"The Philadelphia Orchestra: A Century of Music"
edited by John Ardoin
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It's been a year of taking stock through musical
anniversaries. One of them is the centennial of the
Philadelphia Orchestra, which gave its first concert on
November 16, 1900. This is a particularly elegant,
sumptuously illustrated and documented overview of that
unique institution, and it's far more substantial than the
typical coffee-table extravaganza. Articles by 12 writers,
including Tim Page, Joseph Horowitz, and Peter Davis, give
fascinating glimpses of how the famous "Philadelphia" sound
evolved through the Stokowski and Ormandy eras up to the
present, as well as of the traditions that have grown up
around the orchestra and its place within American culture.
"The Cleveland Orchestra Story: Second to None"
by Donald Rosenberg
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Just how did a small industrial city in the Midwest give
birth to an orchestra that would gain an elite status, not
only in its own country but among the top rank of world
orchestras? Music historian Donald Rosenberg addresses this
and many other issues in his intricately researched
history. He explores U.S. cultural politics in an earlier
era, the role of technical perfection as a grail, and, of
course, the impact of personal genius in the guise of
"master builder" George Szell.
"Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis"
by Nicholas Gage
~ MORE
Nicholas Gage (author of the powerful "Eleni") takes as his
focus the almost-mythic love affair of Maria Callas and
Aristotle Onassis. Gage sees the soprano who reinvented the
art of opera and the tycoon who transformed the shipping
industry as kindred spirits, drawn into romance by a deep
connection to their Greek origins and a shared sense that,
despite all they had achieved, something was missing. Gage's
text is distinguished by smooth prose, the seamless
interweaving of narrative strands, and a warm sympathy for
its genuinely tragic protagonists.
"Memoirs"
by Lorenzo da Ponte
~ MORE
Reprinted as part of the New York Review Books Classics
series and using Elisabeth Abbott's 1957 translation, this
edition makes the memoirs of Lorenzo da Ponte handily
accessible to an English-language audience. Da Ponte--whose
work in perhaps the most successful collaborative
partnership in opera history helped inspire three of
Mozart's masterpieces--was the living definition of
"picaresque." His life story traces the arc of a career that
subsequently moved on from Vienna to London, Pennsylvania,
and finally a professorship at Columbia University in New
York.
"Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on
Composers Since Beethoven's Time"
by Nicolas Slonimsky
~ MORE
Polymath centenarian Nicolas Slonimsky produced a
deliciously perverse classic with his infamous "Lexicon of
Musical Invective," described by Peter Schickele
(a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach) as "probably the most entertaining
reference work ever assembled." This collection of critical
barbs and poison-pen judgments by G.B. Shaw, Eduard
Hanslick, Oscar Wilde, and many more is a must for any music
lover's shelf. Norton's elegant paperback reprint also
includes the indispensable "Invecticon"--nasty phrase
index--which will leave you rolling on the floor laughing
(yes, that's Puccini under the entry "Evil Art").
MURRAY PERAHIA'S "GOLDBERG VARIATIONS"
"When Bach and his family got together, they always started
off with a chorale. But then right after that, they did a
"quodlibet," where each would make up the words, and the
words apparently were very dirty, very bawdy. And I love
that, because that shows that the ritual and the earthy are
not so dissimilar--that everything is part of
God. Everything. To come down to earth, this is part of us,
too. If it's treated with respect and with sensitivity and
we can also bring to earthly things all the qualities that
we can bring to spiritual things, then we can make a
completeness out of our experience here on earth. That's
what I think the quodlibet is about."
