Rating: 
Summary: this book has been a companion for years....
Review: ....and does a fine job of telling the tales of composers' lives, illustrating with excerpts from letters and touching on chief compositions.
Rating: 
Summary: He may know his stuff, but...
Review: I own the 1981 edition and was disappointed to find that Schonberg still doesn't cover Ernest Bloch, who is one of the most significant composers of the 20th century. Bloch was very prolific and composed many beautiful works; my favorites being his chamber pieces. In fact, I've heard almost everything in the Bloch catalog and it's all inventive and interesting. I am really very, very surprised that Schonberg skipped over this Swiss American composer. To explore Bloch's music, I'd start with the Complete Works for Violin and Piano by the Weilerstein Duo and also get the String Quartets played by the Portland String Quartet. No chamber music collection is complete without at least these works.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining introduction to the great composers
Review: In this substantial and attractive tome, Schonberg describes the lives of the great composers in moderate detail, the treatment going beyond mere thumbnail sketches. He starts with Monteverdi, proceeds through Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Stravinsky, Bartok, Messiaen, and ends with the post-1945 era (Cage, Carter, Stockhausen, ...) and the fragmentation and exhaustion of the great classical tradition. Clearly, for definitive treatments of individual composers one must look elsewhere -- to Maynard for Mozart and Beethoven, Newman and Gutman for Wagner, Barzun and Cairns for Berlioz, de la Grange for Mahler, and so on. But even in the short space allotted to each composer Schonberg has things of interest to say and insights to share, and he manages to plumb to a moderate depth. I have only two reservations about this book. First, the treatment of Mahler is infuriating. Schonberg hates Mahler, and here he has a deaf spot the size of a continent. To me Mahler is among the very greatest, but to a large extent the music is the man and Schonberg can't stand him -- he finds Mahler weak, hysterical, exhibitionistic, and trite. But he is unable to do justice to his position because out of sheer spite, he makes this influential and controversial composer share a chapter with Bruckner (okay, but misguided) and Reger (!!). This is a real pity, because his arguments are fascinating and cry out for expansion and development. He does manage to quote a sentence by Bruno Walter describing Mahler's cruel insensitivity to a hapless composer during an audition, thus illustrating Mahler's deficiencies in ordinary social intercourse and basic human sympathy. But does this have any real bearing on the music? If only Schonberg were still alive -- I'd collar him, put him under house arrest, and make him write the book on Mahler that he had in him! The other place I might quibble about is Schonberg's chapter on Stravinsky. No love was ever lost between the two men, and the relationship soured over the years. In the book "Themes and Conclusions" (which I like to think of as a Kraft fabrication by Stravinsky), Schonberg is pretty well skewered. Stravinsky had to endure some early hardships that marked him for life and left him insecure and vulnerable (as the twig is bent, so grows the tree). His mother openly preferred her elder son, and after he died prematurely did not transfer her affection to Igor. Also, and pointedly, he was not Rimsky-Korsakov's favorite pupil, that distinction fell to Maximilian Stein. In view of this vulnerability and the composer's undeniable greatness, it seems ungracious of Schonberg to devote two pages in this short chapter to belittling the significance of Stravinsky's music -- in particular saying that after the Sacre he enjoyed only a succes d'estime, that his works lacked a wide following. What has this got to do with the quality of the music? Surely he knows that in music as elsewhere, high achievement is not going to please everyone. But the animus in this chapter is exceptional. Elsewhere, Schonberg's writing is even-handed and generous in spirit. Schonberg also gives brief physical descriptions of the great composers, which caused me to reach a surprising conclusion: There seems to be a strong positive correlation between physical smallness and musical greatness. Among my Top Seven, Mozart, Wagner, Mahler, and Bartok were tiny and very spare to boot, while the other three were merely very small. Perhaps someday, if and when biologists ever decipher the human genome and can tell us precisely where it says "Kilroy was here", we'll know if this smallness is just an accident, or if Erato really prefers them this way. In sum, this is an entertaining book for adult readers interested in music and you will find yourself dipping into it with pleasure from time to time. It is also a perfect gift for an intelligent youngster with a budding interest in classical music.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining introduction to the great composers
