Customer Reviews

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009

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I should start by saying that I am a big fan of the major British recording labels (Hyperion, Chandos, Decca, EMI, etc.), but there is a lot more to classical music than the output of these (admittedly excellent) labels. The Penguin Guide seems to neglect if not ignore the rest of the industry. Moreover, Penguin has made the editorial decision to address only CDs that they wish to recommend. While a valid approach, I find it much more instructional to know (additionally) what a reviewer dislikes and why. Another difficulty inherent in this approach is that an individual work may appear in separate reviews (pages apart) because of its coupling, making it easy to read a review of a particular disc, but very difficult to get an overview of any particular piece of music.

"Classical Music: The Listener's Companion" (a "Third Ear" guide from Backbeat Books) is woefully out of date, not as thorough in terms of the inclusion of lesser known composers, and a little uneven editorially due to the sheer number of contributors. But I've found it to be far more informative and in-depth, and while it is now more than seven years in print, it can still claim to cover all but the most recent additions to the canon. Reviewers are just as apt to tell you what to avoid (and just as importantly, why to avoid it) as they are to make a recommendation. Their knowledge often reaches back to the mono days, so you feel you're getting a sense of comparison and perspective which the Penguin approach lacks. And they organize entries by individual work, so if you find yourself looking for, say, a recording of the Tallis Fantasia, then you only have to look in one place. In the Penguin Guide you will find reviews of CDs containing the Fantasia on SIX different pages (seven or eight different CDs), making it hard to sort them out other than by their coupling.

If you're willing to have a classical music collection comprised primarily of recordings from Chandos and Hyperion (again, not necessarily a bad thing), and if that doesn't make you feel as if you might be missing out on something else, then the Penguin Guide will make your life a little easier. They will make the decisions for you about what you should put in your collection. If, on the other hand, you're like me and want to hear as many opinions as possible before making your own decision, then you want the Third Ear guide.Classical Music: Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion

Good Luck and Happy Listening!

The Penguin Guide has changed only slightly over the years. I am sitting here looking at my first Penguin Stereo Record Guide from 1975 in hard back (small format, though). Back then I was wrapping up post-grad college, working in a large music store as Classical buyer, and the Guide was unquestionably the most respected and authoritative summary of classical music records that could be held in one hand. 1114 pages, quaintly including reviews of the Beatles' albums (influenced perhaps by Deryck Cooke?) comparing them to Stockhausen and Boulez and furthermore identifying George Martin as their Walter Legge (for the younger set, Legge was something of a genius classical/opera producer for EMI particularly after the war).

It's true the Penguin Guide is flawed, that editorial gaffs persist, like non sequitur junk DNA accumulating over the evolutionary millennia. It is true that the rating system is ambiguous and redundant on its face. It's true that a few recordings are reviewed in the body text without their names appearing in the recordings list for a particular piece. It's true that some albums listed are out of print and other, worthy titles in print do not appear anywhere. It's true that it is not comprehensive. But all those weaknesses taken together amount to little more than annoyance, unless you really expect a single volume can satisfy the range of classical music consumers from novice to devoted long hair music buffs.

It is still the most readable, fun, unputdownable single volume reference Guide. From the first, this Guide has given me a developing vocabulary in what differentiates classical music performances and recordings. It has shown me titles I would never have known about. The consistency of their approach allows me to compare my tastes to theirs, and adjust accordingly.

But something important is changing, I think.

My copy of this latest volume has over 1550 pages in large format and bears the telling subtitle "The Perfect Guide to Building Your Classical Collection". The subtitle has changed several times from no subtitle, to "The Guide to Excellence in Recorded Classical Music", to "The Key Classical Recordings on CD, DVD, & SACD", and now "The Perfect Guide to Building...". These volumes are essentially the same in content and style yet the subtitles changed. Why?

Put simply, the world around them has changed dramatically. The number of boutique labels is growing, adding to the mass of music recorded from the 50s/60s through the 90s. The number of excellent artists seems larger than ever. Sampling and rent-before-you-buy services make direct comparisons possible in a way we didn't have before the Web. Furthermore, if you are an experienced listener like me, you have thousands of vinyl and CD titles each. It is hard enough to keep track of my own music using a relational database, let alone the thousands of new recordings each year. When I first began to collect seriously, no one had listened to as much music as they had. Most of us who have been listening for years cannot now get what we want from a single volume anymore. We need the combination of single volume baseline reference, plus classical music periodicals (I get the BBC's Music magazine and they have I don't know how many reviews each month), PLUS online resources. Amidst the volume of classical music information, there is no single place I can go; I still like my single volume Penguin as a starting place for several reviews that I can assess, and then I can move out from there to other resources.

