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Werke von Max Harrison

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A Faust Symphony (1854) — liner notes, einige Ausgaben25 Exemplare
Complete Preludes, Op. 3, 23, 32: Piano Solo [score] (1994) — liner notes, einige Ausgaben24 Exemplare

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UK
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music critic
historian
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Jazz Monthly
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The Gramophone

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Rachmaninov being one of my favorite composers, I have been wanting to read a biography of him for a long time. Having heard this was the 'definitive' biography I got it out of the library.

I have to say I really enjoyed it. As an admirer of Rachmaninov's recordings, moreover, I appreciated the detailed coverage of these in the book - and the very comprehensive list of everything Rach every recorded in the appendix!

However, I recall seeing a 'review' of this book somewhere (it may have even been on the back of the book, but as I've sent it back to the library now I can't check) which described it as 'objective'. This is COMPLETE NONSENSE. Harrison has his own, very clear-cut opinions (some obvious, such as his opinion on the worth of various works by Rachmaninov, and some more subtle), many of which I personally disagree with (although this by no means spoiled the book.)

It was these judgements that irritated me while I was reading, largely because the author presented them as 'facts' rather than as what they were, simply an opinion. Neverthless, this book is extremely comprehensive and well structured and I feel no need to go seeking out another biography of Rachmaninov for comparison.
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dorotheabaker | Dec 11, 2012 |
The first volume of the Essential Jazz Records is a very strong guide to early jazz on a number of accounts. Perhaps the most important reason for its succes is the fact that the three authors are sufficiently alike in their predilections for the book to be cohesive, but are sufficiently particular in their passions for their to be a wide net as they attempt to gather in "the essential jazz recordings." There are enough recordings here to support the title, and they are spread over a wide enough stylistic range (from African music, to field recordings of African American performers, to blues to the earliest jazz through swing to Charlie Parker's earliest recordings) so that no one will find any gaping holes. These three reviewers together probably present a better feel for the breadth and beauty of early jazz than any of the dozens of guides I have read. Anyone possessing all of these records would certainly feel satisfied they had captured the essence of early jazz. Another fine thing about this collection of reviews is the keen insights they offer into the recodings themselves. I have often found myself returning to recordings on my shelf and listening to them with new ears in response to something written in this book. I do not always share the views of these British jazz experts, but they do certainly inspire reevaluation. The fault that many will find with the book is that the particular recordings listed here are all long-since-disappeared LPs. Many of the major label recordings have reappeared in pretty much the same form on CD, but some have not. Nevertheless, almost all the music here is available somewhere. By using this book as a guide to the music one should be looking for, and another guide to help decide which reissue might have the best remastering, etc., the explorer of early jazz won't go wrong.… (mehr)
 
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ehines | Sep 30, 2009 |
I also reviewed Volume One of the Essential Jazz Recordings for Amazon. The first volume impressed me for the breadth and fair-mindedness apparent in the 250 selections listed, but what really excited me was the passion and insightfulness of the individual reviews.

The authors faced an altogether more daunting task in selecting and reviewing the 250 discs included in volume two. The modernist and "postmodernist" (I don't really think there's a difference, but . . .) movements in jazz spawned a plethora of stylistic innovations, many of which demand some sort of representation here. And there are just many, many more jazz recording from the latter half of the century than there were in the first half.

So, where the selections and review essays in the first volume generally reflect the passion the authors felt for the music on the discs, the selections and reviews for the second volume generally seem to reflect a set of arbitrary standards the authors established to deal with the enormous amount of material potentially under consideration.

So, a lot of the inclusions seem to be here not because anyone thinks they are truly exciting recordings, but because they are though to best represent a particular stylist or stylistic movement or structural change in how jazz could be approached.

The thing I like most about the reviews in the first volume is the way it sent me back to the recordings it treats and gave me fresh ears to listen to them with. The thing I remember about the reviews in the second volume is Simon Nicholson's seeming obsession with song structure (A,B,B',A',C,A,A).

I am put in mind of William Youngren's review of Gunther Schuller's fine book Early Jazz. At the end of the day these sorts of books always come down to the subjective response of the author or authors to the experience of the music. Technicalia or any other stage props of purported fairness and objectivity tend to start getting in the way of that response pretty quickly if not used with care.

Schuller's work generally is a model for balancing the musical technicalia, fine writing and good ears. While the second volume of The Essential Jazz Recordings is a quite useful book, it falls far short of the pleasures of the first volume, mostly because it fails to strike a good balance between these elements.
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ehines | Sep 30, 2009 |

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