New Books on Music (Classical, etc.)

[Thropplenoggin]

Thought this could be a useful port of call to alert members to new books on classical music, etc. I haven't read either one, just heard mention or caught sight of them being advertised.

Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet by Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takacs Quartet

The Political Orchestra: The Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics During the Third Reich by Fritz Trumpi (the publisher will no doubt be happy that the author's name is now 'on-trend'!)

If anyone reads them, please post your thoughts here, too.

[Richard Tarleton]

Thought this could be a useful port of call to alert members to new books on classical music, etc. I haven't read either one, just heard mention or caught sight of them being advertised.

Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet by Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takacs Quartet

The Political Orchestra: The Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics During the Third Reich by Fritz Trumpi (the publisher will no doubt be happy that the author's name is now 'on-trend'!)

If anyone reads them, please post your thoughts here, too.

I can heartily recommend this, Throppers. I've reviewed it before. It's not so much a narrative, like (for example) Arnold Steinhardt's book on the Guarneri, or Dubinsky's on the Borodins. Rather, it's a series of chapters based around particular Beethoven quartets (Op 18 no 1, Op 59 no 2, Ops 127, 130, 131 and 132), the title coming from Beethoven's remark about the Opus 59 Quartets. It covers their background, composition and performing histories in Beethoven's time as a way of shedding light on the dynamics of the Takács Quartet at particular stages of their career. Each chapter looks at particular aspects of their life - rehearsing, performing, recording, absorbing new members (Dusinberre himself, who joined when the Tacács was 18 years old, Roger Tapping, Geraldine Walter), loss (the death of Gábor Ormai) - and meditations on the works themselves. A delightful and insightful read. I found the final chapter, on the alternative endings to Op 130 and what it said to him about the group itself, particularly affecting.

There's very little personal stuff – just a few glimpses into their private lives – but just enough. Did Dusinberre keep a diary? Conversations are reconstructed from long ago – but it works well. A delightful book, and one that makes you revisit the works discussed with the book in hand, the better to see them from the performer's point of view. As Dusinberre himself says in his self-deprecating way on p. 231 of this book "A first violinist's narrative cannot be fully trusted and as with all aspects of this story, my colleagues might tell it in a different way."

I loved this bit, from a recording session on Op 127: "Towards the end of the session Andrew [producer] zeroed in on a few moments of bad ensemble and intonation that had eluded us so far, using a few tricks to help us to play to a higher level. 'The way that E floats through the air is a bit flat', was a skilful way to avoid blaming a player: the note had doubtless been perfectly in tune when it left my violin, only to be tainted by impurities en route."

[MrGongGong]

BUY THIS

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daphne-Oram-Individual-Electronics-Cofounder/dp/1910221112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480085452&sr=8-1&keywords=Daphne+Oram

Just republished (at last)

[kernelbogey]

Music for Life: 100 works to carry you through, by Fiona Maddocks, Music Critic of the Observer (Faber, £12.99).

I haven't read (or seen) this, but heard the author talk about it on the radio, and she writes about it here.

I will not add a description, since hers is so much better than any I might write.

[Lat-Literal]

BUY THIS

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daphne-Oram-Individual-Electronics-Cofounder/dp/1910221112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480085452&sr=8-1&keywords=Daphne+Oram

Just republished (at last)

Music for Life: 100 works to carry you through, by Fiona Maddocks, Music Critic of the Observer (Faber, £12.99).

I haven't read (or seen) this, but heard the author talk about it on the radio, and she writes about it here.

I will not add a description, since hers is so much better than any I might write.

Thanks for these recommendations. The first looks very interesting. I like Oram.

I've had a look at the full list in the second. It is imaginative and open-minded.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2aHiDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT208&lpg=PT208&dq=full+list+of+maddocks+music+for+life&source=bl&ots=pKeEaz-tsv&sig=K3oAk8W2A5eZGGVhLX8LOCejQO4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsuYmNw97QAhVIAsAKHcieDnkQ6AEISzAH#v=onepage&q=full%20list%20of%20maddocks%20music%20for%20life&f=false

[richardfinegold]

As a non musician the books that have influenced me the most, are, in particular order:
Swafford Brahm biography; Solomon on both Beethoven and Mozart; Rosen, The Classical Style; Volkov, Testament; Dubinsky History of The Borodin Quartet; Elizabeth Wilson Shostakovich biography.

[bluestateprommer]

Jessica Duchen has a blog post on recommended recent books on classical music, a few of which have already been mentioned in this thread:

https://jessicamusic.blogspot.com/2016/12/top-12-books-for-music-lovers-2016.html

[Stanley Stewart]

Enjoying Fiona Maddocks, Music for Life, (faber&faber), 100 Works to carry you through. Informative vignettes and a good quick reference point for an ageing mid-octogenarian! So, too, is Edward Greenfield's, Portrait Gallery, (Elliott & Thompson, 2014). Both writers articulate, clear and concise. My only quibble is that I am also diverted to other studies as I read but, hey, this is the advantage of retirement in addition to a learning curve!

[gurnemanz]

As a non musician the books that have influenced me the most, are, in particular order:
Swafford Brahm biography; Solomon on both Beethoven and Mozart; Rosen, The Classical Style; Volkov, Testament; Dubinsky History of The Borodin Quartet; Elizabeth Wilson Shostakovich biography.

Likewise Elizabeth Wilson, with insights not only into Shostakovich himself as a genius in difficult times but into composing in general. I took my time with it and played the music as it came up in the text.

[bluestateprommer]

While not a "new" book on classical music by any means, thought it worth yet another bsp thread hijack to mention finally getting around to reading Gregor Tassie's biography of Yevgeny Mravinsky, ~16 years after its publication. I'd read Tassie's Gramophone profile of Mravinsky years back (I still actually have that issue), which anticipates the tone of the book. Namely, for those haven't read it, Tassie's tone is highly adulatory and worshipful, well past the point where I wish to tell the author "get a grip, please". Just one example: when Tassie gets to the time prior to the pending premiere of DSCH's Cello Concerto No. 1 (p. 178), he does not mention Rostropovich at any point. Think the most gushing R3 presenter excess, but immobilized in book form.

Likewise, Tassie was in severe need of an editor, such as on page 236, when mentioning Mravinsky's reaction to DSCH's death:

"It was one of the saddest day's in the composer's [sic] life; he hardly spoke a word all day to anyone, completely lost in his own meditations."

Or this gaffe on p. 188, after mentioning performances with Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta on the bill:

"The concerts were remembered for some years afterwards and led to Mravinsky being awarded the Bartok Medal on the occasion of the composer's birth centenary, in 1971 [sic]."

Tassie also has written books about Kirill Kondrashin and Nikolai Myaskovsky. Based on this experience, I'm inclined to give them a wide berth, informative as they would be in passing, when focused on facts and not on adulation. Sorry to sound so negative here about this book (especially if anyone here knows him, or by chance is him), as I certainly learned much about Mravinsky in spite of its tone, which told me that the book is not the whole story. Caveat lector, to miscoin a phrase.

There is a very recent book on Myaskovsky by Patrick Zuk, which does look promising. So I'll have to get hold of that if and when I have time.