Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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

This guide is much more a "pinhead's guide" to classical music than something that defines the "essential" library. I am not a classical music expert but have built a decent collection with solid representation from Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern composers also balancing symphonies and full orchestal works, concertos, sonatas, and chamber music -- NO OPERA.

I looked to this guide for an informed opinion of if someone were starting from scratch, what albums would give a listener a satisfying balanaced collection of classical music for all occasions. I hoped it would help me assess the quality of my collection so far and give me some interesting ideas of where to go next.

It failed miserably. There is way too much emphasis on obscure composers and lesser known performers. Regardless of hobby collections, there are always some obscurists and elitists, but such hobbyists hardly do justice to the quest to define "essential."

In evaluating classical music, obviously there is no absolute best performance of Beethoven's "Piano Concerto #5" for instance. There are plenty of great choices. There are some that by virtue of record company hype or the reputation of a marquee performer, conductor, or orchestra get a lot of attention despite missing the quest for excellence completely.

I'm a listener who loves piano sonatas. Haydn and Schubert have scored many. Cut to the chase. Which are the best? Who's the best pianist? Look at all those symphonies Mozart and Haydn penned. I can't buy all of them. Which ones count? I love romantic piano concertos, aside from the big names, are there some others? I found Saint Saens, for instance, very satisfying.

I would love to see a critic be able to first identify the essential works by composer and then recommend top performances based on the collector's needs and desires. Some listeners must have superb, realstic, state-of-the-art sound quality. As such, this listener would never be interested in old monophonic recordings no matter how great a Toscanini or Furtwangler Beethoven performance could be. Some want descent sound, but the best performance is primary. Some are guided by budget concerns.

That gives a casual fan a lot to sort through to find satisfying results. A good reviewer then should be able to guide the listener through the world of options to find satisfactory results.

Price, and "latest and greatest" thinking does not mean success. Expensive CD's are those by the big name stars, big world-class city orchestras, and a big hype machine. There are plenty of lesser known high quality recordings, but finding them is not so easy. Naxos is a relatively new label that hit the jackpot by opening shop soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain and having plenty of available talent not well-known but incredibly talented kept from the world stage by their communist governments. All Naxos single CD's are less than $10.00. Deutche Grammophon offers its "Originals" series. These are incredible performances from their pre-digital days.

Anyone new to classical music, the casual listener, or the classical music fan who had a great vinyl collection now looking to upgrade to digital will find none of the advice given above. I picture myself visiting a friend who'd show me these albums as the classical albums on his shelf, I'd ask, "Hey dude, you got some really rare stuff here. Cut to the chase, for a guy who likes pretty much all the normal stuff, what are three or four of these albums a regular guy like me would like?"

Sadly, The New York Times is an exercise of ivory tower pinheads writing for ivory tower pinheads. Having looked through the book, I found nothing that said, "Wow, I want to check that one out!" I did not find any reviews of works I already have that might make me want to hear a fresh approach to that beloved work, a different version with something new to offer. (I'm a fellow with six versions of Beethoven's 9th, each has its own appeal!)

For that purpose, The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection : The 350 Essential Works is far superior. There's something for everyone there with good solid advice for the nervous novice.

The great thing about shopping for classical music today is vendors like Amazon provide the ability for you to sample works before you buy. Many times, a little clip of a composition gives the listener just enough to decide if the selection is worthwhile.

Maybe someday I write my own guide. "A Casual Listener's Guide..." It looks like my comments above reviewing someone else's work is a halfway decent start!

I garnered some great information from this 2004 book. I listen to classical music at a minimum of 8 hours per day (mostly CDs), every day and I have a nice collection of about 500 recordings. I was pleased that many of the CDs recommended in here were already to be found in my stash.

I thought that Kozinn was a little heavy on Leonard Bernstein performances but, other than that I have few criticisms of his recommendations. Given that this is a New York Times book, I cannot say that I'm terribly surprised to the numerous allusions to Bernstein. But the chief point here is that nothing less than top-notch performances are recommended.

The reader intially gets 100 detailed recommendations and then Kozinn gives us a second 100 preferred CDs which were initially shaved from the top contenders. There's some terrific information about the composers in those first 100 essays and that is the strength of the book, given that it otherwise deteriorates as time goes on and as aggressive recording companies like Naxos continue to turn out numerous updated classical recordings.

What does this book do for you? Chiefly, it gets the newer listeners to classical music buying some historic and quality performances rather than wasting money on marginal ones. Secondarily, one garners some useful biographical information about the composers and the respective conductors.

This book is definitely worthwhile reading for the classical music lover and it's a good value.

Missing basic coverage. There is no word or review on any Wagner works - that strikes me as strange.

Far better to get the annual guide Deutsche Gramophone puts out.