The New York Times Essential Library: Classical Music: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings [Paperback]

Allan Kozinn (Author)

Book Description

Series: New York Times Essential Library | Publication Date: August 2, 2004

A dazzling appraisal of the definitive classical music performances available today

For classical music lovers, there is nothing more beguiling and exciting than the range of technique and emotion that can capture or transform the great works in the hands of a conductor and musicians. But with hundreds of recordings released every year, discovering the jewels is a challenge, for newcomers as well as for connoisseurs.
New York Times classical music critic Allan Kozinn offers the ultimate collector's guide, packed with a rich history of the composers and performers who stir our souls. From Bach's eloquent Goldberg Variations performed by master pianist Glenn Gould at the beginning and end of his career in startlingly different interpretations, to a lyrical performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade conducted by Kiril Kondrashin shortly after his defection from the Soviet Union, Kozinn places each work in the greater context of musical development and stretches the listener's understanding of each pivotal composition. These original essays on the one hundred greatest recorded classical works provide both practical guidance for building a library and deep insight into the transcendent power of music itself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's always a tricky task to pick a list with as sweeping a title as this, but Kozinn, a music critic for the New York Times, has done a sterling job. Not only does he write concisely and informatively about the works in hand, offering an excellent potted history of the composer and his composition, but Kozinn also sets forth sound reasons why he has chosen the recording he has—and in most cases he offers recommended alternatives, too. His list contains most of the expected big guns in classical masterpieces, but with an unusually extended list of contemporary works as well—25% of the pieces he cites were written in the 20th century: Britten and Glass and Reich, of course, but also such lesser-known figures as Milton Babbitt and Gregorio Paniagua. In performance, he has soft spots for the work of Leonard Bernstein and George Szell, but also for Pierre Boulez as a conductor, and is a great admirer of Columbia's composer-as-conductor series featuring Stravinsky and Copland. Best of all—and to keep the arguments flowing—he offers at the end a list of another 100 discs almost as essential—and hints at many more. It's a treasure trove for record collectors—though they should be aware that Kozinn's choices do notinclude opera.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In introducing this volume of the New York Times Essential Library, Kozinn notes the quixotic nature of choosing the top 100 classical music recordings. Unlike jazz or rock, classical music is an interpretive and re-creational art. There is only one Kind of Blue; other recordings of its exact program don't diminish its definitiveness, for jazz is essentially individualistic and improvisatory. But, to cite Kozinn's example, the "definitive" recording of Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin can be Nathan Milstein's for the 1970s, Gidon Kremer's for the '80s, and Christian Tetzlaff's now; and none ever displaces the others. Kozinn's strategy for dealing with the fact that very different interpretations of the same music are equally "valid" is to opt generally for more recent recordings and to note often, within the context of appraising the pieces at hand and their composers, other fine versions of particular scores. Historically, Kozinn's selections span from the twelfth-century sacred songs of Hildegard of Bingen to masterpieces by a dozen living composers. An excellent book of its kind. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Times Books; First Edition edition (August 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805070702
• ISBN-13: 978-0805070705
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely helpful guide (actually 200 recordings), December 8, 2005

By 

Steve S. (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New York Times Essential Library: Classical Music: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (Paperback)

I used to know a lot about classical music when I was younger, but I'd drifted into other kinds of music over the years. Now that I'm interested in getting reacquainted with the classics, I'm finding this book extremely useful and well-written. The author highlights 100 CDs he recommends and then in individual essays (each around 3-4 pages) talks about the pieces he chose, with background on the composer, the composition, and why he chose that particular recording. Often, he'll mention other excellent performances worth checking out.

As an appendix, Mr. Kozinn included a supplemental list of the next 100 recordings he'd recommend, which he says are all worthy of inclusion in the main list.

What impressed me most about the book is the overall balance of choices. First, between canonical choices and his more personal preferences--that's very appealing to me, because lots of people could throw together a list of the 100 most famous classical works, but it takes someone with real knowledge to dig deeper. Secondly, he chooses a nice range of music. Early music fans should be pleased, as well as fans of contemporary classics (like me), work by the minimalists like Adams, Glass and Reich, as well as new spiritual composers like Part, plus many I hadn't heard of before. But he also gives a lot of attention to the likes of Bach/Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart.

I found this really useful as a companion to the NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than a library borrow, May 12, 2007

By 

Sheila R "Spiritual seeker" (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New York Times Essential Library: Classical Music: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (Paperback)

I had been wanting to expand my classical music knowledge away from those little snippets of classical favourites so favoured by the commercial classical radio stations. I first borrowed this book from the library and enjoyed it so well that I bought it. It's an excellent book to help you get started and exploring. I like the varied choices, from over so many different time periods, and the personal and detailed commentary. Yes, other books like Penguin give you everything, but you have no clue where to start. This is a great beginning.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New York Times Essential Library of Classical Music, February 29, 2008

By 

Ross Scimeca - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New York Times Essential Library: Classical Music: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (Paperback)

This book tries to cover too much. The author, who I must admit recommends recordings that I totally agree with, tries to cover both symphonic and chamber music in a single volume. Some essential music that I would have included, e.g. Beethoven Piano Concerti, are not reviewed. What is reviewed must be taken seriously by any classical music record collector. The author definitely looked at the recorded history of each selection he investigates and informs his readers of alternative recordings. This book will be great fun for lovers of classical music in general and record collectors in particular. I compliment the author for his inclusion on older records that have been beautifully remastered for CD. This is especially useful for collectors that are of younger generation, i.e., under 40.

Ross Scimeca