Product Description This has remained the best and most successful guide to classical music for more than forty years. Fully revised by its team of eminent authors and written with wit and passion, The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music offers reviews of all the latest releases as well as the finest established recordings. It also includes an overview of the greatest historic performances, major period instrument recordings, an in-depth survey of the best of the budget-priced CDs, and the core collection of 100 handpicked, must-have CDs. Now published annually for the first time, this book is essential reading for every serious classical music fan.
Customer Reviews:
Better Title: Penguin Guide to the British Classical Music Recording Industry January 7, 2009 I should start by saying that I am a big fan of the major British recording labels (Hyperion, Chandos, Decca, EMI, etc.), but there is a lot more to classical music than the output of these (admittedly excellent) labels. The Penguin Guide seems to neglect if not ignore the rest of the industry. Moreover, Penguin has made the editorial decision to address only CDs that they wish to recommend. While a valid approach, I find it much more instructional to know (additionally) what a reviewer dislikes and why. Another difficulty inherent in this approach is that an individual work may appear in separate reviews (pages apart) because of its coupling, making it easy to read a review of a particular disc, but very difficult to get an overview of any particular piece of music.
"Classical Music: The Listener's Companion" (a "Third Ear" guide from Backbeat Books) is woefully out of date, not as thorough in terms of the inclusion of lesser known composers, and a little uneven editorially due to the sheer number of contributors. But I've found it to be far more informative and in-depth, and while it is now more than seven years in print, it can still claim to cover all but the most recent additions to the canon. Reviewers are just as apt to tell you what to avoid (and just as importantly, why to avoid it) as they are to make a recommendation. Their knowledge often reaches back to the mono days, so you feel you're getting a sense of comparison and perspective which the Penguin approach lacks. And they organize entries by individual work, so if you find yourself looking for, say, a recording of the Tallis Fantasia, then you only have to look in one place. In the Penguin Guide you will find reviews of CDs containing the Fantasia on SIX different pages (seven or eight different CDs), making it hard to sort them out other than by their coupling.
If you're willing to have a classical music collection comprised primarily of recordings from Chandos and Hyperion (again, not necessarily a bad thing), and if that doesn't make you feel as if you might be missing out on something else, then the Penguin Guide will make your life a little easier. They will make the decisions for you about what you should put in your collection. If, on the other hand, you're like me and want to hear as many opinions as possible before making your own decision, then you want the Third Ear guide.Classical Music: Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion
Good Luck and Happy Listening!
Penguin Strikes Again December 3, 2008 6 out of 16 found this review helpful
Once Again,Penguin has produced a Winner.I personally have been collecting these Guides since the 60s,when they first came out,and I have never been disappointed Philip Goodman LONDON UK
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