Product Description

Berlioz. Vaughan Williams. Schubert and Schumann. Mozart after the Jupiter Symphony, Bach beyond the Brandenburg Concertos, opera after The Magic Flute. In his informed and indispensible guide with over 157,000 copies in print, National Public Radio's Ted Libbey takes listeners by the hand through the classical repertory to build a music library. For the second edition, with five years of new performances to consider, five years of new releases to review, and five years of reissues to re-evaluate-the author has completely revised and updated the book. While sticking to the essential 300 works, there are now one-third new selections and reviews, and a 50% change in discography to keep all suggested CDs up to date. The NPR Guide tp Building a Classical CD Collection will make every music lover's core collection complete.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186774 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-04
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.30" h x 5.90" w x 8.90" l, 1.92 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 536 pages

Ingram
This indispensable book features information on more than 300 essential operas, concertos, and symphonies, with sidebars and anecdotal material on composers, performers, and recordings. Ted Libbey is the classical music commentator for National Public Radio.

From the Back Cover
Where Do You Go After Mozart's Jupiter? After Bach's Brandenburg Concertos? After Beethoven's Third? In this informed and indispensable guide, now in a second edition featuring a hundred new recordings, National Public Radio's Ted Libbey takes you by the hand through the classical repertory and helps you build an essential CD collection. Not just another rating book, this is a foremost expert's thoughtful and entertaining appreciation--work by work, performer by performer, recording by recording--of the symphonies, concertos, chamber pieces, keyboard works, sacred works, and operas that belong in every music lover's library. It includes the core 20 works for starting out, recommendations especially suited for young listeners, and an appendix listing additional works, beyond those covered in the first edition, that the author feels most passionate about. PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION: "I have been lost in this book for a week...Libbey('s) comparisons are wonders of lucidity, differentiation, and those 'open ears' Rostropovich spoke of." --Chicago Tribune "An extensive guide and perfect companion to the basic classical repertory." --Digby Diehl, Playboy Magazine

About the Author
Ted Libbey is one of America's most highly regarded music critics. A former music critic for The New York Times, he is known to millions of NPR listeners as curator of the Basic Radio Library on "Performance Today." Mr. Libbey is now Director of Media Arts of the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Rockville, Maryland.