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Title: Gramophone Classical Good Cd Guide 2004 (Gramophone Classical Good Cd Guide, 2004) by Emma Lilley ISBN: 0-86024-997-2 Publisher: Music Sales Corporation Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Confusing for the beginner; good guidance nonetheless
Comment: I would first like to thank "sky" whose reviews here are really a fountain of knowledge for neophytes to classical music like myself.
Don't let the fact that Bose, hucksters of the most overpriced and poorly designed audio equipment foisted on a naive public, are sponsors of the Gramophone guide. Thankfully Gramophone reviewers are more competant at reviewing classical music than finding quality audio sponsors! The Grammophone Classical Good CD Guide is a good read but difficult for beginners to use.
If you're a beginner like myself, already have classical cds and you are interested in finding out whether it is referenced in the guide it is a bit of a chore if you don't know what kind of sub-genre your dealing with [choral, orchestral, instrumental, chamber etc; being a beginner I have some difficulty with classificaitons]. I spent the better part of an hour trying to find whether some cds I owned were a part of the guide. Terrible indexing. What is needed in the index is a list of players/artists with their cds.
Much better to use it as a guide to procure cds rather than read up on what you already own, which is it's real benefit. All in all it's an interesting read and I wish I'd have purchased it before any collections of classical cds.
Rating: 5
Summary: Here's how to find these recommended recordings (Part 2)----
Comment: This is just a quick follow-up to my first review below about how to better search for classical recordings in the Amazon database.
I've just discovered that between 500-600 RCA imports can be found by typing "BMG" in the label field and then clicking search. So, for example, if you're looking for the Penguin "key" recording of Firkusny playing the Dvorak piano quintets/piano concerto on RCA, you must sift through the BMG search results. This disc is one of many RCA classics that has been reiussed only by BMG-France in its "Artistes & Repertoires" series, which is why they all appear only as imports. Similarly, Koussevitsky's performance of Prokofiev's symphonies 1 & 5 (one of Gramophone's 100 Great Recordings) is found among the BMG search results. Many Gunther Wand CDs (Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert) can be found this way as well.
Also, for whatever reason, most DG Galleria CDs can be found only by searching after typing "Archiv" in the label box. So, for example, if you're looking for the Chung/Zimerman disc of the Strauss/Respighi violin sonatas (Gramophone Award-winner), you must sift through the Archiv search results.
If you're not clued into the whole process of finding and searching for classical imports, then read my first review below. Otherwise, you'll never find many, many great recordings. Happy searching!
Rating: 3
Summary: Too many cooks spoil the soup
Comment: The latest edition of the Gramophone Guide is a marked improvement over previous editions. The Guide now has a better rating system, and key recordings are better represented.
However, with over 50 contributors, there is somewhat of a lack of consistency in the ratings. Many recordings that have very favorable written reviews are rated one disc or no discs at all. Take Stephen Kovacevich's Grieg Piano Concerto, for instance. In the text, it is described as a "benchmark offering." But the rating is no discs out of three! This happens repeatedly in the Gramophone Guide. It is not clear how the ratings were arrived at (whether individual reviewers gave each disc a rating, or whether the editor simply tacked on ratings to each review). This makes the Gramophone Guide less useful than, say, the Penguin Guide, which, for whatever else you can say about it, is very consistent in its reviews and ratings.
Stick to the Penguin Guide if you agree with the opinions of its three editors, who together write all the reviews, making for a more consistent system of ratings. True, a British bias, but consistent ratings nonetheless.
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