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In Reply to: RE: Favorite books on music posted by TGR on May 29, 2015 at 09:47:23
I would add Harold Schonberg's trilogy, Lives of the Great Composers, The Great Pianists, and The Great Conductors. Few have made music history so entertaining and readable yet still highly insightful and informative.
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Yes, those are good books as well. Another very good one on conductors is Norman LeBrecht's The Maestro Myth. Many people are turned off by the opinions expressed by Lebrecht early on in the book, however whether you agree with him or not on that, what follows in the rest of the book is actually a very good survey of famous conductors, and who studied with who, or was influenced by who, etc. I would think that quite a few on this board would be interested in that.
Lebrecht is a yellow journalist, who disguises the truth behind a screen of lies, innuendo, and half-truths. His documentation is poor, his allegations baloney, and his opinions baseless.
I have two books written by him - including the Maestro Myth - and the only reason they are still on my shelf is because I don't throw books away.
I said he was controversial, and I don't agree with everything he says. However, most of that book is actually well-researched and well written history of many of the most famous conductors, and how they influenced each other. It is easy to ignore the other stuff if you don't care for it.
He's dishonest. Nothing he says is believable.
Alas, I have to agree with you on this one. While Lebrecht is a living encyclopedia of the classical music world, and a skilled writer to boot, he suffers from a weakness that is deadly to good journalism. That is, he becomes so obsessed with certain of his theories or outlooks, and so convinced of their pervasive truth and importance, that he needs to interpret everything he sees as support or proof of them. Thus he twists things until they conform to his theories, which may have some validity but are almost never as pervasively true or important as he is convinced they are.
I've seen this in other writers, but seldom to this extent in one of his intellectual prowess.
Hi rbolaw - that is a very fair and good description of Lebrecht and his writing. I recommend the book for it's history of conductors, which is after all the vast majority of the book, not for the other stuff. I'm sure a great many people put down that book after that opening without actually reading the good historical information that comes afterwards.
Hi, Learsfool. Yes, I've read The Maestro Myth. I'm not surprised we agree. The romantic PR image that has always surrounded these conductors does get old, and he sure does puncture that. It's a business, and often a cutthroat one, as he repeatedly notes.
But his endless obsession with the harsh and tawdry aspects of the business gets tiresome (not to him, apparently).
Excellent suggestions- guys.
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