Book Description
In a work rich with colorful anecdotes about family, friends, and colleagues, Sheldon Morgenstern reflects on his childhood in Cleveland, Ohio, summers at the Brevard Music Festival, and years at Northwestern University. He recounts his experiences playing French horn in the Atlanta Symphony, studying conducting at the New England Conservatory, his long tenure as artistic director at the Eastern Music Festival at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and performances as guest conductor with dozens of orchestras around the world.
Morgenstern scrutinizes the reasons behind the increasing mediocrity of classical music and the precarious financial state of professional symphony orchestras, many of which have already declared bankruptcy. He sharply criticizes the NEA, the Canada Council, and other arts councils and political groups for the elimination of music education in nearly all public schools. He is also highly critical of Yo-Yo Ma, Shlomo Mintz, Daniel Barenboim, and other superstars who command extraordinary fees for sometimes second-rate performances but do little to teach young artists or to support struggling companies and festivals. He concludes by calling for strong actions that will ensure the economic survival of the arts without sacrificing excellence in performance.
Filled with vivid behind-the-scenes descriptions and highlighting such well-known figures as Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Gould, Wynton Marsalis, and others, No Vivaldi in the Garage offers a refreshingly candid insider's perspective on the classical music scene.
Customer Reviews:
Misleading.......2006-12-29
This book, which flows nicely via simplicity in vocabulary and sentence structure, advertises an insider's opinion on why classical music is falling away from the heart of our culture. Instead, the book provided a brag-and-rant fest about (alright,) a very important person in the history of classical music in America. The book's author is a very capable man with intelligent observations and humorous stories, however his book might fail to wow anyone not related to and directly acquainted with the author. Order at your own discretion.
Tell it Like it is.......2006-07-29
Having known Mr. Morgenstern from years ago in college as well as attending Transylvania Music Camp in Brevard NC with him, I believe he "Tells it like it is" both in his memoirs & in the state & future of music in America. His experiences in his life combined with a long list of professional accomplishments more than qualify him to tell of the problems facing & eating away at the American musical scene. Agree or not with what he has to say, I found comfort in knowing him personally that it was "The truth & nothing but the truth"
A personal memoir, not a true assessment.......2006-02-06
This book starts out with the stated goal of assessing the decline of classical music in the United States and the reasons for it. However, it turns out to be essentially Morgenstern's personal behind-the-scenes memoir of venality and corruption and, in the process of writing it, he limns the all-too-human foibles of the great and near-great. In truth, it is a series of generally none-too-flattering vignettes with interspersed musings. Had the author stated at the outset that his goal was to write his own memoir, the book would have merited at least 4 stars because it is quite readable. Nevertheless, some of the author's more salacious tidbits cannot be confirmed and some have been outright denied by those he claimed participated in certain of the events mentioned. This, in turn, calls into question Morgenstern's ultimate veracity, although not the book's fascination for readers interested in the classical music scene. In fact, the author's conclusion that classical music needs to be more emphasized in elementary school in order for it to continue to (or begin to) thrive in this country is hardly a new insight. I have been hearing it for at least 30 years and perhaps longer. So, take this book for what it is--one man's memoir of his life in classical music. Enjoy it, but don't assume you're reading some sort of ultimate truth.
A Autobiographical View of the Decline of Classical Music.......2005-08-25
The state of classical music in America is precarious. Nowhere will the orchestras fill a stadium sized arena like the Rolling Stones are doing in Boston. Why is it in America that the best music of the generations is going so unappreciated?
Mr. Morgenstern writes with a great deal of sadness about the state of classical music in the United States. He offers little encouragment for the future. He would like to see the NEA increase funding to the arts. But in a time like this, the asking of everyone in the country to pay a contribution to arts that they find useless if not objectionable is out of the question.
A good book that clearly states and understands the problem.
An easy read for classical musicians........2005-02-07
Morgenstern relates the inner workings of conducting, teaching, managing, and performing that goes with being an orchestra player in the U.S., and does so concisely and humourously.
Book Description
This fascinating memoir, written by one of the greatest American violinists of the twentieth century, recounts an extraordinary life in music. Foreword by Jim Svejda.
Once called by the New York Times "a violinist's violinist and a musician's musician," Louis Kaufman was born in 1905 in Portland, Oregon. He studied violin with Franz Kneisl at New York's Institute of Musical Art. He was the original violist of the Musical Art Quartet (1926-1933) and won the Naumburg Award in 1928, the year of his American solo recital debut in New York's Town Hall.
