The Rough Guide to Classical Music

691 Pages·2010·54.43 MB·English

by  Joe Staines

R
O “The perfect classical
U
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BBC Music Magazine
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THE ROUGH GUIDE to
Classical Music
AN A-Z OF COMPOSERS, KEY WORKS AND TOP RECORDINGS
5
th EDITION: REVISED & EXPANDED

THE ROUGH GUIDE to
Classical
Music
Edited by
Joe Staines
Written by
Jonathan Buckley, Philip Clark, Andrew Dickson, Kate Hopkins,
Stephen Johnson, Nick Kimberley, Joe Staines, Gavin Thomas
www.roughguides.com
Credits
The Rough Guide to Classical Music Rough Guides Reference
Editor: Joe Staines Reference Director: Andrew Lockett
Layout: Nikhil Agarwal Editors: Kate Berens, Peter Buckley, Tom Cabot,
Picture research: Joe Staines Tracy Hopkins, Matthew Milton,
Proofreading: Jason Freeman Joe Staines and Ruth Tidball
Production: Rebecca Short

Acknowledgements
Thanks to all those who have helped in the creation of this guide, in particular all the record and distribution
companies without which it would not have been possible. Thanks are also due to Elbie Lebrecht and
everyone at Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library, John Moelwyn-Hughes at Corbis, the helpful staff at the
Barbican Music Library, and Hester Rowland at Harold Moores Records.
Finally, a big thank you to all those who contributed to the four previous editions of this book:
Ruth Blackmore, Matthew Boyden, Simon Broughton, Kim Burton, Richard Chew, Duncan Clark, David
Doughty, Sophie Fuller, Andy Hamilton, Sarah Harding, Stephen Jackson, Michael Jameson, Francis Morris,
David Nice, Francesca Panetta, Mark Prendergast, Matthew Rye, Jonathan Webster, Barry Witherden and
Michael Wrigley.
Publishing Information
This fifth edition published May 2010 by
Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
375 Hudson St, 4th Floor, New York 10014, USA
Email: [email protected]
Distributed by the Penguin Group:
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
Penguin Putnam, Inc., 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2YE
Penguin Group (New Zealand), Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed by Toppan Security Printing, Singapore
Typeset in Minion, Myriad and DIN to an original design by Duncan Clark
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in
The Rough Guide to Classical Music; however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience
sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the
quotation of brief passages in reviews.
© Rough Guides Ltd
688 pages; includes index
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-84836-476-9
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
CONTENTS
Introduction vii Ferruccio Busoni 119
Chronology of composers ix Dietrich Buxtehude 121
100 Essential Works xii William Byrd 122
John Cage 125
John Adams 1 Marie-Joseph Canteloube 127
Thomas Adès 4 Giacomo Carissimi 128
Isaac Albéniz 6 Elliott Carter 129
Tomaso Albinoni 8 Francesco Cavalli 132
Gregorio Allegri 9 Emmanuel Chabrier 133
Louis Andriessen 10 Marc-Antoine Charpentier 135
Malcolm Arnold 12 Frédéric Chopin 136
Grażyna Bacewicz 14 Muzio Clementi 142
C.P.E. Bach 16 Aaron Copland 143
J.S. Bach 18 Arcangelo Corelli 147
Samuel Barber 33 François Couperin 148
Agustín Pio Barrios 34 Luigi Dallapiccola 151
Béla Bartók 36 Claude Debussy 152
Arnold Bax 41 Léo Delibes 158
Ludwig van Beethoven 45 Frederick Delius 159
Vincenzo Bellini 63 Gaetano Donizetti 161
George Benjamin 65 John Dowland 163
Alban Berg 67 Guillaume Dufay 165
Luciano Berio 71 Paul Dukas 166
Hector Berlioz 74 John Dunstable 168
Leonard Bernstein 78 Henri Duparc 169
Heinrich Biber 79 Maurice Duruflé 170
Harrison Birtwistle 81 Henri Dutilleux 172
Georges Bizet 84 Antonín Dvořák 173
Luigi Boccherini 85 Hanns Eisler 180
Alexander Borodin 87 Edward Elgar 181
Lili Boulanger 89 Manuel de Falla 188
Pierre Boulez 90 Gabriel Fauré 190
Johannes Brahms 93 Morton Feldman 194
Benjamin Britten 103 César Franck 196 C
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Max Bruch 108 Giovanni Gabrieli 199 N
