Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Classical Music

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all, in order to properly consider the merits of this book, and not be surprised at the tenor of the writing or style of the criticism, it's worthwhile to check out the editorial reviews for this volume (accessible on the menu to the left), which provide an excerpt from the guide and offer some hint of whether or not you'll like the Rough Guides approach. The passionate denunciations of this book from the other customer reviews are interesting, but not particularly well-founded. By its own admission, this guide is somewhat Anglocentric, coming from a British publisher and aimed at CDs available in England - which shouldn't deter you in the slightest, since many are available in the U.S. as well, or can be easily ordered through Amazon's partner UK site. As for the complaints about the tone of the criticism, this is a wholly subjective judgment that every reader must consider. All too often with highly opinionated criticism, though, many readers take offense and launch into fiery diatribes against the author, accusing him of various literary sins, real and imagined. In this case, it's important to understand that although you will not agree with everything this author applauds or condemns, you will likely find his writing style fluid and compelling - unless of course you go for the "Classical Music for Complete and Utter Imbeciles" type of guidebook-writing. The greatest attributes this book offers are its wide breadth, covering a slew of historically obscure and unfairly ignored modern composers (typically dismissed by the likes of Jim Svejda and his fire-breathing, conservative ilk), and its pointed analysis of contemporary trends and developments in the classical world. If it's a large number of reviews per opus you're after, by all means go for the invaluable Gramophone or Penguin guides, but if you value well-written, thoughtful criticism that doesn't provide easy answers or rely on knee-jerk canonical worship, this guide is a must, both for novices and aficionados of music from plainchant to postmodernism.

Sure, the critics are right for voicing the opinion that only a small handful of recordings are recommended -- I found the recommendations somewhat capricious (and many fine recordings were left out), but that's not the aim of the book. The portraits of each composer are very well written and give even the novice a good overview of the life of each composer and his significant works. The authors admit in the intro that they are not out to write an exhaustive list of every major work -- actually, I liked the fact that they picked out each composers best works rather than reviewing all of them, even the bad. For readers trying to build a collection, this emphasis on the best pieces is helpful. The organization of the book and the layout is excellent providing quick and easy information. The Penguin guide features many more recordings (and less on each composer and his history), but the Rough guide is equally as useful. I plan to pick up the Penguin guide to balance out the small faults of this volume. Highly recommended overall with good text boxes that explain many major movements and types of music.

Whether or not this book is *right* about what recordings are the best of a particular work, I have yet to be disappointed purchasing a disc recommended here. It is quite strong on 20th century composers, which is unusual in books of this kind. The writing is thoughtful, readable, and intelligent, too. I think this is the ideal book for someone who wants to know more about classical music, and is more than useful for those who already know a bit. Also, I've never had trouble tracking down any of the recordings, but maybe I've just been lucky.

Some books have too much information in them and will sit on shelves, but never be read. This book is not one of them. The articles are concise and interesting, and feature helpful recommendations of CDs currently available.

It is a good resource if you want to keep up to date, because the book gives information about many recent composers, as well as those who are already familiar.

I also appreciate the articles interspersed throughout the book on such topics as:
What is a Fugue?

Sonatas and Sonata Form
Composers at the Movies
Development of the Keyboard

The chronological list of composers is also a helpful bonus.

An excellent resource for students, teachers and all interested in Classical Music.

This is a guide to recommended recordings of the basic classical repertory. Where books like The Penguin Guide present the available recordings and let you decide, this guide, like those by Ted Libbey and Jim Svejda, offers you one or two of the authors' choices for the best record and the reasons why they chose it. So it's like movie criticism, except a lot more useful and applicable to the consumer - we go to the movies to be entertained, but classical music is by contrast all very serious and important (right?), so that finding the most important recordings of the basic repertory is essential for the record collector.

Of the three books this one is the least to my liking - I disagree with a lot of the choices here. The authors seem to coming from a musicological angle rather than from an interpretive angle: the guide reads more like music history than criticism. I've learned a lot more from the books by Libbey and Svejda, writers who seem to have a more comprehensive knowledge of the classical recording scene, its history and important trends and accomplishments.

Even so, it's useful to have another opinion, and this book does by far the best job with contemporary composers. (The music-history approach does serve the contemporary "classical" scene pretty well, if nothing else.)

If you're really serious about collecting classical music on record, I'd get ahold of all three books... but this one last.

This book gives a great introduction to classical music. When you don't know much about this music and want to know more, then this book is a excellent guidence to the world of classical music. It is not meant for experts or record collectors. The articles on the artist are well-written and makes you want to listen to their music, well most of the time. I was really looking for a book like this.