Classical Music Recent Picks
May 2007
The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via their covers to enable you to read more reviews
Classical guitar making: a modern approach to traditional design by John S. Bogdanovich.
"What a thrill for any musician: playing a fine-sounding instrument that he or she has lovingly crafted from scratch. With this richly illustrated manual, well-known luthier and guitarist John Bogdanovich shows exactly how to build that first, beautiful guitar, using traditional, time-tested methods. All that's required are basic woodworking techniques and a minimally equipped shop. Bogdanovich discusses the anatomy of the guitar, sound, choosing an instrument, selecting woods, templates and molds, and preparation. In more than 300 pages of text, he painstakingly lays out the details of construction, from assembling the neck and sides to installing the fingerboard and bridge." (Amazon.com)
The lives and times of the great composers by Michael Steen.
"Comprehensive and meticulously researched, Great Composers is a lovingly constructed biographical history of the giants of classical music. Each self-contained chapter narrates the life and background of one or more composers. It tells the story of Bach, the respectable burgher whose vast output was composed amid petty turf rows in Lutheran Leipzig; the ugly, argumentative (and eventually deaf) Beethoven; and Mozart, whose career began as an infant prodigy and ended with an untimely death shrouded in rumour. Verdi composed his music while struggling for Italian independence; Brahms rose from the slums of Hamburg to become a hugely successful bourgeois composer; Haydn was born in a tiny cottage and became court composer to the fabulously rich Prince Esterházy; and Berlioz whose life was transformed by the Romantic revolution of Paris in the 1830s. Far more objective, more literary (Balzac, Zola, Dostoyevsky and Proust all appear), and full of colour. Great Composers is a pleasure to read, a rich portrait of the lives of these giants of European music and the tumultuous societies in which they lived." (Amazon.co.uk)
National Anthems of the world edited by Michael Jamieson Bristow.
"A fully revised 11th edition of the unique and indispensible guide to the national anthems of all of the world's nation-states. This unique reference book (first published in 1960) has, over the years, proved invaluable, not only for the increasing number of occasions on which a particular national anthem is played, but also as a permanent reference book for those interested in music and contemporary culture. Close liaison with Embassies, High Commissions and governments has ensured that National Anthems of the World can claim to be the definitive international authority on the subject." (Amazon.co.uk)
Mastering the art of performance by Stewart Gordon.
"Master teacher Stewart Gordon offers advice for musicians on conquering the demands of performance. It spans all aspects of the performance process from the planning and preparatory stages, through the actual performance, evaluation, and cultivation of a life devoted to performance. Offers advice for musicians on conquering the demands of performance. This book spans various aspects of the performance process from the planning and preparatory stages, through the actual performance, evaluation, and cultivation of a life devoted to performance." (Amazon.co.uk)
Symphony no 4 in E-flat major "Romantic" by Anton Bruckner. (Miniature score)
Symphony no 5 in B-flat major by Anton Bruckner. (Miniature score)
CDs
Duets ,Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazon.
"Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon established themselves as opera's new dream team in the 2005 Salzburg Traviata. Following this success the "golden couple" (The Guardian) pair-up again for opera's most beautiful love duets." (Album Cover)
Complete solo piano music by Henri Dutilleux. (Performed by John Chen)
"In 2004 at the age of 18, the Malaysian-born pianist John Chen became the youngest ever winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition. The previous year he won the Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition, where he swept all the special prizes. The French composer Henri Dutilleux has long been acknowledged as among the leading figures of his generation. This complete collection of his solo piano works includes his only large-scale work for the instrument, the brilliant Piano Sonata." (Album cover)
Mozart Violin Concertos 2 & 4, Maxim Vengerov (violin/director) Lawrence Power (viola) and the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.
"Vengerov has said "the key concept of this project is collaborating with young people... going on a journey together to find the soul of Mozart. Mozart was about the age of these musicians when he wrote these concertos - he would hopefully have approved of this group of young people who love his music so much. We are learning together from him, becoming richer through this experience.' The UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra tours internationally with Maxim Vengerov." (Album Booklet)
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