The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music

by Robert Layton and Edward Greenfield

Book Overview

This has remained the best and most successful guide to classical music for over 40 years. Fully revised by its team of eminent authors and written with wit and passion, The Penguin Guide offers reviews of all the latest releases as well as the finest established recordings. Plus the greatest historic performances; plus the major period instrument recordings; plus an in-depth survey of the best of the budget-priced CDs; plus the core collection of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141033363
• ISBN13: 9780141033365
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 1588 Pages
• Weight: 4.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.4" x 6.8" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Classic music lovers' sourcebook gets better and better

After purchasing The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings) and being very happy with it, this was an obvious choice for me to start getting a handle on my classical music collection. The book is well organized and attempts to be comprehensive, but given the expanse of classical music available, invariably some of your personal favorite recordings will be left out of this tome. (One of my all time favorites, and a recurring title of many "must have" classical music lists, Mussorgsky: Pictures at An Exhibition was left out, for example.) This volume uses a box summary with symbols and abbreviations that allow them to distinguish certain recordings from others, and it is very useful with a not-too-steep learning curve. Unlike the jazz version, this does not attempt to establish a "core collection", leaving the digging and experimenting to the reader/listener. All in all, anyone who purchases classical music on a regular basis would serve themselves well to have this book handy.

The best there is .....

The 2008 edition of Penguin's Guide to Recorded Classical Music is the definitive guide on the market. No other guide comes close to the wealth of information regarding composers, artists, and quality recordings/DVD choices that are available in this book. The only competition this guide has is The All Music Guide to Classical Music, which possesses a greater degree of scholarship regarding biographical articles concerning the composers and the creative process they employed. The All Music Guide, although informative, is very limited on a range of quality recordings. Buy them both and you can't go wrong.

A worthy successor

This edition of the Penguin guide to classical CDs is the latest in a long series. It's an excellent guide to what's currently available.

One of two indispensible guides to classical music

Along with the Gramophone Guide, the Penguin Guide is THE reference source for classical music buffs seeking reviews and ratings of classical recordings. There are others, of course, but these are the two I would not be without. The NPR guide is also excellent, but is much less comprehensive, listing only 1-3 recordings of only certain major works by major composers. The Penguin and Gramophone guides are clearly reference works and not for general reading (unlike the NPR Guide, which is highly enjoyable reading). As reference works, the Penguin and Gramophone guides are unsurpassed. If forced to choose just one, I might lean slightly in favor of the Gramophone guide, but that's strictly a matter of preference.

Still the Best

Truth be told there just are not that many good classical music guides to choose from. In terms of scope the Good Guide is second to the Penguin. In my humble opinion, if you're serious about building or adding to an existing collection of classical CDs and DVDs you will own the "Good" book. You'll also own the Penguin Guide simply due to its more comprehensive scope as there are works (e.g., Beethoven's Overtures to name but one example) that are not covered in the "Good". The Good Guide, like the Penguin, originates from the U.K. Some reviewers feel both these guides have a bias towards British artists. While to some extent this is true, it's not what other reviewers make it out to be and there are countless number of non-British recordings that are highly recommended in these pages. Besides, to my knowledge, one really doesn't have much choice because outside of the Penguin and the Good Guides a comprehensive guide for purchasing classical music is not available. There is the "Third Ear" but is does not come close to the high standard of these two publications. In fact, I have found the Third Ear to be far more biased AGAINST British recordings than these two guides are biased for them. If you're a complete beginner, the NPR Guide by Ted Libbey is an excellent place to start and it can't be accused of a British bias. Gramophone Magazine is the only respectable periodical I've found that gives updated reviews and information about the latest in classical music recordings. The "Good" Guide is issued by the editors of Gramophone. This is the first year I bought the Good Guide as I've been content with the Penguin. However, after being a subscriber to Gramophone Magazine for the past 3 years I've been so impressed with their recommendations that it was a logical purchase for me. I've perused the pages of the Good Guide and found a lot of agreement between it and the Penguin. Certain recordings are obvious recommendations and usually both these guides lead the buyer to owning certain "masterpiece" recordings. Both guides provide professional reviews of many of the avialble purchases for a given piece. Both provide great descriptions of many of the subtleties of given recordings and how the performers interpret the music. These descriptions make it easy to compare and contrast recordings and will help one become a more discerning listener. If you love opera, you're in for a real treat. In addition to being season ticket holders to the Seattle Symphony and Pacific Northwest Ballet, we also have season seats to the Seattle Opera. I use these guides to make sure I own the music for whatever it is we will be hearing and "seeing" in our upcoming seasons. For Opera Lovers, the DVD recommendations are great to have. Now, in addition to having the best CDs of a given opera, I am now able to confidently purchase outstanding DVDs of the operas we'll be attending. If you go to live classical music performances of any kind, being able to familiarize you