The Penguin Guide to Classical Music: The Must Have CDs and DVDs: The Key Classical Recordings on CD, DVD and SACD (Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music) [Paperback]

The "Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music" has been in print in various forms since 1975 when both its purpose and format (which have since remained basically unchanged) were established. It is probably the premier guide in this field. However its numerous shortcomings have become more apparent over time and it has received a number of highly critical reviews on Amazon of late from experienced collectors. There are some other guides which provide a similar function: the "Gramophone Classical Music Guide" (the long time major alternative), to a more limited extent, "1001 Classical Music Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die" and lastly, "Classical Music: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion" (not current).

Since 1975 both the recorded classical repertoire and the number of individual recordings have grown immensely. So any guide is forced to be selective both with regard to the repertoire covered and the number of individual recordings reviewed. Selection is a problem. What is the repertoire anyway? It can be very frustrating if the piece you are interested in is recorded but not included in the guide you are using. In addition the Guide reviews "current" recordings but new recordings are appearing all the time, older recordings previously unavailable become available again and second hand copies of deleted recordings in excellent condition can be readily obtained, so the phrase "currently available" has little relevance to many of us. However the Penguin Guide sets about its task in reviewing new classical CDs, in reality what most collectors are seeking is a) an assessment of new recordings of classical music they are interested in and/or b) a comparison of existing and older recordings of a particular work so they can acquire the most worthwhile version or versions depending on price etc.

The "Guide" doesn't fully achieve the first objective (a) although recordings by "major" artists on the whole are well represented as well as budget recordings such as Naxos and wherever the authors feel a recording has merit. One might generously assume that the authors have reviewed others but have excluded them on various grounds. The only fully reliable place for ongoing review remains the "Gramophone Magazine" (in the UK at least) along with Web sources such as MusicWeb International etc.

In any particular edition (issued annually) the "Penguin Guide" also only provides only a snapshot as far as "b" is concerned. Most serious classical collectors will need to have, or will already have, guides for more than one year to get adequate coverage both of recordings issued within the current period as well as adequate coverage of all corners of the "repertoire". The latter is not treated absolutely evenly from edition to edition. Its sometimes very frustrating with works and composers disappearing and reappearing in subsequent editions. Nevertheless with some reservations, the coverage of the classical music field is generally excellent with in-depth attention on the canonical repertoire and the output of major composers. Contemporary music is also well served. The authors generally do review the major recordings of the core repertoire and their judgement and experience is evident. Of course artistic judgements can always be taken issue with and seasoned users of this Guide will be aware of minor preferences and prejudices, in particular in respect of certain artists.

One major problem with the "Penguin Guide" is that each "edition" carries over a great deal (60-70%?) of its content from the previous one. You can read the same assessments in editions years apart. While the authors naturally include their previously written assessments of recordings when they are still available, if you buy this Guide regularly your get diminishing returns for your money. Given this fact the high price of the Guide seems excessive and the frequent use of the claim that its "completely revised", slightly misleading as others here have said. I think the problem with the Penguin Guide is that its trying to cover objectives "a" and "b" - it needs to be issued annually to achieve "a" but that means if you bought it for "b" you don't need it again for some time. I recommend buying it every three years if you find the price too high.

The truly serious classical collector will want to have the "Gramophone Classical Music Guide" to hand as well. It is less comprehensive but it takes another view of this huge field and is especially valuable for its "in brief" comparisons of versions of key works and it has a clearer layout as well. As a collector of some 30 years I find I need both this and the Penguin Guide but that the latter, although flawed, in some form or another is indispensable.

The "1001 Classical Music Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die" is also an interesting attempt to pinpoint 1001 key works and the best recordings of each but of necessity the judgements in a work like this are a trifle arbitrary and selective although the coverage of contemporary works is good and the notes very interesting. Some of the recordings selected as "best" are clearly individual choices and in no way represent a consensus although alternatives are given in some cases. Where there are no choices it is clearly an absurdity to pinpoint the "best" recordings of the great works of the repertoire. There is simply no such thing. There is a real need for a guide that actually does this whole job properly, putting aside the question of what is actually currently available, and simply assessing the best of the whole recorded legacy for each major work of the repertoire up to a fixed date. Then supplements could be issued annually. One day a publisher or website may undertake this.. perhaps...