I don't know about the future, however. With Darwinian pressures exerted by the changing environment and an aging, shrinking, classical consumer population, plus new innovations from the Web, our Penguin will need to adapt and evolve in the face of the public's Natural Selection choices lest it find itself, like such birds as the moa, dodo, and passenger pigeon, on the verge of extinction.

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008
Another disappointing effort. The book is still rife with recordings that have been out of print for several years. The label Jecklin, for example, no longer exists, but the book reviews all of the classic Frank Martin recordings as if they were still available. The typos from the 2008 edition were carried over. No review of the Neruda Songs by Lieberson. Letters to the editor go unanswered. Very sad.

I have been a steady buyer of the guide for about 30 years because it is the best of a very imperfect lot. Its advantage is far greater breadth than its main rival, the Gramaphone Guide; both stay up-to-date better than their rivals. I will continue buying, but the problems stll are formidable and I look only at them here.
With any guide (on anything), you must live with the differences between its biases and yours. They are many. There are lots of artist biases that might be curbed. To give a glaring case, in my view, they undercover Pavarotti and grossly overrate Roberto Alagna. With the latter, the guide went so far as to praise his recording of an opera in which he was terrible when I saw him live at the Metropolitan Opera.
In general, I found too much space, often with longer than necessary commentary, devoted to obscure composers while major recordings of major works by major composers were omitted.
A more serious problem is the British bias,most importantly in the coverage of material most available in the U.S. (such as the Naxos American music releases).
The changes in ratings systems started in 2008 remains vexing in their excessive complexity. We now have the possibility of a fourth star, the old Rosette, and rating as a key record. This is too much, particularly with the keys. They are now given so generously that few would really want all the supposed must-have recordings. Another irritant is the inclusion of recordings that are discussed but not given a headnote and thus, not a rating.
A bigger problem is that the editing has gotten sloppy. To give just one example, carried over from 2008, the review of the EMI French-language Rossini William Tell talks of the full-price Decca Italian language version, whose own listing just before that of EMI reports the issue of a mid-priced version.This seems to arise from too much carry-over of reviews from past issues.

I have been buying The Penguin Guide every two or three years for the past 20 years or so, and I agree that the quality has declined. I think other reviewers have done a good job of covering strengths and weakness of the Penguin Guide, and pointing out some other good guides, especially the Third Ear guide, which I consider to be the best, although woefully out-of-date.

However, I think one very important factor in Penguin's favor is the large number of DVD reviews. I'm not aware of any other source that has anywhere near this number of classical DVD reviews. I find myself buying fewer and fewer operas, oratorios or ballets on CD, preferring to have a good DVD performance if it exists. I find that between the Penguin reviews, and being able to preview many classical music performances on Netflix, I am often able to do some pretty good research before I spend my hard-earned dollars on a DVD.

Here's hoping for some improvements in the Penguin Guide, and a new edition of the Third Ear Classical Music Guide.

Truth be told there just are not that many good classical music guides to choose from. In terms of scope the Gramophone Guide is second to the Penguin. In my humble opinion, if you're serious about building or adding to an existing collection of classical CDs and DVDs you will own the Gramaphone as well as the Penguin Guide simply due to its more comprehensive scope as there are works (e.g., Beethoven's Overtures to name but one example) that are not covered in the "Good".

The Good Guide, like the Penguin, originates from the U.K. Some reviewers feel both these guides have a bias towards British artists. While to some extent this is true, it's not what other reviewers make it out to be and there are countless number of non-British recordings that are highly recommended in these pages. Besides, to my knowledge, one really doesn't have much choice because outside of the Penguin and the Good Guides a comprehensive guide for purchasing classical music is not available. There is the "Third Ear" but is does not come close to the high standard of these two publications. In fact, I have found the Third Ear to be far more biased AGAINST British recordings than these two guides are biased for them. If you're a complete beginner, the NPR Guide by Ted Libbey is an excellent place to start, although it is weak with resepct to opera, and it can't be accused of a British bias.

Gramophone Magazine is the only respectable periodical I've found that gives updated reviews and information about the latest in classical music recordings. The "Gramaphone" Guide is issued by the editors of Gramophone. While I prefer the Penguin I also purchase the Gramophone Guide. After being a subscriber to Gramophone Magazine for the past 5 or 6 years I've been so impressed with their recommendations that it is a logical purchase for me.

I've perused the pages of the Gramophone Guide and found a lot of agreement between it and the Penguin. Certain recordings are obvious recommendations and usually both these guides lead the buyer to owning certain "masterpiece" recordings. Both guides provide professional reviews of many of the avialble purchases for a given piece. Both provide great descriptions of many of the subtleties of given recordings and how the performers interpret the music. These descriptions make it easy to compare and contrast recordings and will help one become a more discerning listener.