During these early years, he played chamber music with Pablo Casals, Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Efrem Zimbalist, among others. After performing the violin solos for Ernst Lubitsch's 1934 film The Merry Widow, Kaufman became the most sought after violin soloist in Hollywood, playing in some 500 films, including Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Diary of Anne Frank, Wuthering Heights, The Grapes of Wrath, and Spartacus. He worked closely with Robert Russell Bennett, Bernard Herrmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa, Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, and Victor Young.
Extraordinary as it seems today, Kaufman was largely responsible for bringing the once-forgotten music of Antonio Vivaldi to its current popularity worldwide among both classical musicians and the general population of music lovers. Louis Kaufman was a 2002 Grammy Hall of Fame inductee for his 1949 recording of Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
The book includes a music CD with Kaufman's performances of Vivaldi's Concerto 2 of op. 9, Havanaise by Camille Saint Saëns, Nocturne for Violin and Piano by Aaron Copland, Much Ado about Nothing Suite for Violin and Piano by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Jerome Kern, among other favorites.
Customer Reviews:
Not that interesting.......2007-04-23
Given the fact that Louis Kaufman is "the most heard violinist in history" (thanks to his career as concertmaster of film studio orchestras),
I was expecting quite a bit more out of this thick, dust-jacketed volume.
There are some great anecdotes and interesting material about Kaufman's early days as a young violinist studying with the great pedagogue Kneisel in New York, moving out to Hollywood, hearing the scores for such films as "Gone With the Wind" WHILE they were being written, finding unknown opuses by Vivaldi, and premiering new works. However, this is all surrounded by uninteresting, self-important material about all the expensive artwork and stuff he was buying with his checks from the film recordings, and the world traveling that he and his wife Annette were doing and the people they met. There's even a separately inserted color-plate section in the book of his favorite paintings!! As a violinist, I'd much rather have had a shorter volume that cut out all the extraneous stuff and just focused on his life as a musician.
Just me. (Who's that Heifetz guy?).......2007-03-09
Bought this book for an elderly professional musician who's heard all the virtuosos, and knew some of them pretty well. He considered this book disappointing, and little more than a puff-piece, one long "press-agent's blurb".There are many much better first-person books about the world and life of great violinists.
Interesting history many people probably don't know about.......2005-09-07
This memoir was written by one of the greatest American violinists of the twentieth century, and he recounts an extraordinary life in music. Born in 1905, Louis Kaufman studied and played violin with many of the big names of that era. He eventually became the most sought after violin soloist in Hollywood, playing in around 500 films, including Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Diary of Anne Frank, Wuthering Heights, The Grapes of Wrath, and Spartacus. The book includes a music CD with Kaufman's performances.
A passion for music and art.......2004-01-18
Lovers of the violin and modern art will enjoy this fascinating story of Louis Kaufman (1905-1994), known as "a violinist's violinist" during his career from the 1920s to the 1970s, and one of the first American violinists to be celebrated worldwide. Mr. Kaufman tells about making music here and in Europe with many of the top musicians of the 20th Century. Louis and Annette Kaufman were also great collectors of art, focusing on Milton Avery and other modern artists, and their passion for art is also in this book. Mr. Kaufman can be heard on many of the classic movies of the 1930s and 40s, when he worked in Hollywood as concertmaster and soloist in films such as "To Have and Have Not," "Top Hat," and "Key Largo." He was also a leader in the rediscovery of the violin concertos of Vivaldi, and an enthusiastic exponent of many works by contemporary composers. A CD of selections from Louis Kaufman's recordings ranging from Vivaldi to Copland comes with the book.
disappointing.......2003-09-19
The book doesn't do justice to its author. There's little to really sink your teeth into. Svejda's Foreward says: "If it weren't for Kaufman, the best-known cue in the history of film music - Tara's Theme from Gone with the Wind - would not have been heard so expressively, but that's another story and one far better told by the violinist himself."
But "the violinist himself" hardly tells the story at all! "One Sunday morning, Max [Steiner] called unexpectedly. "Louis, are you free today?" "Yes, Max." "Come right over with your violin. I have some themes to submit to Selznick for Gone with the Wind. He wants to hear them. It's not very interesting with just piano." Annette and I drove to Max's home, where he had set up a small recording machine. Max and I tried out and played over the themes for Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, Tara, etc. Selznick enthusiastically approved these samples."
Jim Svejda couldn't tell that story?
Disappointing.
