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The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection : The 350 Essential Works
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 016.780266
EAN: 9780761104872
Edition: 2nd
ISBN: 0761104879
Label: Workman Publishing Company
Manufacturer: Workman Publishing Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 536
Publication Date: September 01, 1999
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Studio: Workman Publishing Company
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Editorial Review:
Berlioz. Vaughan Williams. Schubert and Schumann. Mozart after the Jupiter Symphony, Bach beyond the Brandenburg Concertos, opera after The Magic Flute. In his informed and indispensible guide with over 157,000 copies in print, National Public Radio's Ted Libbey takes listeners by the hand through the classical repertory to build a music library. For the second edition, with five years of new performances to consider, five years of new releases to review, and five years of reissues to re-evaluate-the author has completely revised and updated the book.
While sticking to the essential 300 works, there are now one-third new selections and reviews, and a 50% change in discography to keep all suggested CDs up to date. The NPR Guide tp Building a Classical CD Collection will make every music lover's core collection complete.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - a good starting place
Ted Libbey's a really good guide for someone venturing into classical music without a lot of familiarity with the material. The book is put together pretty well, and Libbey's very knowledgeable and a good writer. His taste is broad, which is good for a reader whose tastes are developing. He tends to emphasize large orchestral works at the expense of chamber music and solo instrumental works, as well as at the expense of opera and sacred music (and he seems to have a bit of a preference for late Romantic ... Read More
Rating:  - Learning from the educated
I am a huge classical music fan, always looking for that perfect recording and being most critical when it doesn't suit my taste. Even so, I had a lot to learn about composers and pieces of great music that I was unfamiliar with. It delights me to report that I have found most of what Ted Libbey has said about building a classical CD collection to be true. He offers a list well thought out; not just according to sales but more in terms of history and attention to detail. Since buying, reading, and rereading ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent attempt at the most difficult of tasks
It takes guts to write a book that attempts to identify the 350-or-so most important works and their best recordings out of the entire canon of classical music. On top of that, Libbey includes a countless number of interesting, informative, and entertaining commentaries of the pieces and their recordings as well as a number of lists to provide the reader with some ideas on how to start their classical music collection. Libbey does an excellent job of providing the information in a way that will neither intimidate ... Read More
Rating: - invaluable guide to classical and opera
An essential guide to the best recordings of the best classical and opera music. As there are literally hundreds of various recordings for each such music (combinations of singers, conductors, & orchestras), this guide saves hours of aggravation and misgivings while selecting the best recording to purchase, although you'll still want to decide for yourself which of the several recordings recommended.
This guide is not comprehensive, however, as some composers, such as Glazunov (for his Violin Concerto, ... Read More
Rating:  - Useful but bit old
I have a difficult time finding the CDs mentioned in this book, and especially ones performed by specific orchestras. I've searched both online and music stores, but almost 90% of the items described in the book cannot be found since they're no longer being manufactured by companies. It's still nice to know the names of these composers and some background history. Another thing is that they should include pronounciation keys after each mentioned composer, artist, place names, and musical terms. Do you want to sound like an ... Read More
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