If you can get hold of a copy there is a very useful publication, "Classical Music: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion" which was a very good attempt to do something along these lines in 2002. It runs to over 1200 pages and surveys the best recordings across the whole classical field. The approach is to survey the recorded legacy for each composer and their major works from the birth of recorded music to date. So when considering the Mahler symphonies for example, it discusses all the major interpretations from Bruno Walter onwards, not necessarily paying particular attention to whether a recording is currently available or not. Some parts of the repertoire are skated over a bit (e.g. Liszt piano music) but the coverage is generally very good, especially where the number of recordings for a work is substantial. One thing I like is that the reviewers aren't afraid to state their opinions forcefully or to be critical of recordings by artists generally otherwise highly regarded. It makes for a lively read! Although 9 years old now its worth consulting if you are investigating a new composition and you don't want to miss out on a great recording just because its not flavour of the month in the Penguin or Gramophone guides.

It's hard to argue a product with 200 fewer pages than its last edition in 2008 is improved but I am setting out to show why the Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2010 is marginally better than its last full edition -- The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008 -- and why it should be your preferred book to have among the two available that pretend to give you an annual survey of what's good to buy in recorded classical music.

For anyone new to this publication, The Penguin Guide owes its roots to a 1960 publication called the Stereo Record Guide. From there, the three principal authors, Robert Layton, Ivan March and Edward Greenfield, began publishing the Penguin Guide in 1975 with 1,114 pages of reviews. The three continued this process every few years until the past decade or so, when they began to update the book annually. The odd-numbered year books were called yearbooks and they frankly weren't of much use to anyone. Every even-numbered year -- and again in 2010 -- the whole thing is published anew.

Why do I think the book is better in 2010? Even though it cut its pages by more than 200 -- from over 1,300 to just over 1,100 -- it also cut out the portions of the book that added little value. This includes long discussions on the why, where, how and wherefore of the book, its discussion of its author change (there is now a fourth author, Paul Czajkowski), a lengthy chat on downloading, and the entire section on collections. Instead, the book has only about one-half inch of pages (they don't number them) that precede the review section.

Best among those pages, from my perspective, are the four authors listing of their CD of the year (they each list one) and four pages called Foreward to the 2010 Edition. In these four pages, the authors talk about what changed in the industry and, best, the more notable new recordings that emerged. This includes discussion of the rebound of recordings from Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet, DVDs on the work of Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, the deaths of Vernon Handley and Richard Hickox, emerging superstar conductors Vasily Petrenko and Gianandrea Noseda, new recordings of special interest on keyboard, in chamber music and vocal music formats. This brief discussion is, for me, a big improvement over the 2008 book.

In recent years the Penguin Guide has been criticized for not having much new content. That criticism is fair again this year. However, there are only two books being published annually that do this and the Penguin Guide is far better as a guide for either the experienced collector or the neophyte that its main competitor for one simple reason: it has hundreds more listings in it than the Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2010 -- The "Gramophone" Classical Music Guide 2010.

Because the Gramophone book has almost 300 more pages than the Penguin Guide, this wouldn't seem possible. However, a not very exhaustive comparison of the two books -- which often review the same recordings and come to the same conclusions -- will show anyone that there is far more content in the Penguin Guide than in Gramophone's book. Here is an alphabetical comparison of some composers and selected music I performed 10 minutes before writing this review. It lists the number of reviews in each book for a composer's popular music in both the CD and DVD formats:

Bach Brandenburg Concertos
Penguin Guide 11
Gramophone 10

Beethoven complete symphony sets
Penguin Guide 18
Gramophone 10

Haydn symphonies (both books include the complete sets of symphonies conducted by Antal Dorati and Adam Fischer)
Penguin Guide 56 including complete sets led by Mallon and the Hanover Band.
Gramophone 20