Book Description
One of the most popular of all violin concerti, this baroque masterpiece of "program" music was composed as a musical illustration of four sonnets. Painstakingly researched by baroque authority Dr. Eleanor Selfridge-Field, this miniature score edition offers a modern, authoritative, and up-to-date edition that incorporates Vivaldi's Italian descriptive notes directly in the music.
Customer Reviews:
Very Colourful!.......2002-12-08
This book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is so cute!
It took awhile to get to me but well worth the wait! Aside from the rich pictures of 18th century scenery and people, this book can also be used as a picture book for children.
With the sonnets for each season, the pictures lets your imagination go back in time. The 4 seasons are wonderful concerti and the pictures helped imagine the music on another level.
The only thing that was lacking was the CD that went with it. I did not find it to be the best recording, but good nonetheless.
th 4 seasons.......2000-03-29
This is truely a beautiful piece of music, is a pleasure to play
Book Description
Vivaldi boasted that he could compose a concerto faster than a scribe could copy one. Despite his prolificacy, The Four Seasons, and the majority of his already published work had fallen into obscurity by the time of his death in poverty in 1741. Most of his music-concertos, sonatas, operas, and sacral music-has been published only recently.
Very little has been written on Vivaldi for the nonspecialist, especially in English. Landon rediscovers the composer in this accessible and musically informed biography while presenting documentation of the musician's life discovered after the Baroque revival in the 1930s. This book includes illustrations of eighteenth-century Venice and several newly translated letters, thoroughly evoking the style of the time and revealing some of the more personal aspects of Vivaldi's life.
"Belongs on the shelf of every serious music student."—Kirkus
"Gives a good feel for Vivaldi's life and times . . . and describes particularly well how Vivaldi has been revived."—Booklist
"Robbins Landon is marvelously entertaining, extravagantly learned."—The Independent
Customer Reviews:
Viva Vivaldi!.......2005-02-01
There are not many biographies about Vivaldi because, unfortunately, only a scetch of his life is known. This biography is probably the best contemporary book on him. It is not only a good synopsis of his life but it also has very good insights on his life and music. Landon's insights are especially good when he comments on specific works of Vivaldi. Vivaldi is rightly known as a master concerto composor. However, his voluminous output also included other genre, notably many beautiful operas and sacred works. Landon does a fine job in his book of commenting on these works also and proposing that, epsecially the sacred works, need to be better appreciated and popularized. As a Vivaldi buff (and there are very few of us) I highly recommend this book.
A Baroque favourite!!.......2002-12-08
If you love baroque music and are a fan of Vivaldi you will enjoy this book! H.C. Robbins Landon has really shown alot of research in this book and gives you details about Vivaldi's work and place in society. When I read the book I was amazed at the documents and letters written by Vivaldi. The illustrations provided in this text gave me a clearer insight as to how things were like in 18th century Italy.
Also when I was read this book I now have more respect for Vivaldi's work. The amount of work he did when he was alive was amazing.(Basically, he was a workaholic!). I am glad that his works have not been neglected and are now preserved.
Bravo Landon for showing us that there is more to Vivaldi than just the 4 seasons!
A superb Vivaldi's biography.......2001-09-04
A superbly written and thoroughly researched book. I found the language superb.
Average customer rating:
- a man of mystery
- Entertaining!
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Vivaldi (Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers)
J. Booth
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Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque
ASIN: 0711917272 |
Book Description
This series of biographies presents the great composers against the background of their times. Each draws on personal letters and recollections, engravings, paintings and, when they exist, photographs, to present a complete picture of the composer's life.
Customer Reviews:
a man of mystery.......2000-01-13
Vivaldi's life and personality are fascinating, especially because there are so many mysteries unsolved. Even the author of this book, John Booth, is a mystery. Who is this person? It says on the cover that this is the first music-related book this man has written. Well, he has done a terrific job! :-)
Entertaining!.......1999-11-26
For Vivaldi lovers who don't like dry and scholastic biographies, this can be confidently recommended as the first book, or even the only book, to read about the composer. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. The author really tells the story of this fascinating composer in a very engaging way! Bravo!
In fact, I would recommend every biography in this series. Pictures and photos about the composer's life and times really give the readers a lot of atmospheres and extra feelings. It's far more enjoyable this way when one reads a biography!
Customer Reviews:
Essential reading for any violin lover!.......2002-11-15
Comprehensive book that covers every major virtuoso from Corelli to Zukerman by a knowlegeable Russian violin scholar who lived when the great russian music was being composed.
This is the most complete book about violinists I have ever read. This is the book that will "fill in the gaps" of any missing knowledge you may have concerning the great violin soloists of the past.
(This is the paperback edition)
I'll say it again, this is essential reading for any violin lover!!!