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Anton Bruckner 110 Roberto Gerhard 200 E
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Antoine Brumel 118 George Gershwin 202 T
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Carlo Gesualdo 204 Jean-Baptiste Lully 310
Orlando Gibbons 207 Witold Lutosławski 311
Umberto Giordano 208 Elisabeth Lutyens 314
Philip Glass 209 Guillaume de Machaut 316
Alexander Glazunov 212 James MacMillan 318
Mikhail Glinka 213 Elizabeth Maconchy 320
Christoph Willibald Gluck 215 Gustav Mahler 322
Henryk Górecki 216 Frank Martin 330
Charles François Gounod 219 Bohuslav Martinů 332
Percy Grainger 220 Pietro Mascagni 334
Enrique Granados 222 Jules Massenet 335
Edvard Grieg 223 Nicholas Maw 337
Sofia Gubaidulina 227 Peter Maxwell Davies 339
George Frideric Handel 230 Felix Mendelssohn 341
Karl Amadeus Hartmann 240 Olivier Messiaen 346
Jonathan Harvey 242 Darius Milhaud 350
Joseph Haydn 244 Claudio Monteverdi 351
Hans Werner Henze 253 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 356
Hildegard of Bingen 255 Tristan Murail 371
Paul Hindemith 258 Modest Mussorgsky 373
Gustav Holst 262 Conlon Nancarrow 376
Arthur Honegger 264 Carl Nielsen 378
Johann Nepomuck Hummel 265 Luigi Nono 382
Engelbert Humperdinck 267 Michael Nyman 384
Charles Ives 268 Johannes Ockeghem 387
Leoš Janáček 271 Jacques Offenbach 388
Josquin Desprez 275 Carl Orff 390
Mauricio Kagel 277 Johann Pachelbel 392
Aram Khachaturian 279 Nicolò Paganini 393
Oliver Knussen 280 Giovanni da Palestrina 396
Zoltán Kodály 282 Hubert Parry 398
Erich Wolfgang Korngold 285 Arvo Pärt 399
György Kurtág 288 Krzysztof Penderecki 401
Helmut Lachenmann 291 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 403
Francesco Landini 293 Perotin 405
Roland de Lassus 294 Francis Poulenc 407
William Lawes 295 Michael Praetorius 411
Franz Lehár 298 Sergey Prokofiev 414
Ruggero Leoncavallo 299 Giacomo Puccini 423
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Einojuhani Rautavaara 440 Arthur Sullivan 556
Maurice Ravel 441 Karol Szymanowski 558
Max Reger 446 Toru Takemitsu 562
Steve Reich 448 Thomas Tallis 564
Ottorino Respighi 452 Giuseppe Tartini 567
Wolfgang Rihm 453 John Tavener 570
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 455 John Taverner 571
Joaquín Rodrigo 457
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky 572
Gioacchino Rossini 458
Georg Philipp Telemann 581
Poul Ruders 461
Michael Tippett 583
Kaija Saariaho 463
Michael Torke 586
Camille Saint-Saëns 465
Mark-Anthony Turnage 588
Erik Satie 468
Viktor Ullmann 590
Alessandro Scarlatti 470
Edgard Varèse 593
Domenico Scarlatti 471
Ralph Vaughan Williams 594
Giacinto Scelsi 474
Giuseppe Verdi 600
Alfred Schnittke 476
Tomás Luis de Victoria 605
Arnold Schoenberg 478
Heitor Villa-Lobos 606
Franz Schreker 485
Antonio Vivaldi 608
Franz Schubert 486
Richard Wagner 613
Robert Schumann 499
William Walton 620
Heinrich Schütz 508
Carl Maria von Weber 622
Alexander Scriabin 510
Anton Webern 625
Dmitri Shostakovich 513
Jean Sibelius 520 Kurt Weill 628
Bedřich Smetana 527 Judith Weir 630
Ethel Smyth 529 Silvius Leopold Weiss 631
Karlheinz Stockhausen 531 Charles-Marie Widor 633
Alessandro Stradella 535 Hugo Wolf 635
The Strauss family 536 Iannis Xenakis 638
Richard Strauss 537 Alexander Zemlinsky 641
Igor Stravinsky 544
Barbara Strozzi 552 Glossary 643
Josef Suk 555 Index 667
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Feature Boxes
Tuning & Temperament 26 Luther and Music 413
What is a Fugue? 30 St Cecilia – Patron Saint of Music 431
Sonatas and Sonata Form 58 Less is More? – The Origins of
Famous First Words 112 Minimalism 451
The “Bruckner Versions” Problem 114 Development of the Keyboard 472
Rivals at the Piano 141 The Crisis of Tonality 480
The Madrigal History Tour 205 The Lieder Poets 494
Castrati 233 Clara Schumann 500
Baroque: A Period or a Style? 236 Romanticism and the
Gregorian Chant 256 Austro-German Tradition 503
Expressionism and After 259 Electronic Music – The First 70 Years 533
Composers at the Movies 287 Music in the Third Reich 539
Consort Musick 296 Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet 547
