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The best, the biggest and the most comprehensive [Praise for The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2010] (Independent )
Product Description
INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR
We live in a golden age for classical music. Never before has it been possible to access such a staggering array of performances. Through downloads, CDs and DVDs, listeners can access music from the medieval period to the modern, played by groups and individuals from around the world, and recorded at any point since the invention of recording itself.
But how do you pick your way through these hundreds of thousands of pieces? It used to be possible to work within the constraints of the record shop: these days are, of course, now long gone and a new way to navigate is needed. The Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings draws together an amazing array of genres to create something genuinely new and extremely useful. The selection is so generous that the book avoids being merely a reductive 'greatest hits' - all sorts of extraordinary music is lurking inside it and readers will be pushed in directions they never anticipated, discovering whole areas of music previously closed to them.
The Guide is far more than a listing - it also includes an essay on downloads, a history of recording, a short guide to composers, ballet and opera. But what makes it truly exceptional is the many years of warmth and enthusiasm its writers bring to their great subject.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have been a follower of the Penguin Guide since around 1996. Each year I looked forward to seeing the ratings and finding out how each recording was placed. I don't always agree with the guide, but it's on that.....a guide. Increasingly it was possible to identify major releases that were simply left out. One could argue that there
are too many, but with the likes of Fisher's Mahler 2, Davis' LSO Live Sibelius 3 and 7 and the Gielen and Bertini Mahler sets ignored I became concerned that the whole thing was stalling. Year books were the answer, and worked. If the Guide was at capacity why not only publish new recordings with keys as you did in some years?
Anyway, we've now hit rock bottom. The latest guide is simply a list of a small number of discs for each
Composer, each with a review but no rating. This means that the idea of a 1000 greatest recordings is not what you get. Sure there may be a 1000 entries, but it's more of a recommended catalogue in that many great recordings are left out to make space for sole recordings of lesser works. Mahler 6 is only included by accident as part of Bernstein's Sony set, yet several Lyrita odds and ends make the cut. It should have been called 'Penguin Essential Library of Classical Music' as it most certainly
does't do what it says on the tin!
The authors make a big deal of being clever by adding sets of recordings as one entry (all set out in the intro pages) and yet often settle for mediocre performances for many works. Bernstein's Sony Mahler may give us truly great versions of 3, 6, 7, but how can these be the finest firsts and seconds available? Sibelius' Symphonies are entirely represented by Ashkenazy's (very good) Exton set, supplemented by Davis' LSO Live 1 and 4, but is that the whole story? What about Kullervo?
The real shock comes when you realise just how few new recordings are there. It's almost an extract from the 2010 guide and so seems to be terrible value for money.
I could go on. Please do not waste your money. I would actually get the 2010 Guide instead, because that at least gives more choice.
What a terrible shame.
are too many, but with the likes of Fisher's Mahler 2, Davis' LSO Live Sibelius 3 and 7 and the Gielen and Bertini Mahler sets ignored I became concerned that the whole thing was stalling. Year books were the answer, and worked. If the Guide was at capacity why not only publish new recordings with keys as you did in some years?
Anyway, we've now hit rock bottom. The latest guide is simply a list of a small number of discs for each
Composer, each with a review but no rating. This means that the idea of a 1000 greatest recordings is not what you get. Sure there may be a 1000 entries, but it's more of a recommended catalogue in that many great recordings are left out to make space for sole recordings of lesser works. Mahler 6 is only included by accident as part of Bernstein's Sony set, yet several Lyrita odds and ends make the cut. It should have been called 'Penguin Essential Library of Classical Music' as it most certainly
does't do what it says on the tin!
The authors make a big deal of being clever by adding sets of recordings as one entry (all set out in the intro pages) and yet often settle for mediocre performances for many works. Bernstein's Sony Mahler may give us truly great versions of 3, 6, 7, but how can these be the finest firsts and seconds available? Sibelius' Symphonies are entirely represented by Ashkenazy's (very good) Exton set, supplemented by Davis' LSO Live 1 and 4, but is that the whole story? What about Kullervo?
The real shock comes when you realise just how few new recordings are there. It's almost an extract from the 2010 guide and so seems to be terrible value for money.
I could go on. Please do not waste your money. I would actually get the 2010 Guide instead, because that at least gives more choice.