Essential reading for any violin lover!.......2002-11-07
Comprehensive book that covers every major virtuoso from Corelli to Zukerman by a knowlegeable Russian violin scholar who lived when the great russian music was being composed.
This is the most complete book about violinists I have ever read. This is the book that will "fill in the gaps" of any missing knowledge you may have concerning the great violin soloists of the past.
(This is the hardcover edition)
I'll say it again, this is essential reading for any violin lover!!!
Amazing Work of Literature, Not Encyclopediac Reference Book.......2002-02-21
This is a fair and thorough account of history of the violin and its masters. The late Mr. Schwartz left a legacy to be praised for decades: all due gratitude for his delegent and extensive research and his stellar authourship.
Chapters on early masters are especially impressive, with more than sufficient information and fair analysis on each artist. The simplistic, yet comprehensive and highly informative writing style of Mr. Schwartz make it a more enjoyable reading; anyone, even with minimal knowledge on violin, will find it accessible and pleasant to read. Not a single line in this book is boring, or pedantic; a personal tribute/annecdote at the end of each chapter on modern violinists, is often moving with the author's candour and endearing admiration for the artist.
Amazing Work of Literature, Not Encyclopediac Reference Book.......2001-09-25
This is a fair and thorough account of history of the violin and its masters. The late Mr. Schwartz left a work to be praised for decades: all due gratitude for his delegent and extensive research and his stellar authourship.
Chapters on early masters are especially impressive, with more than sufficient information and fair analysis on each artist. The simplistic, yet comprehensive and highly informative writing style of Mr. Schwartz make it a more enjoyable reading; anyone, even with minimal knowledge on violin, will find it accessible and pleasant to read. Not a single line in this book is boring, or pedantic; a personal tribute/annecdote at the end of each chapter on modern violinists, is often moving with the author's candour and endearing admiration for the artist.
Product Description
Coloring book and audio cassette with biographies and selections from Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, and Haydn. Book includes 6-7 illustrations to color for each composer along with lists of his works, brief biographies, sidebars with additional information and definitions, additional reading suggestions, and a timeline. Audio selections include Spring from The Four Seasons, the Brandenburg Concerto, Water Music Suite, the Surprise Symphony, and many more.
Book Description
Definitive treatment traces instrumental music from 1550 to 1750; development of canzona, sonata, concerto; careers of Gabrieli, Albinoni, others.
Customer Reviews:
Useful research book.......1999-03-26
This book helped me quite a lot in researching the Pifarri (a rather obscure subject). It is rather dryly written, as are most books like it, but it contains excellent information. I wouldn't go so far as to consider it bedside reading, but for a student of the field, it is worth considering.
Book Description
One of the most popular of all violin concerti, composed as musical illustrations of 4 sonnets. New, clean computer-generated score. Editorial Notes.
Customer Reviews:
Very Nice Score.......2001-02-01
This is a very good musical score of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the rest of opus 8. My only disappointment was that the harpsichord (continuo) was not scored (which would have been extremely useful in 'Autumn' or 'Storm at Sea').
This score is great!!! My orchestra loved it!.......1999-09-03
This score is great!!! My orchestra loved it! I know you will too
The best available score of "The Four Seasons".......1997-04-14
This is no doubt the best music score Dover Publications (which generally publishes high quality reprints of older editions) has ever put out. Not only is the score of this set of Vivaldi's Op. 8 concertos--consisting of the "Four Seasons" and eight other works--freshly edited from a computer database version of the 1725 first edition by Dr. Eleanor Selfridge-Field, but it is beautifully typeset and contains ample "Critical Notes" and variant passages. And the price is an outright steal! Every lover of Vivaldi owes it to himself or herself to get this magnificent score
Book Description
These magnificent concertos are distinguished from all other ensemble music of their time by their emphasis on virtuosity, their rhythmic exuberance, flexible instrumentation, independent approaches to thematic development, and their genuine innovations in concerto form. Newly edited under the expert guidance of Dr. Eleanor Selfridge-Field, this work appears in full score.
Customer Reviews:
This book is great!.......2002-01-08
This is a great Vivaldi book. Most of the concertos have similar melodies, but have entirely different moods. There are so many concertos that it takes a long time to play them all. I believe it is a great buy and it has comments at the end of the book telling you how the pieces were obtained, etc.
A good score.......2001-01-31
While listening to music, I like to have a score with me. This book is quite complete and clear. Listening to the music and have my thought flowing with music. This book helps me to understnad the harmony of these melodies.
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