Rating: 
Summary: Prevents buyer's remorse
Review: The Penguin Guide is written for the discriminating collector because its three seasoned reviewers are not likely to 'rave' prematurely. If you're not a discriminating collector, this guide will turn you into one! There have been many a recording that I had felt the Penguin Guide had misjudged only to realize after many listenings of the recording (perhaps over a period of years) that they were correct in their evaluation. If anything, the authors tend to underrate more than overrate but with the flood of releases on the market, it's probably better to be dismissive of some recordings so as to reserve room in later editions for the absolute cream of the crop. I enjoy this guide immensely and every new edition is cause for excitement (am I a fun guy or what?). Now that I'm in the odd habit of writing reviews for Amazon.com, I find myself inadvertently using some of the phrases that I've picked up in the Penguin Guide (although I do my best not to plagiarize) when I review my favorite CDs. Anyway, buy this guide. You won't go wrong by heeding its advice.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable guide for classical music collectors.
Review: The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs has been hailed as "...a CD collectors Bible," and is the easiest and most comprehensive one-volume survey of classical music available today. Authors Ivan March, Edward Greenfield and Robert Layton provide short but authoritative reviews of what they consider the most outstanding, the average, and worst in recorded classical music, from the standpoint of performance, CD sound quality, and value for money to the consumer. The 1999 version of the Penguin Guide is a thorough update to the 1996 main edition and 1997 yearbook, adding many new works while retaining its manageable size.I've used the Penguin Guide since 1994, and I have found their evaluations to be fair, objective (with an admitted slight bias in favor of European composers and performers), and accurate, but also entertaining and very easy to read and understand. I rely extensively on Penguin Guide recommendations to build my classical music library, and have never been disappointed in the quality or value of those recommended CDs which I've purchased. I highly recommend The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs for all classical music collectors.
Rating:
Summary: If not the only game in town, still excellent
Review: These days there are a number of good guides to classical music, but this one still holds its own. The writing is clear (sometimes even amusing), and the choices are usually thoughtful. At its best, this guide succeeds in comparing two, three or even a dozen different versions of a given work, rather than merely citing the "best" one - which may be unavailable for any number of reasons. For anyone trying to make sense of the classical music marketplace - especially beginners dazed by hordes of Beethoven Fifth's - you could do much worse than investigate these editors' recommendations. Some caveats: yes, there are some composers who aren't even represented by a single recording. This is somewhat shameful, given that (just to pick one) there is more Xenakis available to listen to than this book would have you believe. And if the writers have an overall bias, it appears to be toward British composers, conductors and orchestras. This is not, in my opinion, a major minus since the country has such a rich musical culture, and the Guide's editors are all British. Just note it, accept it - and move on. Get what you can from their experience, and then explore some other publications, either printed or increasingly online. There are plenty of other sources of musical criticism and insight available, and frankly, for a balanced view of recordings, any skeptical consumer would want to investigate other opinions anyway. I've been using the Penguin for years and have rarely been steered totally wrong. Sometimes I don't quite agree with the top choices, but this shows how many great recordings we have (for some works) from which to choose - not to mention how two people can hear the same recording and come to a different conclusion. For both beginners and veteran listeners, this book can be safely recommended as an important volume in a well-rounded reference collection.
Rating:
Summary: The best guide, but...
Review: This guide is one of the best book a classical music lover can have. How do you decide which recording to buy when you are at the CD shop? I have learnt not to pick my purchase by buying my favourite conductor, orchestra or musician. For example, Herbert von Karajan made three complete recordings of Beethoven's nine symphonies. How different are they? The Penguin Guide gives a good overview of the currently available recordings.But being humans, we can never be 100% synonymous in our taste and judgement. But when faced with ten recordings of The Four Seasons on the rack, or do you end up with the final one choice, especially if you cannot listen to it before buying? The Penguin Guide helps greatly. Also, reading the guide can help familiarise a classical music lover with who's who in classical music, especially with the legends of the past or rising stars of the present. For example, I got to know distinguished people like conductor Vittoria Gui or producer Walter Legge are. Walter Legge produced several monumental operatic recordings in the 50s and 60s. The Penguin Guide is certainly a good investment; a book which I pick up eagerly every now and then. Never mind that I had being disappointed by recordings which had been awarded three stars; I still read this guide to sample what the reviewers have to say.
