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Rating: 
Summary: credibility?
Review: As a non-expert reader seeking an introduction in the field, I "learn" on the first couple of pages about a list of composers - Beethoven among them - being born in Vienna. How much is the reader to believe of the information he doesn't already know better by himself?
Rating: 
Summary: Boulez Updated
Review: In contrast to a previous reviewer, I found this volume interesting and well worth reading, if hardly up to its subtitle of Music in Europe Since the Rite of Spring. I think what happened was that Peyser intended to update her Boulez biography of 1975 (she says as much), had already started a book about music since the Rite, and finally gave up and combined the two in an unfortunate mishmash, adding bits and pieces of scattered information about other composers as it seemed appropriate to her. It is, however, simply untrue to say that Peyser makes Boulez out to be a saint. That she seems to have some personal feelings for him does not detract from her biography or its assessment of his music, which is certainly not always positive. That she would at least like to have a bias in Boulez's favor I wouldn't deny. Peyser's book does bring Boulez--an infamously private man--to life, and does actually help in approaching his music, whatever the flaws of the book may be. It would be a great buy in paperback. Do not look for any technical information, however: while not a Boulez expert, I might recommend Peter Stacey's Boulez and the Modern Concept as an approach for those familiar with some music theory.
Rating:
Summary: Boulez Updated
Review: In contrast to a previous reviewer, I found this volume interesting and well worth reading, if hardly up to its subtitle of Music in Europe Since the Rite of Spring. I think what happened was that Peyser intended to update her Boulez biography of 1975 (she says as much), had already started a book about music since the Rite, and finally gave up and combined the two in an unfortunate mishmash, adding bits and pieces of scattered information about other composers as it seemed appropriate to her. It is, however, simply untrue to say that Peyser makes Boulez out to be a saint. That she seems to have some personal feelings for him does not detract from her biography or its assessment of his music, which is certainly not always positive. That she would at least like to have a bias in Boulez's favor I wouldn't deny. Peyser's book does bring Boulez--an infamously private man--to life, and does actually help in approaching his music, whatever the flaws of the book may be. It would be a great buy in paperback. Do not look for any technical information, however: while not a Boulez expert, I might recommend Peter Stacey's Boulez and the Modern Concept as an approach for those familiar with some music theory.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential and Lucid
Review: This work is the combined result of two previous books by Peyser, the first a study of Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Varese; the second a biography of Pierre Boulez up to the mid-seventies. Although Peyser has edited her work to eliminate some overlapping material, and has added a short chapter on Boulez' last three decades, there is still a feeling of jerry-rigging and overall incompleteness that cannot be avoided, and one is left craving for more material on Boulez' latter life and composers from the late seventies on. No matter. These flaws pale in comparison to the value of the work itself -- a lucid, emphatic, and highly readable account of modernism in music. Avoiding serious technical discussion that would alienate anyone but a composer, Peyser casts her subjects in a dramatic light, detailing their works in terms of impact, emotional content, and the challenges they either met or failed to overcome. Of course special attention is paid to Boulez, who emerges as a complex, thorny, enigmatic and passionate figure -- very much like his music, in fact. As Boulez is notoriously private, her objective and highly researched biography is doubly valuable, and some of the anecdotes are simply priceless. Highly recommended to any enthusiast of modern atonal or experimental music.
Rating:
Summary: A Misleading Title
Review: To Boulez And Beyond's cover professes it to be a study of "Music in Europe Since the Rite of Spring". Unfortunately, this very misleading title and cover gives way to what is essentially an elitist, unobjective, and offensive piece of journalistic schlock, wrapped up in a fancy hardcover. In response to this one-sided piece of hackery, I've chosen to be equally one-sided (i.e. my side). Joan Peyser deserves nothing more. Had she chosen to maintain objectivity, I wouldn't be doing this, but "oh well". What starts out as a somewhat engaging narrative of the development of 20th-Century Music eventually disintegrates into an anecdotal hero worship of Pierre Boulez, who is portrayed as a misunderstood, innerly-passionate genious, whose character flaws, though apparent in each anecdote, are glossed over by Peyser. Boulez, who seems incredibly sociopathic and monstrous in the interviews and anecdotes mentioned in this book, is never given an unbiased character analysis by Peyser. Now, I'm not saying that that is her duty to do so, but she should stop GUSHING about this beast at some point and ACKNOWLEDGE that he seems to have the tendency to be an elitist, anti-American pig of a man. Peyser is also very annoying in her assertions, late in the book (esp. the foreward) that the path of composers from this point and forth should be in Saint Boulez's footsteps, pushing the avante garde to new limits and further rejecting the typical American concertgoer who, remarkably, may not be willing to reject listenability and tonality just yet. Should we, as composers, further alienate the public just to woo the "academic elite" of which Peyser obviously is a member? Pardon me, Ms. Peyser, but maybe the truly DARING composer, at this stage in the development of classical music, is the one that chooses to EMBRACE the common listener, for whom tonality, rhythm, and musical sensibility are innate, tangible things for the ear to perceive. I'm not saying stop being adventurous--I think that's a must. But I say that if you REALLY have balls as a composer, then try to be talented enough to be adventurous and daring without forsaking people without professional music training. Sorry, Joan. I can't recommend this book to anyone but people like you, and Pierre Boulez. See what it's like to be on the other side of a one-sided argument, Ms. Peyser? Hurts, doesn't it? Don't buy this book.
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