Yearbook 1997/98
- A Review -
PAGE TWO
Click here for Page 1
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY?
If you're not a serious collector, you can do two things: 1) use the copy at your record store (happy practice nowadays). 2) Buy the book, read about composers and CDs you've never heard of and then become a serious collector.
Despite my reservations, I must say that I've learnt a lot over the years because of the Penguins. Most listeners and collectors start with mainstream stuff. I attribute my knowledge of many superb "less-popular" composers, like Martinu, Holmboe, Janacek, Rameau and Purcell, to introductions via the Penguin Guide. In addition, many marvellous but less-known works by famous composers would have taken me longer to discover if not for the Guide. Most notable of these are the oratorios of Handel other than Messiah. The Guide's rosetted reviews of Joshua and Solomon were of great influence.
The Penguin Anti-Guide to CDs
Now, I cite from the Sibelius section because I'm nuts enough about this music to be familiar with its nuances, and you could thus consider it as an example of the potential problems one can encounter in the Guide with regards to your own favourite composer/performer.
But of course, there are dangers to this. Not everyone thinks alike - the Guide represents the opinions of three well-known British music writers. But they are only three, and they are British. If you like their tastes, then good for you - chances are you can rely on their reviews very much. If your tastes are different, then the troubles begin. What they rosette may be what you want to trash. One man's meat is another man's poison. I can vouch for this as I have a rosetted recording of Prokofiev's Cinderella, its purchase based entirely on the raving (if completely undiscerning) review in the Guide, which turned out to be two of the most boring CDs I have ever owned. But of course, I did the same thing for Handel's Joshua, the result being totally the opposite.
The point here is that the Penguin Guide is a guide, it is NOT the Bible of classical CDs. (To hell with the Daily Telegraph!) Use it as such. Better yet, use it as a guide to composers and their works, rather than merely a guide to recordings, which is in-built anyway. The Penguin tends to hit more than miss, but the point is it does miss, for the simple reason that humans are not made alike.
Rue Britannia?
The British Bias also ensures that according to the Sibelius "expert", the Finnish are incapable of interpreting their own music, compared to the writer's beloved Sirs Colin Davis and Simon Rattle. Granted that even I admit that the recordings of these British conductors are not bad, it is irritating to see how the writer puts down some (not all) of the beautiful interpretations by the Finns Leif Segerstam, Okko Kamu, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Paavo Berglund.
Berglund's new cycle is even greeted with the arrogant remark, and I quote, "Surely not the start of another Sibelius cycle from Paavo Berglund!" and the writer then takes a dig at the record company (p.403)! Why, may I ask, is a Sibelius expert against new interpretations? Why does he conveniently avoid this point with Karajan's four recordings of the Fifth Symphony, in praising it? Layton does praise Berglund's EMI Forte cycle highly, yet places it second to Sir Colin's Philips Duo cycle, which is marred by bad recording and a brass section that sounds like sheep going to war.
Now, I'm not against the British being good at what they do, and I even own and swear by some of their recordings, but when - for a particular composer's works - no performances done by non-British performers are noted, let alone praised, something feels very wrong. It may be that, just as much of the world speaks English, British interpretations are more "cosmopolitan" - but this can be a danger too.
I'm not saying that the British are not good (Gardiner can be really excellent, as in Handel), it is simply the case of the Guide neglecting recordings by non-Brits. I'm not just refering to the 1998 Yearbook or the Big 500, the British Bias is a symptom of the main volume too. As in the past, there is a preface "To American Readers" where the writers acknowledge readers' complaints. Their answer is that
Our performance coverage in the present volume - helped by the huge proportion of reissued older records - certainly reflects the American achievement, past and present; with the current phenomenal improvements in transfering technology we hope that more of the early recordings made by the great names from America's musical past will enjoy the attention of the wider public."
I think Mr. March will definitely be getting more letters.
Pass the salt, please
My best advice for this is to try to see their point, with a large spoonful of salt. But not always. And you don't have to like or agree with it. Just see things from another perspective - chances are, you will learn something. This is the same thing everyone should do with any composer's art, whether Monteverdi or Schoenberg. On reflection, that is what I've tried to do with my Penguins, and the truth (again) is I've learnt a lot from the three writers. But you don't have to agree with me either.
Buy the book if you're a serious collector. No doubt it is very useful despite the horrors. I refer to the Guides regularly throughout the years, which makes the Yearbook's S$32-cost divide up economically. People who say "I'd rather spend the money on a couple of CDs" do have a point, but CDs you listen then put aside for a while (sometimes quite a while, sometimes forever). The Penguin Guide gives you bits of useful info every now and then (even if you read it cover-to-cover), so long as you are a regular CD buyer, exploring new CDs and composers. In the end, so long as the book has achieved some of its "guiding" purpose, its cost is almost neglible.