If you love opera, you're in for a real treat. In addition to being season ticket holders to the Seattle Symphony and Pacific Northwest Ballet, we also have season seats to the Seattle Opera. I use these guides to make sure I own the music for whatever it is we will be hearing and "seeing" in our upcoming seasons. For Opera Lovers, the DVD recommendations are great to have. Now, in addition to having the best CDs of a given opera, I am now able to confidently purchase outstanding DVDs of the operas we'll be attending. If you go to live classical music performances of any kind, being able to familiarize yourself with what you'll be hearing before you attend the performance only leads to enhancing the performance.

As you can tell, I am very pleased with both the Penguin and Gramaphon Guides. Once you're really serious about compiling a CD/DVD collection, I'm confident you'll feel the same. These books will become your trusted advisors and you'll look forward to replacing them as they're updated.

Again, if you're really just starting out, you're fine with the NPR Guide (350 Essential Works) to begin with. It is refreshingly brief in scope and will get you the base you need for your collection and you'll be pleased with your recommendations. A great example is Libbey's recommendation of the Leon Fleisher/George Szell recordings of the Beethoven Piano Concertos. These recordings are phenomonal treasures at bargain prices!

Once you really get into classical music listening as a part of your life, and your "being" so to speak, it won't be long before you'll realize you'll want more. Owning these two guides will make you smarter about the music you're listening to and you'll be proud of your collection of excellent recordings.

In closing I want to express my belief in my credentials to make a recommendation to prospective buyers of these Guides. I am 55 years old. At age 5 I began piano study with Edith Knox in Los Angeles. Ms. Knox, a Juliard graduate, studied piano with Alexander Ziloti. Ziloti was a pupil of Franz Liszt. Ms. Knox premiered the Ravel Piano Concerto in G at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra in, I think, 1936. I continued to study with Ms. Knox into my early twenties afterward, I studied with Reginald Stewart at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. In college I majored in composition and piano and for four years was the student representative for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. For the past 30 years I've continued listening to classical music for countless hours each and every week of my life. I now continue to study piano with Celia Chandler in Mt. Vernon, WA. Mrs. Chandler is a protege of the great Maestro Leon Fleischer. She studied under scholarship with him at the Peabody School of music and at age 14 performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.


I only provide this bit of autobiographical information so you know that I've got a solid foundation in, and more importantly love, of classical music and consider myself a lifelong student of the genre. Even though I'm an avid reader, I don't feel as though I'm qualified to be a literary critic to the same extent that I have developed a discerning ear with regard to classical music listening. Accordingly, based upon my personal life experiences in classical music I think I am qualified to write a review about classical music guides. Buy these with guides with confidence. There is no perfect book for building a classical music collection but these two are the best available.

Happy listening!

I try to buy this every year, but this year I waited until the price dropped as the 2010 edition appeared.I depend on these reviews, but, as others have noted, it's weighted toward British artists and composers. Imagine not reviewing Zander's Mahler.
I don't like it as much as I did in past years, but it's extremely useful and worth having.

As mentioned this Guide isn't perfect!
But one is hard pressed to find one any better at this point.
I have been sporadically picking up copies of this guide since 1990.
I have NEVER been disappointed in any of their top picks(Rosette Winners)
While it may not cover absolutely every Classical Music CD in or out of print....might be a few flaws in information here and there....I find it hard to really knock this Guide.
IF in fact there was a Guide out there for every single Classical CD in and out of print a book would hafta be a foot thick!!
It does have SACD recommendations.

***Just a note***
If you don't have a SACD player....the SACD "Hybrid" CD's are just amazing on a normal CD player.
Many are "remastered" old recordings done with todays technology and must be heard to believe!!
Make sure they are "Hybrid" or they won't play on a normal CD player.
Plain SACD on a SACD player is Multi Channel and sometimes only plays from your front main speakers.(Some are 5.1 check their info 1st) Still incredible just the same.

Despite what has been said about this book.....if your either a seasoned collector or just getting started....this book is very worthy of your venture.

Like I said and I can't emphasize enough....I have never been disappointed by their recommendations in this book!!
It has helped me along with my Collection for many years and has guided me along to a wonderful collection of Classical Music.

This Guide is a little like the Consumers' Report for recorded classical music - with so many recordings out there, helps one separate the gems from the clunkers.

As a beginning collector one is confronted with an enormous volume of recordings of unknown quality. All are acclaimed by reviewers with credentials that are often as unknown as the artists themselves. I mentioned my desire to enjoy good quality music without having to dedicate vast amounts of time to verification to a friend and he recommended this volume. I have found it extremely useful. It allows to spend time listening to good music rather than endlessly researching. ASIN:B002SB8PMY The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009]]