The Classical Music Experience: Discover the Music of the World's Greatest Composers [Hardcover]

Julius H. Jacobson II (Author), Kevin Kline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2002

The Ultimate Listener's Guide!

There are many books about classical music, but none capture the incredible range of musical styles and sounds as accessibly or in as compelling a way as The Classical Music Experience.

The Classical Music Experience tells the stories of forty-two of the world's most celebrated composers, ranging from Bach, Handel, Mozart and Beethoven to Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin and Bernstein. It weaves five hundred years of history and music into a rich tapestry of sound and story unlike any other book of its kind.

Read about the composers' lives and works, their passions and inspirations, and then listen to excerpts of their music on the accompanying CDs. In addition to the pieces covered in the book, Dr. Julius H. Jacobson gives recommendations of further works you may wish to listen to and explore on your own.

This is a volume to cherish and to return to again and again as you build your own classical music library and venture out to the symphony hall.

"Every beginner needs a place to begin. For a music lover, what better place to discover more about music than between the pages of another music lover's book? The Classical Music Experience makes it easy by taking you through the history of classical music composer by composer."
--Adam Duritz, lead singer, Counting Crows

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jacobson, a vascular surgeon who has been a fan of classical music since his teens, is concerned that interest in this music is waning, so he has written a book to introduce the uninitiated to the basic repertoire of "those compositions most often heard at orchestral or chamber music concerts." Uninhibited by his lack of training in performance or music history, he plunges into accounts of 42 major composers, from Palestrina to Leonard Bernstein, chatting about their lives, their musical styles and their best-known compositions. Interspersed are a few pertinent definitions of musical terms, as well as digressions into other topics, such as the structure of the ear, an operation he performed on the artery of a conductor and trips he made to Slovakia (prompted by his discussion of Smetana). Although his sketches of the music are short and overly simple, he often succeeds in capturing the essence of a composer's style the "physical energy" and "dance-like forward motion" of Bach's Third Brandenburg Concerto; the "fine themes, interesting rhythms, rich orchestral sonorities" in Bruckner's symphonies; and the "dark coloring, yet brilliant sound" of Tchaikovsky's orchestration. Unfortunately, his decision not to include opera (except for Wagner) means that a number of popular composers, like Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti, are omitted. The book comes with two CDs containing fragments of some of the works covered. These snippets, with short introductions by actor Kevin Kline, are too brief to provide any real insight into the music (and Kline's delivery is surprisingly dry and faux academic). More helpful are the suggestions Jacobson makes for recordings to buy. The book is elementary and anecdotal, and the doctor's enthusiasm is infectious.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Eminent microsurgeon Jacobson (Mount Sinai Medical Ctr., New York) has cultivated a love of classical music since he was a child. Here, he attempts a short layperson's introduction to the music, describing the lives and oeuvres of 42 composers, from Mozart and Wagner to Leonard Bernstein and Charles Ives. Arranged in roughly chronological order, the chapters range from two pages (Max Bruch) to more than 15 (Beethoven), each highlighting at least one musical work. Inevitably in an arrangement like this, some fine composers are left out; however, sidebars on everything from Hans Pfitzner to the Sezessionists offer nice supplementary information. The novelty of Jacobson's book is the accompanying set of two audio CDs. Actor Kevin Kline summarizes the text in a few words, then musical examples follow. Though this gives the novice a feel for the composer's style, the examples are so brief (more than 50 tracks are on the first disc) as to be almost misleading. The "sound bite" approach may not be the best way to sample an hour-long musical piece and may, in some cases, distort its true essence. Though neophytes may be drawn to this book, Fred Plotkin's recent Classical Music 101 is a better overall introduction. Recommended only for libraries wanting a book/CD introduction to classical music. Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ., Kingsville
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks MediaFusion; First Edition edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570719500
• ISBN-13: 978-1570719509
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,650,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book for the Classical Music Neophyte, April 28, 2003

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Classical Music Experience: Discover the Music of the World's Greatest Composers (Hardcover)

Julius H. Jacobson II, MD (as the front cover has it) is not a musician, he's a prominent vascular surgeon. And that may be this book's primary attraction. He writes as a fervent music-lover with no training in musicology and thus writes from the point of view of a lay person. Since his intended readers are those people who are completely uninitiated into the mysteries of classical music, but who want to learn more, this approach works well. In addition, and quite cleverly, his chatty, even gossipy, essays about 42 composers and their most popular works are accompanied by two CDs with illustrations of their music. These musical selections are drawn from the vast resources of the Naxos record label and each is introduced, gracefully and articulately, by actor Kevin Kline who, incidentally, is a graduate of Juilliard and a pretty good pianist (although he doesn't play here). There are also tips on what other similar pieces readers might want to track down on their own.

I think the main selling point of this book is the down-to-earth style of its author. He is often discursive, relating fascinating medical, romantic or gossipy facts, say, in the composer's lives. It's a little bit like having a favorite uncle who loves to teach and who knows how to keep one's interest.

I would heartily recommend this to anyone wanting to start learning about classical music.

Scott Morrison

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I didn't care for it, either., September 9, 2005

By 

Januarus MacGahan (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Classical Music Experience: Discover the Music of the World's Greatest Composers (Hardcover)

Since we seem to be piling on this poor fellow, I thought this to be the most bizarre publication I have seen in years. I agree that the author is entirely too full of himself, even to the point that the purpose of the book seems to be to glorify himself, rather than to address the purported subject of the book.

Aside from that, the approach of the book seems so scatterbrained that a lot of what he says doesen't mean much unless you already know the subject matter pretty well. It's just too much of a fact here and a fact there thrown in among the author's obvious prejudices about who you will enjoy listening to and who you will not. I may not be as big a fan of the Goulding book as someone else here who has recommended it, but it is much better written, organised and filled with useful information. In fact, much of the content of the Jacobson book is so sketchy that it will make a lot more sense if you read something like Goulding first.

On the other hand, if you have already read Goulding or the like, you probably don't need this book anyway, unless you just like to hear authors talk of themselves.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Introduction, September 22, 2003

By 

peederj (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Classical Music Experience: Discover the Music of the World's Greatest Composers (Hardcover)

If you want to buy one book that will introduce you to the wonders of classical music, including two CDs of clips from a few dozen of the best composers in history and plenty of quips about their lives and times, here's the one.

I hadn't heard many of the composers and learned plenty about them, and even a bunch of interesting stories from the medical field (the author is an acclaimed surgeon, "father of microsurgery"). So the author is very smart and doesn't have an axe to grind, and this is clearly his labor of love.

I would start here to get an idea of the historical development and the spectrum of composition and then move on to e.g. "Classical 101" and/or "NPR Curious Listener's Guide" and then maybe Copland's book or various CD guides depending on your interests.