it is just plain fun and fascinating to read at random.

I am not a professional music critic or player, but just like and listen to classical music a lot. This book is to me the a better guide than Penguin or Grammophone.
One critical feature of the book is that it has many contributors, among them are professionals like Harold Schoenberg, and many semi-professional listeners. They do not have the bias commonly felt in the Penguin guide or grammophone, nor do they say good things to every recording (as Penguin). They offer somehow personal, but reasonable and enlightening opinions, often enriched by comparisons of different recordings. I get the feeling that they are just serious listeners and tell us their feelings about different recordings. In this sense it is truly a "listern's companion".
Another feature is that at the end of the third part of the book is devoted to instruments and artists, which surveys the greatest instrumentalists in the 20th century. Along with a short introduction to the artist's style are the representative recordings. This part is really helpful for beginners.
Finally, no recording guide can survey all recordings and this is no exception. A lot of recordings elsewhere claimed to be legendary could be missed here, most probably due to the personal taste of the reviewer. Also you may find the recommended recordings not to your taste and/or your favorite ones listed as not-so-good ones. But none of these is so important. Above all, no review can tell you more than listening to the recording yourself, this guide does tell you what recordings you may want to give a try. And to this point it does do a better job than Grammophone or Penguin.

I return to this book three times as often as The Penguin Guide because it usually makes for more interesting reading and seems to offer more substance in the reviewers' comments regarding individual performances. In addition, I don't really detect the sort of favortism shown toward some homegrown conductors that fairly commonly characterizes the British Penguin Guide. However, I do have a few complaints about the Morin edited work here under consideration. Unconscionably, Bruckner is given a mere one and a half pages. Almost equally absurd are the thirty pages given to the vocal music of Handel. And, I'm not at all pleased with the rather paltry treatment given to the major works of Brahms. On the positive side, however, composers like Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Mahler are given deservedly ample and fine coverage, with terribly fascinating and probing analyses concerning comparative evaluations. I say go for it ! It's well worth its price.

Among the contributors to this book, it is clear there was no-one with any significant interest in, or knowledge of Bruckner's music. He gets one and a half pages. Even Miaskovsky gets more than that, whilst Arnold Bax takes up more than twice the space! Mahler has no fewer than 23 pages!! That aside The book does provide a refreshing alternative to but not replacement for the Penguin guide. I agree with earlier reviewers in that it doesn't have the Colin Davis / Simon Rattle bias of Penguin nor that book's obsession with Karajan. I also agree about the glaring omissions, like any mention of the Gilels/Reiner Brahms second or the Leinsdorf Mahler three whilst commending the less good fifth and sixth. The Mravinsky Sibelius seven is omitted despite praising most of his other recordings. No mention either of the classic Cluytens Shostakovich eleven.I was also dismayed by the cursory treatment of Rachmaninov's symphonies and denigration of Ormandy's set, number one of which is the best ever recorded. There are also errors like getting the conductor wrong in the Heifetz Elgar concerto ( Wallenstein instead of Sargent ), but despite all this I like the freely discursive style that economically mentions and compares a variety of recordings in juxtaposition rather than giving a separate paragraph to each as in Penguin, many of which haven't been updated in over twenty years ! I also like the frequent references to historical recordings to look out for even if they aren't currently available. To sum up I'd say it's fun to read in spite of being occasionally infuriating!

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.

I recently bought this book from Amazon (along with the newest edition of the Penguin Guide).
I found that it is certainly quite an enjoyable book to read, however I found it a bit biased and I really missed some recordings that I expected to be covered. I think that it is a bit strange that some recordings that are top rated both by the Penguin and Gramophone guides aren't even mentioned here! So, however enjoyable this book might be I still prefer the recomendations of the british CD guides!