Troubadours and Trouvères 317 Concerto di Donne 553
The Cult of the Conductor 323 Music and Reformation in England 565
The Ondes Martenot 348 There is Nothing Like a Strad 569
The Birth of Opera 354 Postmodernism and After 587
Total Serialism and the The Concerto 610
Darmstadt School 384 The Leitmotif 615
The Rise of the Virtuoso 395 The Strange Case of August Bungert 617
Stabat Mater Dolorosa 404 The Clarinet Comes of Age 624
Notation 406 Cavaillé-Coll and the French
Jean Cocteau and Les Six 409 Organ Tradition 634
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INTRODUCTION
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here are many books on composers and choice CDs make persuasive cases for the music,
their works, and there are numerous some of the additional recommendations make
guides to the countless recordings of clas- valid, and sometimes provocative, alternatives.
sical music available on CD. The Rough Guide to In several instances, we’ve recommended
Classical Music aims to be both of these things a “historical”, pre-stereo recording as well as
– and to do so with a degree of selectivity that a modern digital recording. While there are
will help readers get straight to the most impor- undoubtedly many extraordinary performers
tant and enjoyable works and recordings. In around today, and modern recordings usu-
short, it’s an A to Z survey of over 200 of the ally benefit from technically immaculate sound
most significant composers in the history of quality, new is not always best. Few recent releases
western music – ranging from Hildegard of can match the excitement of Vladimir Horowitz’s
Bingen, one of the great figures of eleventh-cen- 1943 account of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto
tury Europe, to Thomas Adès, born in London No. 1 or Reginald Kell’s moving performance
in 1971. Each composer gets a fact-filled biog- of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet from the 1930s.
raphy, followed by discussion of each of their Furthermore, it doesn’t follow that a recording
most important works, along with reviews of made more than sixty years ago will have terrible
recommended recordings. sound quality – many sound surprisingly good,
Producing a book such as this inevitably means and there are several companies who specialize in
leaving out many composers and even more com- reissuing and remastering old recordings.
positions and recordings. But that’s partly the
point. Joseph Haydn, for example, wrote 104 sym- How the book works
phonies and while all are worth hearing, some are
definitely more exciting than others – especially Immediately after this introduction you’ll find
for someone new to his music. We’ve gone for a list of all the composers covered in the guide,
what we think are the best works by the most arranged chronologically, so you can see at a
interesting composers, mixing some underrated glance who fits where. If you find you like the
figures with the big names. We’ve also included music of Vivaldi, you could check the list and
42 feature boxes covering such diverse topics as decide to listen to Telemann, his contemporary.
troubadours, the birth of opera, the rise of the vir- Things are more complicated with the stylistically
tuoso and electronic music (see opposite). varied twentieth century: Xenakis and Arnold
were born just a year apart but their music seems
to come from different worlds. When a musical
CD recommendations
connection does exist (as in the case of Mozart
Choosing which CDs to recommend requires and Haydn or Schoenberg and Berg), a cross-ref-
even greater ruthlessness than selecting which erence in the main text will point you in the right
composers and works to include. Beethoven only direction. This is followed by a list of 100 essential
wrote nine symphonies, but there have been hun- works that would serve as a good place to start for
dreds of recordings made of the fifth symphony anyone new to classical music. At the end of the
alone. While it’s arguable that several of these book there’s a detailed glossary that defines all the
should never have been issued, a piece of music technical terms we’ve used.
