The Penultimate Word

I just finished The Life and Death of Classical Music, by Norman Lebrecht, a book I blogged about earlier. The title is a misnomer - the book is really about the glory days and ultimate coming to grief of the big classical record labels. Lebrecht documents the power trips great conductors like Karajan, Stokowski, Toscanini, Solti and others were on, how their rivalry caused many of the same works to be recorded over and over (and over and over - there are over 500 recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth for example).

The classical recording industry destroyed iteself. Its hubris, disconnect from the market, and complete failure to come to terms with the internet doomed it. For all that, the book is a good read, because the characters in it - the musicians, producers and record company execs - were such outsize characters.

Lebrecht also lists what he considers the 100 best and 20 worst recordings ever made. These lists are always subjective. There are a couple of recordings I think should be on the list of 100 that aren’t there, but he does list many recordings I don’t have that I would like to add to my collection. The list of 20 worst is just a hoot.

If classical music is your area of interest, this is a good book to have.

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