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MUSIC BOOKS NOTED by Bert Wechsler
Related articles:Bert Wechsler's Music Book Roundup - previous book reviews.
Bert Wechsler reviews Broadway and Classical CDs - new releases.
Bert Wechsler Remembers - previous CD reviews.
It is simple to search for books of a particular subject by using your browser's "find" function. Click on your browser's "FIND" button or drop down the "EDIT" menu and choose "FIND." Type in an artist's name (example, "Mozart") or a key word (example, "Bel Canto" or "Ragtime"). This works equally well with author's names. The browser will skip to the topic you have indicated (if it is here).
THE LAST PRODIGY: A Biography of Erich Wolfgang Korngold by Brendan G.
Carrol. Amadeus Press, 464 pps., $34.95.
Unfortunately known best, and unfairly belittled for, his sweeping,
romantic movie music, Korngold was much more than that.
He wasn't only the last prodigy, he was really the only prodigy on his
level. This is not to put down Mozart or Mendelssohn, but from the
beginning, Korngold wrote adult music and played the piano like nobody
else. He was, all his life, totally music and also could turn a witty
phrase but otherwise his wasn't really an interesting life.
Carrol has spent 25 years on Korngold and I guess there is very little about his subject that he doesn't know. He also knows his films of that time. He writes clearly and smoothly, he explains (if we didn't know) who extraordinary the early works are and Korngold's "invention" of Hollywood film music (he said he just had to follow Bette Davis' cadences in her films.).
It was, of course an intensely interesting period: Austria and Germany before WW II. Korngold was part of it certainly, a big part of it, but what his father didn't shield him from, he more or less did himself in his concentration on his music. He was freer in the Hollywood of during the war and seemingly more relaxed. He took musical problems and devised totally original solutions to them. All genres of music were synthesized through him. He rejected the "New Music," serial, codified 12-tone, and the like. He was actually the closing of the Romantic 19th century rather than a beacon for the more acerbic 20th.
He did marry and have children but outside of music, I can't think of much else except help his fellow man when he could. This does not negate the value of this book because he was an important figure and still is. We do not have to know "dirt" about a subject, especially if there is none. It is good to know him better and to be able to appreciate his music even more. It is not the author's fault that his subject was so "straight."
There is a valuable, exhaustive discography included in the volume. His most popular excerpt, more popular than "Robin Hood" or"Captain Blood" is Marietta's Lied from his opera "Die Tote Stadt." Just about everybody has recorded it over the years but a favorite of mine is Stella Roman at the Hollywood Bowl conducted by Artur Rodzinsky in 1950. This is included in a remarkable Roman disc from Eklipse (EKR 42). It is also included on Legato Classics 139-1: they say it dates from 1948.
The volume also contains many stodgy Biedermeier photographs.
BACH by Peter Washington; MOZART by Andrew Steptoe; THE PIANO by
Jeremy Siepmann. Each volume includes a separate folder containing three
CDs. All published by Alfred A. Knopf in association with EMI, $47.50
each.
These are three volumes in a new series published by Knopf. A clever idea
all around and recommended for the tyro in music. Simple biographies (or
in the case of the piano, a history), and descriptions of the music as
illustrated on EMI's re-cycled recordings which are of high value.
Photos. You can delve as deeply into the composers and the music as you
wish, alone or guiding others.
CONTEMPORARY ANTHOLOGY OF MUSIC BY WOMEN by James R. Briscoe. Indiana
University Press, 384 pps., $29.95.
If music had a gender, I might understand this more. A textbook, assisted
in its publication by a grant from WISP (Women in Scholarly Publishing),
it is meant to counter the study of music that is male composer oriented.
(When you get out of school, you can study music that is music oriented.)
Anyway, here are the partituren of 32 works, all written by women, from Emma Lou Diemer to Judith Lang Zaimont, including Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, Mary Lou Williams. Yes, Sofia Gubaidulina is here: not the lady whose name begins with "Zw."
THE ORCHESTRA ON RECORD, 1896-1926. An Encyclopedia of Orchestral
Recordings Made by the Acoustical Process compiled by Claude Gravely
Arnold, C.S.B. Greenwood Press, 695 pps., $125.
The title tells the tale. Immense research -- you'll be amazed how much
Waldteufel there was recorded -- with all the forces, conductors,
soloists and any reappearances through the ages. Even skimming is
fascinating. In 1902 the Metropolitan Opera House String Orchestra under
Nahan Franko recorded Wagner's Magic Fire Music for Leeds and Catlin.
Sometimes there is too much information. In a book such as this, the information on the literary source of Beethoven's "Fidelio" only smacks of academicism. But this is an invaluable source on recordings. [Wex]
Copyright © Bert Wechsler 1997
BERT WECHSLER was active in the performing arts as an actor, singer, director, coach and manager before he turned to full time writing. As editor of Music Journal for eight years, he wrote about all aspects of music and dance. He was a music and dance critic for the New York Daily News and New York Concert Review, dance critic and associate editor for Attitude, video critic for video Review, music editor of High Performance Review, dance critic for Der Tanz der Dinge (Switzerland), recordings critic for High Fidelity, correspondent for the music magazine Rondo in Finland and newspapers in Norway (regular column) and Denmark as well as other free-lance activities. He is co-author of "Dear Rogue," the biography Lawrence Tibbett, published by Amadeus Press. He was also associate Editor of Computer Buyers' Guide. He is a member of the Music Critics Association, the Outer Critics Circle, The Bohemians, an honorary life member of the New York Mahlerites, and a founder of the Manhattan Festival Ballet and the Center for Contemporary Opera. He retains his membership in four theatrical unons.
Related articles:
Bert Wechsler's Music Book Roundup - previous book reviews.
Bert Wechsler reviews Broadway and Classical CDs - new releases.
Bert Wechsler Remembers - a compendium of previous CD reviews.
Bert Wechsler: On the Scene - this week's reviews and ruminations on current theater, dance, opera and performance art.
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