Reading some of the previous reviews of this book I noticed someone complaining about the authors of this book not covering Bruckner's music with the same depth as they did Handel's vocal music. I fully agree, however it was not the number of pages given to Handel's music what amazed me. What really amazed me was the extremely extensive and detailed coverage that Gershwin's handful of orchestral works got, especially when Bruckner's music is so briefly covered! To me this is a clear example of this book being quite biased!
One other problem is that the coverage of the works of each composer isn't always presented in the same manner, and that makes this book a bit more confusing and difficult to use as a true guide.
I recommend this book only as a complement (quite inferior) to the Gramophone and/or Penguin guides.

Like other reviewers, the book both perplexes and fascinates me. Recordings that Penguin often awards a 'Rosette" to are often totally trashed in this book; seldom do they agree (and frankly I trust the crusted editors of Penguin much more). That said, my copy of "Classic Music" is just about worn-out. I read and reread it incesstantly. It is a goldmine of information about the composers, compositions, and artists. I am anxiously waiting for an update. High recommended. A must for any serious collector of "serious" music.

Third Ear competes indirectly with Penguin Guide in the field of recorded classical 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 -- even a decade after its introduction in 2000 -- is it contains music often not found in Penguin Guide The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2010: The Key Classical Recordings on CD, DVD and SACD. It usually contains multiple listings of music deemed unsuitable for the British publication, such as Beethoven's Wellington's Victory. It also is the only book of the Penguin Guide, Gramophone guide The Gramophone Classical Music Guide: The Most Authoritative Guide to the Best Classical Recordings Written by the World's Leading Critics, and Third Ear to take a comprehensive look at everything published. The failing is it only did this once, in 2000, and anything published after that time is not included. In this regard, it is destined to be a metaphor for Herbert Russcol's famous Guide to Low-Priced Classical Recordings from 1969 Guide to low-priced classical records.

There are more serious drawbacks to this publication, too. The most obvious is the inconsistent treatmenet given composers of great music. For instance, Georg Frideric Handel, the creator of Messiah and other well-known oratorios, is given 41 pages in the book, the third most dedicated to a single composer and fewer than only Bach's 50 and Mozart's 42. The sections covering the recordings of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler recieve 25 and 22 pages, respectively. Yet, for reasons that could never be explained, Third Ear dedicates less than two pages to the entire output of Anton Bruckner, whose nine symphonies are similar to Mahler's. And, while there are 9 pages of Wagner, Debussy and Hindemith, this tome dedicates 20 pages to the relatively obscure and unpopular recorded output of Monteverdi.

Still, it's a valuable and longlasting compendium for collectors, not to mention exciting and interesting. Most of the authors are known to veteran collectors and many are current or former contributors to American Record Guide, including the late editor and the late New York Times musciologist Harold C. Schonberg, who wrote the foreward. Both 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. Since they've also both passed on, it's unlikely a Vol. 2 will be forthcoming.

While its inconsistency in composer coverage and one reviewer to a section mandate 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 ongoing value of Third Ear Classical Music to record collectors. It joins the Penguin Guide, Rough Guide to Classical Music The Rough Guide to Classical Music (Rough Guide Music Reference), All Music Guide All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music (All Music Guide Required Listening), and now-deleted Insider's Guide to Classical Recordings by Jim Svejda The Insider's Guide to Classical Recordings, From the Host of The Record Shelf, a Highly Opinionated, Irreverent, and Selective Guide to What's Good and What's Not to offer buyers information on the many choices available online and elsewhere in the wonderful world of classical music.

The good thing about this guide is that it list several performers and recordings for a given piece; not just the good but the bad also, giving more selection for comparison than most guides.

Two bad things, though; there are many omissions, and not just minor works but recordings which other sources consider some of the best examples are totally ignored here.

The other thing is the tone of the reviewers; the attitude towards the lesser recordings is downright arrogant and condescending in many cases and the language rude and belittling. I enjoy reading a good, witty rejoinder against poor performances, but I found myself sympathizing for the artists against the snobby reviewers.