Review: In this substantial and attractive tome, Schonberg describes the lives of the great composers in moderate detail, the treatment going beyond mere thumbnail sketches. He starts with Monteverdi, proceeds through Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Stravinsky, Bartok, Messiaen, and ends with the post-1945 era (Cage, Carter, Stockhausen, ...) and the fragmentation and exhaustion of the great classical tradition. Clearly, for definitive treatments of individual composers one must look elsewhere -- to Maynard for Mozart and Beethoven, Newman and Gutman for Wagner, Barzun and Cairns for Berlioz, de la Grange for Mahler, and so on. But even in the short space allotted to each composer Schonberg has things of interest to say and insights to share, and he manages to plumb to a moderate depth. I have only two reservations about this book. First, the treatment of Mahler is infuriating. Schonberg hates Mahler, and here he has a deaf spot the size of a continent. To me Mahler is among the very greatest, but to a large extent the music is the man and Schonberg can't stand him -- he finds Mahler weak, hysterical, exhibitionistic, and trite. But he is unable to do justice to his position because out of sheer spite, he makes this influential and controversial composer share a chapter with Bruckner (okay, but misguided) and Reger (!!). This is a real pity, because his arguments are fascinating and cry out for expansion and development. He does manage to quote a sentence by Bruno Walter describing Mahler's cruel insensitivity to a hapless composer during an audition, thus illustrating Mahler's deficiencies in ordinary social intercourse and basic human sympathy. But does this have any real bearing on the music? If only Schonberg were still alive -- I'd collar him, put him under house arrest, and make him write the book on Mahler that he had in him! The other place I might quibble about is Schonberg's chapter on Stravinsky. No love was ever lost between the two men, and the relationship soured over the years. In the book "Themes and Conclusions" (which I like to think of as a Kraft fabrication by Stravinsky), Schonberg is pretty well skewered. Stravinsky had to endure some early hardships that marked him for life and left him insecure and vulnerable (as the twig is bent, so grows the tree). His mother openly preferred her elder son, and after he died prematurely did not transfer her affection to Igor. Also, and pointedly, he was not Rimsky-Korsakov's favorite pupil, that distinction fell to Maximilian Stein. In view of this vulnerability and the composer's undeniable greatness, it seems ungracious of Schonberg to devote two pages in this short chapter to belittling the significance of Stravinsky's music -- in particular saying that after the Sacre he enjoyed only a succes d'estime, that his works lacked a wide following. What has this got to do with the quality of the music? Surely he knows that in music as elsewhere, high achievement is not going to please everyone. But the animus in this chapter is exceptional. Elsewhere, Schonberg's writing is even-handed and generous in spirit. Schonberg also gives brief physical descriptions of the great composers, which caused me to reach a surprising conclusion: There seems to be a strong positive correlation between physical smallness and musical greatness. Among my Top Seven, Mozart, Wagner, Mahler, and Bartok were tiny and very spare to boot, while the other three were merely very small. Perhaps someday, if and when biologists ever decipher the human genome and can tell us precisely where it says "Kilroy was here", we'll know if this smallness is just an accident, or if Erato really prefers them this way. In sum, this is an entertaining book for adult readers interested in music and you will find yourself dipping into it with pleasure from time to time. It is also a perfect gift for an intelligent youngster with a budding interest in classical music.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile read - a must for classical music fans
Review: It is amazing how much classical music is generally heard, and how little most people know about the men behind it. Schonberg's book provides an entertaining, well written, and informative means of getting to know the classical greats. The book is an unsnobbish and straight-forward account, and covers a broad range of composers.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiration Plainly Written
Review: It's not a custom of mine to buy books, but I got so tired of repeatedly schlepping to library to borrow Mr. Schonberg's work out that I abandoned custom and bought the book. If you can feel the eternal momentum of Schubert's 9th symphony, the unfathomable mystery of Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise", or the timeless elegance of anything Mozart, read this book. It will make new connections in your mind and in your life.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect book for the musically inept
