The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made Summary and Reviews

The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made
by Norman Lebrecht

The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: $8.57
You Save: $7.43 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.85 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Norman Lebrecht
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-10
ISBN: 1400096588
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Anchor

Book Reviews of The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made

Book Review: Entertainly Sassy History of Classical Recordings
Summary: 5 Stars

The title should more precisely read, "An Entertainingly Sassy History of Classical Recordings, from the Gramophone to the Decline of the CD".

I viewed the book as a superbly sassy history from an exquisitely eloquent critic with a long, insider career. It is a book as much about the history of the recording industry itself, right down to naming names, as it is a list of recordings. The book is in fact divided into the two parts- a history of the industry and the best/worst recordings.

The book whetted my taste for more sassy histories, perhaps spoiling me, other authors being revealed as dry, droning, and encyclopedic in delivery...

I gave the author leeway in his selections, as he had to pluck down 100 of something, and as a career insider I'm sure he selected works among the most deserving (though I confess I began at the back of the book with his spicier accounts of the "20 worst classical recordings ever")...

If a continuation compilation was made, it would begin with the age of the Internet, and would have to be categorized along the lines of record label offerings, Youtube presentations, music hosting sites for independent artists, and the like; the author would have to make a huge effort in finding, sifting through, and evaluating the mushrooming number of artists and recordings made available by a communications technology that is, so far, free from the artistic bottlenecks and choke holds that were inherent in the recording industry throughout the last century (and will still be a necessary evil to obtain mass exposure/promotion/marketing, though transformed into Internet form)...

Entertainment Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Books that I wish I owned (Volume I)!
The Black Book ImageThe Black Book
by Orhan Pamuk
Vintage; Published: 2006-07-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.78
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream ImageThe Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSanFrancisco; Published: 1995-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.80
Price in other shops: $13.00
The Secret Agent ImageThe Secret Agent
by Joseph Conrad
Wildside Press; Published: 2004-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.68
Price in other shops: $14.95
In the Past Night: The Siberian Stories ImageIn the Past Night: The Siberian Stories
by Dmitry Stonov
Texas Tech University Press; Published: 1995-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.89
Price in other shops: $27.95
Russian Nights (European Classics) ImageRussian Nights (European Classics)
by Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky
Northwestern University Press; Published: 1997-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.96
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made ImageThe Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made
by Norman Lebrecht
Anchor; Published: 2007-04-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops: $16.00
Spider's Web ImageSpider's Web
by Agatha Christie
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Published: 2001-01-01; Paperback; Book
High Bonnet: A Novel of Epicurean Adventures (Modern Library Food) ImageHigh Bonnet: A Novel of Epicurean Adventures (Modern Library Food)
by Idwal Jones
Modern Library; Published: 2001-06-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.70
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Wyvern Mystery ImageThe Wyvern Mystery
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
North Books; Published: 2006-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops: $25.00
Cooking with Pomaine ImageCooking with Pomaine
by De Pomaine Edouard
Hodder Headline Australia; Published: 1993-11-01; Paperback; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies ImageBeethoven: The Nine Symphonies
Release date: 1999-04-27; Music CD
Best price: $18.11
Price in other shops: $29.98
The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008 ImageThe Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008
by Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-10-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.80
Price in other shops: $30.00
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession ImageThis Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
by Daniel J. Levitin
Plume/Penguin; Published: 2007-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.31
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Label: The Story of Columbia Records ImageThe Label: The Story of Columbia Records
by Gary Marmorstein
Da Capo Press; Published: 2007-02-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops: $29.95
Who Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers, and Corporate Politics ImageWho Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers, and Corporate Politics
by Norman Lebrecht
Birch Lane Press; Published: 1997-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $36.98
The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009 ImageThe Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009
by Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2008-11-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.10
Price in other shops: $35.00
Book of Musical Anecdotes ImageBook of Musical Anecdotes
by Norman Lebrecht
Free Press; Published: 1985-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.94
Price in other shops: $30.00
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition ImageMusicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition
by Oliver Sacks
Vintage; Published: 2008-09-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops: $14.95
Why Classical Music Still Matters ImageWhy Classical Music Still Matters
by Lawrence Kramer
University of California Press; Published: 2009-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.08
Price in other shops: $15.95
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century ImageThe Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
by Alex Ross
Picador; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops: $18.00