as complex as a Beethoven symphony can bear Between lies the bulk of the guide, an A to Z
many different interpretations and a sizeable pro- of composers from John Adams to Alexander I
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portion of them are worth listening to. Zemlinsky. Each entry starts with an introduction T
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Although some cases recordings stand head to the composer’s life and music, followed by a run-
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and shoulders above the competition, no per- through of the main compositions, moving from D
formance can be described as definitive. That’s the largest-scale works to the smallest. With the U
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one reason why we often recommend more than most important figures – such as Bach, Mozart and T
one version of a piece. Whereas all our first- Beethoven – we’ve generally grouped the music IO
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under generic headings (eg “Chamber Music”), as London’s Wigmore Hall, produce their own
giving an introduction to the composer’s work in recordings. In the case of individual composers
that genre before going on to individual pieces. and performers, several have bought the rights
Each discussion of a work or works is followed to formerly deleted recordings, repackaged them
by reviews of recommended recordings, with the and made them available via their own websites.
performer details conforming to a regular format: Full-price recent releases can still be expensive,
soloist first, then orchestra/choir/ensemble, then but the last two decades have seen an explosion of
conductor – with the name of the record com- budget labels – pioneered by Naxos – and this has
pany and the number of CDs in parenthesis, spurred both the big multinationals and the larger
along with a summary of the other works featured independent companies to put more effort into
on the disc. Take this recording of Glazunov’s their own mid- and budget-price series. These
Violin Concerto: reissues often feature some of the finest perform-
ances of a work ever made, so don’t think for a
r
Znaider; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; minute that quality of a CD is always reflected in
Jansons (RCA; with Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2) its price.
Here, Nikolaj Znaider is the soloist, he’s playing
Classical downloads
with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra con-
ducted by Mariss Jansons (we’ve left off first Another development in the recording industry
names to save space). is the growth of music download services, which
allow you to purchase music online and down-
Purchasing CDs load it to your computer to then either play using
a dedicated jukebox application (such as iTunes),
If you purchase your CDs through a record store, “burn” to a CD (to use just as you would a regular
many of those we’ve recommended will need to CD) or transfer to an MP3 player. Apple’s iTunes
be ordered, since most stores stock just the best- Store has blazed the trail for such services since
sellers and new releases. Should you find that a 2003, its success due in part to the popularity of
listed CD is not in your store’s catalogue, it may the same company’s iPod. At first classical music
have been deleted or be about to be repackaged: was pretty poorly served by downloads but by the
the major companies are pretty quick to delete end of 2009 a huge amount of quality material was
slow-moving items, but often reissue them, either available. Many record labels offer their own sites
at a lower price or combined with different music. where you can download new recordings, back
Newly deleted and second-hand CDs can usu- catalogue and, in some cases, deletions. There
ally be located via the Internet, which is also a are also several download providers with a strong
good place to purchase new CDs – from retailers classical catalogue, such as eMusic, classicsonline.
and record companies, and, in several instances, com and passionato.com.
directly from the performers or the composer. The advantages of downloading are the cost
There’s been a continuous downturn in the (between half and a third of the price of a CD),
production of classical CDs from the major com- the fact that you can choose to purchase either an
panies over the last ten years. In several cases entire album or individual tracks and, of course,
this has led to projects being curtailed and major the fact that it delivers to your home more or less
performers and orchestras losing lucrative con- instantaneously. The drawbacks are the mar-
tracts. Not everyone has taken this lying down ginally inferior sound (not a problem for most
and a wealth of small independent companies has people and, anyway, likely to improve), the lack
emerged to plug gaps in the market. Many orches- of sleeve notes and, in the case of song and opera,
tras (including the Hallé, the London Symphony the absence of the words – although such infor-
Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) mation is easily found on the Internet and is often
N now have their own labels, and even venues, such provided on record company download sites.
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