 Trade In this Item for up to £8.75
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2012 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £8.75, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I would say that for any experienced collector of classical CDs, or even a keen beginner who wants to seek out the best versions of a work, this book is next to useless. I can provide examples to support my case.
Take Shostakovich for instance. There are two sets of the complete symphonies listed, but only ONE version listed of the "Leningrad" symphony (No.7) that can be bought separately. This is the later LIVE Bernstein recording. Even this is part of a two disc set and the reviewer remarks on audience noise! At the time of writing, a look on Amazon reveals 178 entries for this symphony. I accept that quite a few of these will be duplicates or parts of boxed sets, but I think this makes my point. It's easy to find versions conducted by Kofman, Gergiev, Ashkenazy, Bychkov, Jansons, Masur and Barshai (the latter's whole set on Brilliant is outstanding) - not to mention the earlier Leonard Bernstein recording (sometimes hard to find, but well worth searching out). These are just a few examples.
Rimsky-Korsakov is granted a whole two pages in this book covering some of the better-known works. There's no mention of (say) Symphony No.2 (a lovely work) - and NO operas at all - staggering!
Bearing in mind that this book claims to review DVDs as well as CDs, Puccini's "La Rondine" does very badly. Although there's one CD listed (with Alagna), there are NO DVDs listed and I know of THREE - all good in their own ways. Giordano does no better: neither of the Domingo DVDs are mentioned and nor is the Cura version - and when it comes to the opera "Fedora" - well, it's not even mentioned! There is a beautiful Met. production with Freni which is well worth adding to your collection if you like the work.
If you want a book that does its best to cover everything and reveal the riches that ARE available, I would much rather recommend the Penguin Guide to Classical Music.
Take Shostakovich for instance. There are two sets of the complete symphonies listed, but only ONE version listed of the "Leningrad" symphony (No.7) that can be bought separately. This is the later LIVE Bernstein recording. Even this is part of a two disc set and the reviewer remarks on audience noise! At the time of writing, a look on Amazon reveals 178 entries for this symphony. I accept that quite a few of these will be duplicates or parts of boxed sets, but I think this makes my point. It's easy to find versions conducted by Kofman, Gergiev, Ashkenazy, Bychkov, Jansons, Masur and Barshai (the latter's whole set on Brilliant is outstanding) - not to mention the earlier Leonard Bernstein recording (sometimes hard to find, but well worth searching out). These are just a few examples.
Rimsky-Korsakov is granted a whole two pages in this book covering some of the better-known works. There's no mention of (say) Symphony No.2 (a lovely work) - and NO operas at all - staggering!
Bearing in mind that this book claims to review DVDs as well as CDs, Puccini's "La Rondine" does very badly. Although there's one CD listed (with Alagna), there are NO DVDs listed and I know of THREE - all good in their own ways. Giordano does no better: neither of the Domingo DVDs are mentioned and nor is the Cura version - and when it comes to the opera "Fedora" - well, it's not even mentioned! There is a beautiful Met. production with Freni which is well worth adding to your collection if you like the work.
If you want a book that does its best to cover everything and reveal the riches that ARE available, I would much rather recommend the Penguin Guide to Classical Music.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
James Kellam will say that he warned us off. I should have listened but I still refer to previous editions of this guide and thought it about time that I updated my knowledge of the field, the last edition in my possession being from 2003.
I would like to add two or three grumbles of my own. Furtwängler was arguably the greatest 20th century of conductor of the core 19th classics, for example far superior to Karajan. Yet there are only five recommendations from his numerous recordings with no Beethoven symphonies, no Bruckner symphonies and no complete Wagner operas, only a disc of orchestral bleeding chunks and the Götterdämmerung closing scene (with Flagstad). In particular none of his three superbly inspirational recorded performances of Beethoven's 9th is listed, whereas his more plodding near contemporary Klemperer gets two recommendations for the same work.
Toscanini is scarcely better represented and Kirsten Flagstad, a great Wagnerian soprano, gets only one listing, part of which consists of Strauss' Four Last Songs for which she was scarcely suitable.
I am sure that, as I consult the book further, I will find many other comparable omissions and irritations.
I feel for people coming fresh to collecting classical music. If they rely heavily on the unbalanced selection of recordings in this 2012 edition, they may miss out on the exceptional insights of some great performers of the past into many perennial masterpieces.
I would like to add two or three grumbles of my own. Furtwängler was arguably the greatest 20th century of conductor of the core 19th classics, for example far superior to Karajan. Yet there are only five recommendations from his numerous recordings with no Beethoven symphonies, no Bruckner symphonies and no complete Wagner operas, only a disc of orchestral bleeding chunks and the Götterdämmerung closing scene (with Flagstad). In particular none of his three superbly inspirational recorded performances of Beethoven's 9th is listed, whereas his more plodding near contemporary Klemperer gets two recommendations for the same work.
Toscanini is scarcely better represented and Kirsten Flagstad, a great Wagnerian soprano, gets only one listing, part of which consists of Strauss' Four Last Songs for which she was scarcely suitable.
I am sure that, as I consult the book further, I will find many other comparable omissions and irritations.
I feel for people coming fresh to collecting classical music. If they rely heavily on the unbalanced selection of recordings in this 2012 edition, they may miss out on the exceptional insights of some great performers of the past into many perennial masterpieces.
10 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I agree with the previous reviewer: the time is nigh for an electronic guide to classical music/DVD's etc. If Gramophone are to make the most of their reputation then they need to get this sorted quickly before others do (i.e: Penguin and the Squires Gate lot [who also produce an excellent guide]).
Steve
Steve
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
