The Concerto: A Listener's Guide

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 1998 - Music - 506 pages
Michael Steinberg's 1996 volume The Symphony: A Reader's Guide received glowing reviews across America. It was hailed as "wonderfully clear...recommended warmly to music lovers on all levels" (Washington Post), "informed and thoughtful" (Chicago Tribune), and "composed by a master stylist" (San Francisco Chronicle). Seiji Ozawa wrote that "his beautiful and effortless prose speaks from the heart." Michael Tilson Thomas called The Symphony "an essential book for any concertgoer."
Now comes the companion volume--The Concerto: A Listener's Guide. In this marvelous book, Steinberg discusses over 120 works, ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach in the 1720s to John Adams in 1994. Readers will find here the heart of the standard repertory, among them Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, eighteen of Mozart's piano concertos, all the concertos of Beethoven and Brahms, and major works by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Bruch, Dvora'k, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Elgar, Sibelius, Strauss, and Rachmaninoff. The book also provides luminous introductions to the achievement of twentieth-century masters such as Arnold Schoenberg, Be'la Barto'k, Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, Sergei Prokofiev, Aaron Copland, and Elliott Carter. Steinberg examines the work of these musical giants with unflagging enthusiasm and bright style. He is a master of capturing the expressive, dramatic, and emotional values of the music and of conveying the historical and personal context in which these wondrous works were composed. His writing blends impeccable scholarship, deeply felt love of music, and entertaining whimsy.
Here then is a superb journey through one of music's richest and most diverse forms, with Michael Steinberg along as host, guide, and the best of companions.
 

Contents

ADAMS
3
BACH
11
BARBER
20
BARTÓK
33
BEETHOVEN
50
BERG
92
BRAHMS
106
BRIDGE
132
MARTIN
252
MENDELSSOHN
261
MOZART
271
NIELSEN
331
PERLE
337
PROKOFIEV
343
RACHMANINOFF
356
RAVEL
371

BRITTEN
138
BRUCH
149
CARTER
155
Chausson
171
COPLAND
175
DVORÁK
180
ELGAR
185
GRIEG
200
HINDEMITH
204
KORNGOLD
215
LALO
220
LIGETI
224
LISZT
237
LUTOSLAWSKI
244
REGER
380
SAINTSAËNS
386
SCHOENBERG
394
SCHUMAN
405
SCHUMANN
409
SESSIONS
429
SHOSTAKOVICH
434
SIBELIUS
444
STRAUSS
449
STRAVINSKY
463
TCHAIKOVSKY
473
WALTON
492
ZIMMERMANN
502
Copyright

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About the author (1998)

Michael Steinberg is the program annotator of the San Francisco Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. He has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and the New England Conservatory, and was the music critic for The Boston Globe for twelve years.

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