This is a companion set to Naxos' "The A~Z of Opera" (previously reviewed.. It follows the same format and is an ideal compilation for people who are new to classical music as well as classical music buffs. It contains a double CD with two and a half hours of classical music (as you would expect) and a 562 page book (not quite as thick as the Opera one) compiled and written again by Keith Anderson.
So what's in the pack?
~~ The Book
This contains 562 pages of information pertaining to classical music. It's the same size as a CD and fairly thick. The text is concise and clear and informative, with portraits of composers throughout. After the index you get 450 pages of concise histories of composers, with recommendations of recordings from the Naxos catalogue. It is arranged in alphabetical order, and starts with Adolphe Adam and is completed by Bernd Alois Zimmerman. As well as details about the composer there are sections on the different types of music each composer produced (e.g. keyboard, opera, dance etc.). This is an excellent reference volume and full of lots of useful information. It would an excellent addition to any library or school music department.
This is followed by a sixty page glossary of musical terms, which also includes musical instruments and styles. Ideal for awkward crossword clues. There is then a forty five page section on classical music used in films, ordered by film name. The book is completed by a list of illustrations followed by a page about the author. The package is worth buying for the book alone.
~~ The Music
There are two CDs , arranged in chronological order , giving a good representation of classical music drawn from the Naxos catalogue. The names are not all familiar , but the music is uniformly excellent, so for every Beethoven you get a Corelli, for every Verdi you get a Palestrina and so on. The first CD opens with a Gregorian Chant (De Profundis) and is followed by "O Virga Mediatrix" by Hildegard Von Bingen. More familiar territory is covered on the second CD which opens with Scubert's "Ave Maria" and includes Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" , finishing with Orff's "O Fortuna", Britten's "Playful Pizzicato" and Glass' "Violin Concerto - 1st Movement". A very listenable collection, and available for 8.99 GBP from Amazon.
This is the sort of opinion where a spell checker is not much uses. I hope I got all the names right.
A-Z of Classical Music
Is it a two-CD set with a particularly thick booklet, or a 562-page book with a
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compilation album attached? Whichever, the unpretentious text by Keith Anderson offers a basic introduction to the lives and works of dozens of composers, together with rec...
compilation album attached? Whichever, the unpretentious text by Keith Anderson offers a basic introduction to the lives and works of dozens of composers, together with rec...