--Murray Perahia on his new interpretation of Bach's
"Goldberg Variations"
See Amazon.com's exclusive interview with Murray Perahia:
~ MORE
EXPLORING GIUSEPPE VERDI
"Critical Entertainments"
by Charles Rosen "The Life of Schubert"
by Christopher H. Gibbs
"Maria Callas Remembered"
by Nadia Stancioff
"Robert Schumann: Words and Music: The Vocal Compositions" by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; translated by Reinhard G. Pauly "The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven"
edited by Glenn Stanley
"Beethoven and His World"
edited by Scott Burnham and Michael P. Steinberg "The Cambridge Music Guide"
edited by Stanley Sadie and Alison Latham
Absolute Music and the Construction of Meaning (New Perspectives in
Music
------------------------------------------------------------------------
How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horning In: The Grown-Up's Guide to Making Music for Fun
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Critical Entertainments : Music Old and New
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fifty Years of Music: The Story of EMI Music Canada
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyril Scott: A Bio-Bibliography (Bio-Bibliographies in Music)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mozart-Da Ponte Operas: An Annotated Bibliography (Music Reference
Collection)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg, 1908-1923
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry Lawes : Cavalier Songwriter (Oxford Monographs on Music)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music and Theatre in France 1600-1680
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good Music Directories:
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From a quarter century's worth of reviews, eminent musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen has culled some of his most fascinating musings and thought pieces on such topics as exaggerated reports of the "death of classical music," historically informed performance of Bach's keyboard music, and musicological reference books. Rosen's insights are sharp, astute, and witty as ever--and easier to access here for the lay reader than in his acclaimed studies of the classical and romantic styles.
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Christopher Gibbs's new biography is an excellent, informative, and generous addition to the Schubert bookshelf. He focuses on some relatively unexplored areas, notably Beethoven's profound influence on Schubert, both personal and musical, and demolishes several popularly held misconceptions.
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Nadia Stancioff's first connection to Maria Callas was as a publicist. But as a friend during Callas's final years, Stancioff gained a personal perspective that will be of certain interest to the diva's fans. Her memoir--first published in 1987--covers familiar territory, but the often contradictory voices and opinions Stancioff allows to be heard flesh out a particularly complex, rich portrait of the woman behind the legend.
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau--currently being feted on the occasion of his 75th birthday with a magnificent retrospective set released by Deutsche Grammophon--has established himself as one of our era's great interpreters of art song in a double sense: not only as a performer but also as a scholarly analyst with a Talmudic knack for exhaustively getting to the heart of the matter. In the case of this classic study of Schumann's lieder, Fischer-Dieskau covers musicological, literary, and psychoanalytic bases.
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Another addition to the eminent Cambridge Companions to Music series, this volume covers such topics as Beethoven's sketches, "goal-directedness" in his music, vocal style, and the history of Beethoven reception. Contributions by 16 scholars address various contexts--both personal and political--and attempt to integrate recent music theory with traditional themes of Beethoven scholarship.
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If you still can't get enough of Beethoven, check out this interdisciplinary study drawing on the work of leading scholars. It was put together by Scott Burnham (author of a fascinatingly original interpretation of the meaning of Beethoven's style for contemporary ears) and Michael Steinberg, whose orchestral guides are among the most literate and insightful today.
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First published in 1985, this handsome paperback reprinting gives you the authoritative Cambridge general reference for music in one handy volume, attractively priced.
History and Criticism, 4)
by Daniel K. L. Chua
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Publication date: April 15, 2000
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Subjects: Absolute music; Music; Philosopy and aesthetics
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by John Fahey
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by Jerry Germer(Illustrator), et al
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Subjects: Health/Fitness; Reference; Music
ISBN: 0967551706
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by Charles Rosen
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Publication date: April 28, 2000
Binding: Hardcover
Subjects: Music; History and criticism; Music History And Criticism +
ISBN: 0674177304
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by Nicholas Jennings
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by Laurie J. Sampsel
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Publication date: April 30, 2000
Binding: Hardcover
Subjects: Scott, Cyril,; 1879-1970; Bibliography
ISBN: 0313293473
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by Mary Du Mont
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Publication date: April 30, 2000
Binding: Hardcover
Subjects: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus,; 1756-1791; Nozze di Figaro
ISBN: 0313304130
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by Bryan R. Simms
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Publication date: May 2000
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Subjects: Schoenberg, Arnold,; 1874-1951; Criticism and interpretation
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by Ian Spink
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Subjects: Lawes, Henry,; 1596-1662; Composers
ISBN: 0198165560
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by John S. Powell
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Subjects: Dramatic music; France; 17th century
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