Customer Reviews

Performing Music in the Age of Recording

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Many people think music should be a perfect as it is on our CD's. This hasn't always been the case and the quest for CD perfect performances has resulted in many cases in conservative, vanilla playing by many soloists these days. In this book the author takes pains to trace the history of performance back to the time before recording became out primary way of enjoying music. The quest for the "perfect" take or perfect performance resulted in a change in the way we enjoy music and what we expect in the concert hall. This author traces the development of performance practice via contempary reviews and programs to demonstrate how much the business of live perfromance has changed in the last century. The author takes a few side trips into "historically informed performance", and provides a detailed review of early recordings to demonstrate the change in tast that has taken place from a listener's viewpoint over the last centruy. Amply documented with some very detailed musical examples, this book would benefit from an listen along CD. But without the musical examples, any music lover with a strong base line knowledge of some essential muscial terms can greatly enjoy this book.

Charles Rosen in 'The New York Review of Books' considers this book to be a masterly description of the effect recording music has had on the playing of it. He mentions one major effect and that is the substitution of great precision in performance at the expense of a certain spontaneity and warmth.
Rosen then in his review goes on to discuss certain technical features of playing music( especially piano) and how they have been effected by recording.
This work is one especially suited for those who have real knowledge of classical music.