The Inkpot Sibelius Nutcase speaks:
The perverse way of looking at a "guide" is that once you understand the "patterns" of the writers, you can even use it as an "anti-guide." You see, for me, a number of the Penguin's reviews of Sibelius CDs really suck to high heaven. I absolutely loathe them. E.g., the writer often talks about tempi, movement lengths, and cannot stand to have his Sibelius "pulled out of shape." All of which I find completely besides the point with Sibelius' organic music. To me, it's a case of wrong perspective. (I assume these reviews are written by Robert Layton, UK's "leading Sibelius expert").
The other big problem with the Penguin Guide also occurs in the Gramophone Classical Good CD Guide (right, which the three Penguin Guide writers are also a part of): the infamous "British Bias". Take the example of the Bach reviews. It seems that the Germans, more or less, are incapable of performing Bach's choral masterpieces "properly" compared to the Brits, in particular the almighty John Eliot Gardiner. In fact, the Japanese are just as good as the Brits!
Ton Koopman's Bach orchestral music, performed with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, is rated *(*), except for the Brandenburg Concertos which are given an "unqualified recommendation". Is this because, as the reviewer writes, "excellent British soloists [are] included in the band"?? The Italians might even like to search their soul and wonder why is it that Sir Neville Marriner is better at Vivaldi than they are!
"we obviously give preference to ... international companies. In a 400-year old musical culture centred in Europe, it is not surprising that a great number of the finest interpreters should have been Europeans, and many of them have enjoyed recording in London, where there are four first-class symphony orchestras and many smaller groups at their disposal, supported by recording producers and engineers of the highest calibre. However, the continued reissue of earlier recordings by major American recording orchestras and artists is slowly redressing the balance.
You know this thing called "cultural relativism"? It's a matter of different people(s) having different tastes. It is not something that one can blame a culture for - ultimately, we have to allow the British writers to be who they are in a British publication written in English. Bias is natural.
If you cannot find the books at your local store, try Amazon.com.
Chia Han-Leon loves Mr. Bean, fish and chips, Shakespeare, and writing "honour" rather than "honor". He speaks in English daily and has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English Literature.
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3.11.97; up.10.1.2000 ©Chia Han-Leon
Readers' Comments
From: william (williamc@dai.ed.ac.uk / Tuesday, November 3, 1998 at 03:34:29)
Nice review, entertaining and wise. Every ""consumer"" of music should have this much good sense.
From: Obiwan Kenobi (obiwan88@hotmail.com / Monday, July 19, 1999 at 15:59:30)
Dear Han-Leon, at last, am proud to say we have someone who talks some sense regarding classical music reviews. I cannot say I agree with all that you've said, but I also spell 'honour' and 'colour', not without the u.
From: Sheldon Lichter (doseong@nu-world.com / Sunday, August 22, 1999 at 01:44:27)
Finally, somebody agrees with me that Robert Layton — for all his knowledge and experience — is way off base when it comes to Sibelius. And the same, in my experience, for Nielsen. Gramophone Magazine has led me to the greatest musical treasures that I'd never have found, likely, otherwise. But Sibelius and Nielsen are very special to me — and I'll brook no nonsense. But unfortunately (no derision intended) Mr Layton has disappointed me again and again. For example, when he likens the Nielsen 4th conducted by Bryden Thomson to that of the old mono classic Launy Grondahl performance, I can only gasp in disbelief. I bought the Thomson version TWICE, thinking there must be something wrong with my listening. But no, no, no, it wasn't my listening with which there was something wrong.
From: ( / Wednesday, July 11, 2001 at 18:22:14)
From: KC Jones (pastorkcjones@yahoo.com / Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 04:22:26)
I started collecting classical recordings about 5 years ago and have have used the Penguin Guide extensively. On the whole I have found it helpful although there have been times when I have wondered how did that one slip through? Two such recordings that I initially disliked I have come to a different opinion later. The first is a Naxos recording by the Capella Istropolitana of Mozart's 34th, 35th and 39th symphonies. The Penguin Guide gave them three stars and high praise but I originally thought there was something unbalenced about the recording or performance (irritating with a nearly perfectly preportioned Mozart composition). I later played it on a different CD player and found it much less irritating (Although still not anywhere near the throrough enjoyment of the Prague Chamber Orchestra's near perfect performances which I also found out about through the Penguin Guide). The second example was the Sibelius symphonies conducted by Ashkenazy. I bought them about a year ago and when I listened to them then I was disappointment and put them aside until last week. When I got them out and listened to them again last week I enjoyed them a lot. All I could figure was than I was going through a stressful time last year and not this year and thus in a more receptive mood. At any rate this has taught me that if differences in my own opinions can vary based on my own equipment and moods that I need to make allowances for the same in the reveiwers. I have adjusted my expectations of all reviewers to be more of an inevitable hit and miss and thus to check a multiple sources when possible as a check and balence.
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