What a terrible shame.
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Well, with thumb-curled and highly annotated copies of every penguin guide since 1986 on my shelves, I wasn't put off by the first review and bought it. But oh, how I concur. I suppose in trying to be objective, this new edition will have a value to some, but it's perhaps difficult to perceive quite what audience these illustrious writers are now aiming for. Presumably they had a coherent business case - the editorial material is as ever pitched at a serious intellectual level, but I'm not sure those interested in a basic collection of recommended discs should turn to something like this.
If they have got it right then we, the Guides' previous audience, will just have to accept that and move on since alas, for the serious collector, all is lost with Penguin, presumably for ever. What hitherto was an unparalleled appraisal of alternative recordings by some of the most eminent critics around, has now evaporated. Even on it's own terms it's difficult to see the point. It is, after all, nonsense to state one recommendation for a Beethoven symphony without reference to others (cf BBC's Record Review and Gramophone's Classical Collection). Although in fairness they say the selections should not be considered 'balanced', this is in conflict with the book's strident title. And it is a cop-out in the extreme - I can't begin to list the deficiencies in omission - every page begs a question. And, as I have criticised in previous editions, woe betide if you are interested in any disc which doesn't conveniently fit either the 'composer' or 'artist' bracket.
To cap it all the volume is less than a third of the size of the 2010 full edition. I can't recall what I paid for that but I bet it was less than this. Frankly, that's a publishing disgrace and to pointlessly produce it in hardback - yes hardback for heaven's sake! - adds to the insult.
For years I've supported the Penguin Guide over the direct alternative - The Gramophone Guide, which traditionally has not been as wide-ranging as the Penguin. But now the answer is crystal clear. Head for the latter as the two are no longer in competition.
If they have got it right then we, the Guides' previous audience, will just have to accept that and move on since alas, for the serious collector, all is lost with Penguin, presumably for ever. What hitherto was an unparalleled appraisal of alternative recordings by some of the most eminent critics around, has now evaporated. Even on it's own terms it's difficult to see the point. It is, after all, nonsense to state one recommendation for a Beethoven symphony without reference to others (cf BBC's Record Review and Gramophone's Classical Collection). Although in fairness they say the selections should not be considered 'balanced', this is in conflict with the book's strident title. And it is a cop-out in the extreme - I can't begin to list the deficiencies in omission - every page begs a question. And, as I have criticised in previous editions, woe betide if you are interested in any disc which doesn't conveniently fit either the 'composer' or 'artist' bracket.
To cap it all the volume is less than a third of the size of the 2010 full edition. I can't recall what I paid for that but I bet it was less than this. Frankly, that's a publishing disgrace and to pointlessly produce it in hardback - yes hardback for heaven's sake! - adds to the insult.
For years I've supported the Penguin Guide over the direct alternative - The Gramophone Guide, which traditionally has not been as wide-ranging as the Penguin. But now the answer is crystal clear. Head for the latter as the two are no longer in competition.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having used the Penguin record guide/CD guide/DVD guide since it was first published, I eagerly awaited the reincarnation of this valuable source of information......only to be thoroughly disappointed. This new publication just does not provide the depth of information nor the breadth of recordings that the prior guides provided. Admittedly, the title should have been a clue as it apparently only sets out to list the "1000 finest classical recordings...". I look forward to the return of the prior format.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
very sad
Very sad indeed.
The end of an era.
But life goes on.
We'll meet online from now on.
Why just one star? Read more
The end of an era.
But life goes on.
We'll meet online from now on.
Why just one star? Read more
Published 3 days ago by Cabritinho_assado_com_batata
Grave Disappointment
When I received this I sent it straight back. Does not compare to the earlier Penguin Guides to Classical Music.
Published 4 months ago by Sam
Penguin Guide to the 1001 best classical recordings
I must regretfully concur with the negativism of previous reviewers. The whole concept of a 'finest recording' is misguided, as implicitly the complex nature of the judgements in... Read more
Published 5 months ago by William E. Marsden
The tired proudct of old age
Alas - this is emphatically NOT a successor to the fine series of Penguin Guides (personally I have collected these from 1971 including those from the previous publisher!). Read more
Published 5 months ago by Myaskovsky
Listmania!
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