Review: Let's get this straight right up front: I have no musical ability whatsoever. But I fell in love with classical music in one of those hoary Introduction to Classical Music classes hundreds of people at a time take in college, and it's been a self-taught, self-driven exploration ever since. There are a few books that have been constant guides, and Schonberg's "The Lives of the Great Composers" has been one of them. Over the last fifteen years, I've read it from cover-to-cover half-a-dozen times, and each time I've enjoyed it with deepening understanding as the pieces of music he discusses have become dear old friends, rather than intimidating strangers. I have long believed that an artist's life and his art have a conflicting relationship: how else does one explain the monsters that so often create works of immortal beauty? Schonberg has provided the non-musician with a musically aware text, and all I can hope for is that some of it has rubbed off on me over the years. Charming, humorous, and just the right length for each composer, you can't go wrong with this book.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect book for the musically inept
Review: Let's get this straight right up front: I have no musical ability whatsoever. But I fell in love with classical music in one of those hoary Introduction to Classical Music classes hundreds of people at a time take in college, and it's been a self-taught, self-driven exploration ever since. There are a few books that have been constant guides, and Schonberg's "The Lives of the Great Composers" has been one of them. Over the last fifteen years, I've read it from cover-to-cover half-a-dozen times, and each time I've enjoyed it with deepening understanding as the pieces of music he discusses have become dear old friends, rather than intimidating strangers. I have long believed that an artist's life and his art have a conflicting relationship: how else does one explain the monsters that so often create works of immortal beauty? Schonberg has provided the non-musician with a musically aware text, and all I can hope for is that some of it has rubbed off on me over the years. Charming, humorous, and just the right length for each composer, you can't go wrong with this book.
Rating:
Summary: A witty introduction to the truly greats
Review: Schonberg's third edition of this perennial favourite includes a few subtle changes to the first edition (which I'd read numerous times), as well as new accounts of the serialists, tonalists, minimalists (and other -ists) who have bored and bewildered audiences during the last 45 years or so. And while Schonberg doesn't say so explicitly, in many ways this book poses the ultimate riddle of our supposedly advanced culture and times - how on earth did we go from the heights of Mozart in the 18th century, and then Beethoven in the 19th, only to fall in the last century to a level of such mindless mediocrity? Reading the latter pages of this book, I was reminded of Thomas Beecham's immortal riposte to the question of whether he had ever conducted the music of Stockhausen. "No, but I've trodden in some," was his sardonic reply. Beecham would surely have applauded the author's straightforward style. Not for Schonberg is the stuffy, academic approach to the great composers so favoured by classical poseurs, but rather a witty series of vignettes designed to make the subjects come alive. Schonberg shows the composers warts and all, and our appreciation of their strengths and flaws (both musically and characterwise) is all the keener for his lack of pretentiousness. For some readers, he will undoubtedly have his blindspots when it comes to assessing certain composers' musical worth (his section on Elgar, for example, is not as glowing as the subject deserves), but he makes no apologies for possessing strong opinions - and nor should he. If you're looking for a politically correct account of the great composers, then look elsewhere. Meanwhile, the intelligent lay-person (rather than the musical expert) will find many rewarding hours in this witty feast of a book.
Rating:
Summary: A time-travel to the great composers
Review: This book reads like Zweig's "Die Welt von Gestern" or Bunuel's "My Last Breath"- once you start reading you can't stop. The portraits of the composers are written with gusto, giving the impression that for the research of his book Mr. Schonberg time-travelled to Leipzig, Paris and Salzburg, etc. to personally meet and and speak with Bach, Gluck, Mozart, etc. In about ten pages he brings more life to the famous composers than most biographies manage to do in say 250 pages. But the book is about more than juicy anecdotes and biographical curiosities. In broad strokes Mr. Schonberg sketches the development of Western art music and places the development of musical styles in a historic perspective. Every composers is placed in the context of his (and yes- her!) time. The excesses of the Baroque leading to the Enlightenment and its reliance on reason; the clarity, simplicity and emotional restraint of the classical style developing into the romantic spirit, etc., etc. are explained enthusiastically and provide good insight in the composers' orginality in their day and age. Inevitably, towards our own time the perspective becomes narrower. Maybe Mr. Schonberg had better resisted the temptation to be complete up until our day and age. After all the first chapters don't do not claim to be complete- with Lully, Palestrina, Sweelinck and others dealt with in a single sentence on page one. The absence of one great 20th Czech century composer is peculiar- the composer of six great symphonies, the Gilgamesh Epos and The Greek Passion- I'm talking of course about Bohuslav Martinu. A recommendable book for anyone who's interested in (the history of) art music.
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