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Conductor's Guide to Stravinsky's Petrouchka & The Rite of Spring
- Narrated by: Gerard Schwarz
- Length: 1 hr and 14 mins
- Speech
- Release date: 01-17-06
- Language: English
- Publisher: Musically Speaking, Inc.
Regular price: $9.07
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Gerard Schwarz shares his enthusiasm for the music of Aaron Copland, the quintessential American composer. Born in 1900 into a family of immigrants in Brooklyn, Copland didn't come from a musical family and had to find his own way, even trying to learn harmony from a mail order course. Today, Copland has become a permanent part of our cultural landscape, as important to our national consciousness as Whitman, Whistler, or Melville.
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- By: Gerard Schwarz
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Gerard Schwarz explains how Chopin came to embody the Romantic Movement with his rich harmonic shadings, his intense poetic expression, and his attention to the sensual qualities of music. But Chopin did more than just write music imbued with the spirit of Romanticism. In many ways he embodied an archetypal Romantic character: a lonely genius, doomed by that most Romantic disease, tuberculosis; a visionary musician too refined to seek public acclaim.
Publisher's Summary
Stravinsky's pre-eminence among the modern masters rests in large part on the great originality of his work. The composer introduced exciting new rhythmic possibilities into concert music, made expressive use of dissonance, and conceived unprecedented instrumental sonorities. These novelties baffled some listeners early in the century and cemented the composer's reputation as a daring modernist. Yet for all his innovation, Stravinsky was no iconoclast bent on destroying the past. On the contrary, his art was in many ways rooted in tradition. He drew inspiration from legends and fairy tales, from old Italian comedy and classical myths. And he loved music from earlier centuries and paid homage to it in a number of his works.
The Musically Speaking Conductor's Guides are your link to an appreciation of the greatest classical music ever performed. Let Maestro Gerard Schwarz enrich your classical music listening enjoyment by illuminating the great works of the Masters with revealing commentary and educational insight.
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- G. White
- New York, NY
- 08-05-13
Misleading title . . . not FOR conductors
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
This audiobook, while well written, does not fall in line with it's title. I was specifically looking for an in-depth analysis of the Rite of Spring. The level of analysis in this book is very superficial. It is not written FOR conductors. It is written BY a conductor and intended for the layperson.
Would you be willing to try another book from Gerard Schwarz? Why or why not?
No. The title of the audiobook is misleading, and I do not intend to continue to be misled.
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
Yes.
Was Conductor's Guide to Stravinsky's Petrouchka & The Rite of Spring worth the listening time?
See answer above. Not a waste of time, but not what the title led me to believe it to be.