The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best

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

In this compulsively readable, fascinating, and provocativeÂ guide to classical music, Norman Lebrecht, one of the worldâ€™s most widely read cultural commentators tells the story of the rise of the classical recording industry from Carusoâ€™s first notes to the heyday of Bernstein,Â Glenn Gould, Callas,Â and von Karajan.

Lebrecht compellingly demonstrates that classical recording has reached its end pointâ€“but this is not simply an expos? of decline and fall. It is, for the first time, the full story of a minor art form, analyzing theÂ cultural revolution wrought by Schnabel, Toscanini, Callas, Rattle, the Three Tenors, and Charlotte Church. It is the story of how stars were made and broken by the record business; how a war criminal conspired withÂ a concentration-camp victim to create a record empire; and how advancing technology, boardroom wars, public credulity and unscrupulous exploitation shaped the musical backdrop to our modern lives. The book ends with a suitable shrine to classical recording: the authorâ€™s critical selection of the 100 most important recordingsâ€“and the 20 most appalling.

Filled with memorable incidents and unforgettable personalitiesâ€“from Goddard Lieberson, legendary head of CBS Masterworks who signed his letters as God; to Georg Solti, who turned the Chicago Symphony into â€œ the loudest symphony on earthâ€â€“this is at once the captivating story of the life and death of classical recording and an opinioned, insiderâ€™sÂ guide to appreciating the genre, now and for years to come.
Country USA
Brand Anchor Books
Manufacturer Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Binding Paperback
Color White
ReleaseDate 2007-04-10
UnitCount 1
Format Illustrated
EANs 9781400096589

Country	USA
Brand	Anchor Books
Manufacturer	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Binding	Paperback
Color	White
ReleaseDate	2007-04-10
UnitCount	1
Format	Illustrated
EANs	9781400096589

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

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