The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection [Paperback]

Theodore Libbey (aka Ted Libbey) (Author), Mstislav Rostropovich (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1994

In his guide, National Public Radio's Ted Libbey takes listeners by the hand through the classical repertory to build a music library. Now, five year after its original publication - with five years of new performances to consider, new releases to review, reissues to re-evaluate - Mr Libbey has revised and updated this book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Where Do You Go After Mozart's Jupiter? After Bach's Brandenburg Concertos? After Beethoven's Third?

In this informed and indispensable guide, now in a second edition featuring a hundred new recordings, National Public Radio's Ted Libbey takes you by the hand through the classical repertory and helps you build an essential CD collection. Not just another rating book, this is a foremost expert's thoughtful and entertaining appreciation--work by work, performer by performer, recording by recording--of the symphonies, concertos, chamber pieces, keyboard works, sacred works, and operas that belong in every music lover's library. It includes the core 20 works for starting out, recommendations especially suited for young listeners, and an appendix listing additional works, beyond those covered in the first edition, that the author feels most passionate about.

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:

"I have been lost in this book for a week...Libbey('s) comparisons are wonders of lucidity, differentiation, and those 'open ears' Rostropovich spoke of." --Chicago Tribune

"An extensive guide and perfect companion to the basic classical repertory." --Digby Diehl, Playboy Magazine --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

One of America's most highly regarded music critics and commentators, Ted Libbey is host of the "Basic Record Library," the most popular segment on National Public Radio's "Performance Today." Ted has served as a top editor and music critic at High Fidelity magazine, Musical America, New York Times, and The Washington Star, and acted as programming consultant and coordinator for the John F. Kennedy Center's "Tribute to Germany" in 1992. He is author of "Symphonic Portraits: A Classical Portfolio," the "Performance Today Basic Record Library Booklet," and of histories of the National Symphony Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, as well as a forthcoming study of violinist Isaac Stern. Ted was a co-producer of the 1996 NPR Classics release "J.S. Bach In Performance," and served as repertory consultant and co-producer of Time-Life Records' Beethoven Series and Great Composer Series, which went platinum in 1991.

Ted graduated cum laude from Yale University as a Yale National Scholar, and during graduate school was appointed assistant conductor of the Stanford University orchestra. He spent a year as director of the Composer/Librettist Program at the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1988 received the United States Information Agency's Award for Outstanding Service as a consultant for USIA's Artistic Ambassador Program. Ted also composed the score for the award-winning film "Home of Hope," and several of his arrangements have been performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He frequently lectures in the United States and Europe, and often appears at informative talks across the country.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 498 pages
• Publisher: Workman Pub Co (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156305051X
• ISBN-13: 978-1563050510
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,317,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 167 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant reviews on orchestral works and concertos, June 16, 2002

By 

Patricia A. Powell (gladstone, nj USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection : The 350 Essential Works (Paperback)

The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection is a good start but, it has its limitations. Ted Libbey gave himself a daunting task in putting this guide together. He did an excellent job on the two chapters on orchestral works and concertos, which comprise about half the book. These chapters alone make this book worth the money. His commentary is concise without losing important detail. The reasons that he selected the recommended recordings are clearly laid out. He gives the audiophile a genuine opportunity to understand what is good in a specific recording and what is missing. In many cases he provides more than one choice and explains the differences between the recordings. Based on his commentary, I am obsessively trying to find the Elan recording of Santiago Rodriguez playing Prokofievs Piano Concerto No. 3.

As the guide progresses, however, the author seems to lose interest. His chapter on chamber music is adequate. Then, he zips through solo keyboard works and sacred music. By the time he gets to the last chapter on Opera he has given up. It is ridiculously short. The entire subject is covered in 60 pages! It is not well edited. At one point he states that Leontyne Price is the great Aida of our time; then he does not mention her recording of this Verdi masterpiece. His recommendation of Mirella Frenis Aida is a surprise. It is in this chapter that the author has decided not to give any reasons for his recommendations. And so, we are left puzzled. What is wrong with Leontyne Prices Aida? All of Marilyn Hornes opera recordings are overlooked. He correctly lists the brilliant Victoria de los Angeles and Jussi Bjorling recording of La Boheme, but fails to note that this is a mono recording.

Perhaps Ted Libbey should have co authored this book with someone interested in vocal music, or represented this as the essential guide to orchestral works and concertos. It is certainly worth having. But the true classical CD collector will need other guides for help in finding those special vocal and solo instrument recordings. I recommend this with some reservation.

95 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deeply flawed but great, July 24, 2004

By 

Joshua L Wright "book and music fan" (Royal Oak, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection : The 350 Essential Works (Paperback)

I love this book. It has been the sole guide my wife and I have used to flesh out our collection of art music recordings for close to a year now. However the book has major problems.

While everyone certainly has their favorite composers and genres of music, the amount of space dedicated to Jean Sibelius defies all logic. While he was certainly great and wrote much better stuff than I could ever write, the amount of space devoted toward this relatively obscure composer is indefensible in light of all the composers left out, even in his 2nd list of 350 in the back. No works by Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, Corelli, Poulenc, Satie, or Couperin (what does he have against the French?).

What is even more glaring is the neglect some of the greatest composers of all time recieve. Libby spotlights Handel as a "major maestro" and then lists a paltry three of his works. They are his greatest to be sure, but if one is going to include him alongside Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, J.S. Bach and Haydn one needs to list more than three pieces. Even worse is poor Schubert who, not only unlucky enough to be overshadowed by Beethoven his whole life, now must be grossly under represented here and not even given "major maestro" status. His lieder are inexplicably lumped in with the chamber music vividly illustrating Libby's neglect of vocal and choral music. That none of Vivaldi's highly influencial sacred music is not included is also a crime. He seems lucky to get the Four Seasons in.

That, more than Libby's love for Sibelius, is the greatest flaw of this book. Choral and vocal music are given short shrift time and time again as shown by the tiny chapters on opera and sacred music and the lack of any discussion of secular non-operatic music or solo vocal sacred works (Schubert gets it again).

I don't want to give the impression that I don't like this book. I love it. There is really nothing else out there like it and Libby's writing is easy to understand, informative and even entertaining (especially in the margins)! This book could be greatly impoved however. I would recommend using it in conjunction with the reviews on Amazon (taken with a grain of salt) or with some other source like your local classical radio station (if you have one).

Despite its flaws, buy it!

58 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommendations from the experts, April 8, 1999

By 

"conquistador69" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection (Paperback)

An outstanding guide to building a classical CD collection.As a classical music collector and a listener of public radio, I find this guide to be very essential,even for those who already have a CD collection.The book is in six chapters:Chapter one tells about music for orchestra,chapter two about concertos,chapter three on chamber music, chapter four on solo keyboard work on chapters five and six Mr.Libbey tells about vocal works,including, sacred music, secular choral music,and opera by various composers of different times.Mr.Libbey also offers great details about each work that he tells about. The book also has funny illustrations about composers and performers and about circumstances sorrounding certain compositions.My favourite is the illustration of the violinist where Mr.Libbey explains about Beethoven`s Razumosvsky quartet #1 on page 305,the chapter about chamber music. The book also shows pictures of composers, performers,and conductors.This book is of great value and help for classical music lovers everywhere.Mr.Libbey you did a marvelous job. Thanks for this great guide.A five stars indeed!