Cheap Facing the Music (Book) (Harold C. Schonberg) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Facing the Music

Poor selections mar what could have been a great book.
Thanks to such books as "The Lives of the Great Composers" and "The Great Pianists," Harold Schonberg (b. 1915) remains a very well-known critic and historian of music. In his time (1960-1980) as the senior music critic of the New York Times, Schonberg was a controversial figure, a vociferous opponent of the serialism that reigned as the dominant idiom of the era, and a man who expressed his opinions with a self-assurance and superiority that many composers and readers found infuriating. No matter what one's feelings about Schonberg's taste, however, there was no denying his passion for music and his erudition on any number of subjects, from opera singing to piano performance practice.

This collection of essays runs from the 1950s (when he was one of several music critics at the Times) to the year of his retirement in 1980. It includes many superb and compelling essays on everything from Rossini's late piano pieces and the brilliance of Scott Joplin to the provincialism of translated opera and Max Reger. Lovers of classical music will inevitably find numerous pieces here that will alternately delight and enrage them. Schonberg's range of interests and his trenchant prose make most of this book a treat, and the preface, a long autobiographical piece in which the author recounts his career and experiences as a critic and "music addict," is particularly fascinating.

However, it must be said that there are far too many pieces of a dull and superficial nature to make this collection a complete success. "Jiggery Pokery, Musical Jokery" and "The Story of Santa and His Awful Symphony" might have conveniently filled space in the Times, but in a career-spanning anthology, they really have no place. Surely there were much more worthy selections among the hundreds of essays Schonberg wrote during his time as a critic. Unfortunately, he chose these.

Despite its sometimes poor selections, "Facing the Music" remains a book that no serious music lover or student of modern music history will want to do without. It is a witty, largely wonderful guide to classical music by one of that beleaguered art form's greatest writers.