Mozart opera recordings
Penguin Guide 78
Gramophone 40

Rimsky Korsakov Scheherazade
Penguin Guide 14
Gramophone 3

Schubert lieder & song cycles
Penguin Guide 37
Gramophone 33

Verdi operas & highlights
Penguin Guide 151
Gramophone 79

Wagner Ring sets, operas & highlights
Penguin Guide 59
Gramophone 32

The Penguin Guide, with 9,400 listings, has nearly 4,000 more than the Gramophone book. And this isn't new for 2010; it has been the case for as long as the two books have competed for the classical music buyers dollar. Some supporters of the Gramphone book, whose reviews tend to be lengthier (they are copied from what appeared in Gramophones monthly magazine) say it is the relative quality of reviews in the two books that is their defining moments. I don't subscribe to that theory; I believe the book with more content wins the fight. It may, in boxing terms, be a 10 round decision based on points rather than a knockout, but it is nonetheless my decision and I stand by it.

Anyone that really cares about classical music, and buys a lot of recordings, should have both books. I'm not sure they need to update each book annually -- maybe updating them every 4-6 years is better -- but they should be in your reference library. Here are a couple others you should also have:
-- All Music Guide All Music Guide to Classical: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music (All Music Guides). This is more of a musicological book than compendium of reviews but it makes listening recommendations and is full of important information.
-- Third Ear Classical Music Classical Music: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion.Even though it was only published once in 2000 and is a decade out of date, the contents of this book are important to any classical music buyer. While wildly inconsistent from composer to composer, this is the only book of its type that made an effort to cover the entire recording industry.
-- The Rough Guide to Classical Music The Rough Guide to Classical Music (Rough Guide Music Guides). This doesn't compete very well with any of these books but it is in the ballpark.
-- Jim Svejda, a disk jockey at a classical music station in California USA, published his book a time or two The Insider's Guide to Classical Recordings: From the Host of the Record Shelf, a Highly Opinionated, Irreverent, and Selective Guide to What's Good and What's Not. It is far more personal than the others and serves as more of a one man guide (albeit out of print and out of date.)
-- Herbert Russcol's book from way back in 1968 is still relevant today even though its more than four decades old Guide to low-priced classical records.

For the rare collector that only wants one book about the industry on his or her shelves, the Pengin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2010 should be that book. It has the most listings to view, it comes in a more compact format than in 2008, and it runs rings around its only real competitor.

I understand that this is not as comprehensive as it once was and that year on year it repeats much of the content but I do think that many reviewers here are being unfair. I think we should accept that this book covers much ground well but cannot come close to being complete, and that it is one source of reviews of classical recordings amongst others. I think it nicely compliments the Gramophone Guide in that the latter tends to focus on a few, often more recent, accounts ("the best of the new" may be what it does best) while the Penguin looks more widely at the past. This is not widely enough for many reviewers but for me the book is still a very valuable resource.

It is probably impossible in book format to arrive at a single source for reviews of all recordings (or even all good recordings) made but, more tellingly, it is also surely wrong to want one. The result would still be unsatisfactory as we would inevitable disagree with the ways reviewers treated our favourite recordings. There cannot be a best version of a classical masterpiece. There can I think be more or less successful attempts at interpreting a work. But even then different listeners will have different preferences. Different reviewers, too. They'll all present their views with argument and reason but they cannot be definitive - they remain (one among many) personal views. So, we should expect to look around for views on recordings that tempt us and we may, after reading all, even then decide to ignore what we have read. Many sources of reviews have been mentioned by other reviewers. Music Web International has some good reviews (and some I profoundly disagree with!). I often go to The Gramophone archive and find it an amazing resource. I do think that it is important to have professional reviewers - people who have heard much and have the knowledge and skill to hear it in perspective. But I do also make extensive use of punters' reviews on Amazon: some reviewers seem to be reliable and many others are certainly interesting and useful.

So the Penguin Guide is a good source of classical CD and DVD reviews - one of the best out there - but is not definitive. Fair enough. I personally do not think it is worth buying annually - it changes only slowly each year - but normally look to get one every three or so years. I do the same with the Gramophone Guide.