The Attentive Listener: Three Centuries of Music Criticism - Hardcover

A delightful collection of 100 items of musical commentary dating across the centuries. Haskell, music editor at Yale University Press, has chosen well in his selection and includes material from some of the most famous critics of the past and present, including Eduard Hanslick, Alfred Einstein, and Andrew Porter. The entries vary in length from two to six pages, and some are judiciously unabridged. The subject matter varies from reviews of specific compositions-William Aryton's reservations about Beethoven's Ninth Symphony-to larger issues-Bedrich Smetana's plea for more operas by Czech composers in Prague, and Ernest Newman's reflections on criticism itself. Eminently readable and thoroughly informative. Recommended for all collections.
Timothy McGee, Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.