Rating: 
Summary: Omits hundreds of available titles
Review: This is a weak work that rests on its prior reputation many years ago as a thorough guide. I owned the 1986 edition and recently purchased this 2002 edition. Half of the 100 new classical CD titles that I bought last year in a buying frenzy are NOT listed in this new 2002 edition. I could cite dozens of examples but let me say if you live in the U.S. then you will be able to buy thousands of classical CD's online or in record stores that are not even listed in this book, especially CD's from SONY. One example will suffice- there isnt even a listing by composer for the following work: Stravinsky Symphony in C. There is NO listing whatsoever for this work as if it doesnt exist- well I have two CD versions, one with Stravinsky conducting on SONY and another with Ashkenazy on London recorded in the early 1990's. The book doesnt even list an entry for Symphony in C anywhere. The one thing the book is good for (except for the Stravinsky weakness) is that it does serve as a guide to the COMPOSERS, not the performers as it was intended. It works better now as a survey of classical composers and their works, but not as a critics guide to different interpretations. I felt based on my experience with the earlier edition that I should pass on my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Great help when buying classical CDs!!!
Review: This is, without any doubts the most comprehensive classical CD guide you can buy! Although I also like, and would recommend, the Gramophone guides, the amount of information contained in the Penguin guide is simply amazing! While the Gramophone guide lists several composers with ample and informative reviews on two or three of the recordings that they consider to be the best choices of a certain work the Penguin guide includes many more recommendations of each work although with much shorter reviews. The amount of composers and works listed and reviewed in this guide is incredible! I bought this guide almost a year ago (from Amazon.com) and every single CD that I've bought this year, following this guide's recommendations, has proven to be the right choice! You just can't go wrong with the wealth and quality of information that you'll find within this guide's pages! This is an absolute must for any classical music lover!
Rating: 
Summary: Exhaustive, but...
Review: This would be perfect except that, as with any similar guide, it becomes out-of-date six months after publication and gets less and less definitive as time, and the number of new releases, marches on. That said, it is exhaustive in it's coverage and useful in getting some notion of what's inside the packaging.
Rating:
Summary: Penguin recommendations vs actual CD availability
Review: Vastly erudite & discerning reviews. Main fault: where can one find ANY of the CDs listed? Classical music marketing in the US is a shambles. Since most - or many - of the reviews are European biased, this means that the problem of availability for US buyers is worsened: just try to find anything reviewed at your local - or mail-order - store. That said, the Guide is valuable for the mere knowledge of who recorded what, and for the entertainment value of the witty writing.
Rating:
Summary: The Rolls Royce of Classical CD Guides
Review: When it comes to choosing a classical CD you will be hard pressed to find a guide that is more comprehensive, complete or convincing. The ambition of the editors is listen to almost everything in the catalogue and with each new edition of this book they seem to do just that. Their judgements are so sound that the odd disagreement one has here or there proves merely to be the exception to the rule. I have been using the Penguin Guide for nearly a decade, and in my opinion, if you can buy only one guide then this is the one to get. Of course, if your budget can stand it then the Gramophone Good CD Guide is a worthy second. But be careful: I have spent far too many hours comparing their rival impressions of various recordings - it's an addictive pastime!
Rating:
Summary: How COULD it be perfect?
Review: Whenever a new one appears, I obtain my copy of <The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs: the Guide to Excellence in Recorded Classical Music>, check out new recordings of my favorite composers, and keep it on my shelf with all the old ones that contain reviews of CDs no longer in print and therefore deleted from the latest edition. From its modest beginnings when there were only LPs and not many of those, this Guide has had to grow almost unreasonably large to accommodate what is available on CDs, so that a yearbook and a companion Guide had to be issued to update things. The latest edition has 1639 pages, and even with that the editors have had to drop the end-section that used to contain reviews of CDs with programs by many composers, leaving only recordings of piano recitals in this edition. Some have found that the reviews favor British productions perhaps a bit more than they deserve, but that is a matter of opinion. An editor's note informs us that "we still only have space to consider the very finest, irrespective of price"; and we are referred to "The Penguin Guide to Bargain Compact Discs" for further listings. The arrangement of pieces by a composer like Mozart or Beethoven is well done by listing, in order something like this, his miscellaneous orchestral works, concerti, symphonies, chamber works, solo works, vocal non-operatic, operas, collections. Thus it is fairly easy to find what you are looking for. At any rate, despite some flaws--and they are well documented by the other reviewers on this page--this Guide has kept me many a time from wasting my money on inferior recordings; and for that alone I give it a 5-star rating.
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