CLASSICAL RECORDINGS FOR A SMALL PUBLIC LIBRARY

 

by Wayne Hanway

 

Public libraries in all communities have an obligation to provide access to the great works of our culture. Just as most people do not own a collection of classic literature, but expect the library to have the major works of Dickens, Twain, Steinbeck, Shakespeare, et al. when they want them, so they look to the library to have the William Tell Overture, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Handel’s Messiah, Sousa’s greatest marches, and even some great classical tunes that are often used as wedding music. It is a reasonable expectation. Providing a basic stock of classics is an important part of what public libraries do, and local retailers seldom do the job.

And just as small libraries must carefully allocate their book budgets to include a few classics along with the best sellers, genre fiction, how-tos and other books they buy, so must they carefully start by buying quality recordings of the most basic classics, building up the library’s holdings to an adequate collection over time. Where does one start, and how does one know which recordings of which works to buy? Unless the librarian happens to have a strong background in classical music (a topic not normally covered in library schools), choosing classical recordings is no small challenge.

Although recordings of classical music are far outnumbered by recordings of popular music, classical music is actually a very big field. With roots going back well over two thousand years, and with many thousands of religious and secular compositions that have survived the passage of centuries, classical music is rich, diverse, and complex far beyond the awareness of most people today. And, as indicated by the way that motion pictures, commercials, and cartoons draw extensively from it, classical music is a vital part of our culture.

The recognized major classics are works that broke new ground in their day, but they have survived because they also have a timeless appeal to most people who hear them. The composers who wrote them were both creative geniuses and master craftsmen. The musical ideas in them work exceptionally well, if they are well-played and well-recorded. The best performances, if well-recorded, can be genuinely revelatory, drawing listeners more fully into the music and exposing more and more of the music’s inner beauty with repeated hearings.

A great book can have the same impact on a reader whether in a bargain paperback or an expensive hardcover. But with classical music, a masterpiece can lose most of its greatness if it is poorly played or poorly recorded. The major reason why more people don’t enjoy classical music is that they haven’t heard it in top quality recorded performances that communicate its magic.

Unfortunately, out of the large number of classical recordings on the market today, only a fraction are at or near the level of the best recorded performances. While much of what is being sold is of passable though not revelatory quality, there is also a lot of rubbish, not all of which is low-priced. Nor is a high price an indicator of excellence in classical recordings. Expert critical guidance is needed to know which recordings are really worth buying.

There are a number of helpful critical guides available. Some, like Ted Libbey’s NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection, are relatively short and are aimed at beginners. Others, like March, Greenfield, Layton, and Czakowski’s The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, Alexander Morin’s Classical Music: the Listener’s Companion, and the Gramophone Classical Good CD Guide are more encyclopedic. Ted Libbey’s The NPR Listener’s Encyclopedia of Classical Music provides solid recommendations along with a wealth of useful information about composers, conductors, performers, and more. Two reviewing periodicals that librarians may wish to consider are Gramophone and Fanfare. They all share the common failing of having their particular critical biases and blind spots, and they all have limitations in their coverage. So it helps to have several different ones, allowing comparisons and a better chance of finding at least one review of a given recording.

Two problems for librarians to be aware of with these critical guides are the bias that some critics have in favor of “historic” recordings of exceptional performances and a regional bias in favor of certain orchestras and record labels. “Historic” recordings come from the earlier years of the twentieth century and, even with expert digital remastering, still have limited sound. They are highly appropriate as added copies in larger collections, but if a public library can only afford one recording of a major work, it should be a highly-recommended modern recording, to give listeners the best chance to fully hear and understand the work. The regional bias means that there are fewer reviews available of recordings by American orchestras and from American record companies.

Critical opinions can also be found online, but their authority and their impartiality are sometimes suspect, so they need to be used with caution. The recommendations on Gramophone’s web site, though few, are reliable. ClassicsToday.com is helpful, but should not be your only source. Many of the classical recordings listed by Amazon.com. include a short review from a professional reviewer and one or several reviews from customers. While these can be quite helpful at times, many are problematic, so they should not be your only source of guidance.

The following list of basic classical music and recommended recordings is intended as a guide for starting and developing a collection in a small public library. It draws on my experience over more than three decades of building and enjoying a collection of classical recordings, along with the critical and expert guidance of various major reference and reviewing publications.

This list has 25 of the most basic classics marked with a **. While classical fans would have very little argument with the “basic” status of many of these, they were selected less for their critical importance than for the likelihood that people will come to the library and ask for them. Another 40, almost as important or likely to be requested, are marked with a *. Then there are over 125 very important works without a star, and there would be some really heated disagreements among classical fans about whether some of these shouldn’t have at least one star, and strong protests about other prized classics left off the list. So remember that this is a very selective list, but a library getting all or most of these works will have a very solid basic collection.

Librarians should also be aware that operas, operettas, and ballet differ from other classical music in having been written as musical drama. The visual component of such performances is as important as the audio, especially for persons not previously familiar with these works, and serious thought should be given to purchasing them first on DVD.

In my recommendations, I have given only the major performer (usually the soloist or conductor) and have not mentioned either the record label or the record company’s catalog number. This is because recordings go in and out of print all the time, they are often repackaged, and there are not nearly the locating tools for them that exist for books. Most of the time, just knowing the composer, the title of the work, and the name of the major performer will be enough. In the case of a few widely recorded artists, notably Herbert von Karajan, you may need more specific information to be sure that you are getting the specific recorded performance, rather than another one that was not as good.

When purchasing these recordings, librarians will need to be flexible. Some will go out of print, at least for a while. It is quite possible for one vendor to report being out, while another vendor may have the desired recording. When a recording does come back in print, it may be coupled and packaged differently, with a different number. Two Internet vendors whose sites are useful for checking the current availability of classical recordings are www.arkivmusic.com and www.amazon.com.

A fair number of the listed recommended recordings are mid-priced or budget priced, some as low as $7, but this does not compromise the level of quality. You can buy any of them with confidence. However, your first concern in selecting should be to start building your collection with a good assortment of the most basic titles.                      

 

                A LIST OF CLASSICAL RECORDINGS FOR A SMALL PUBLIC LIBRARY

 

 

 

 

Offenbach                 *      Gaite Parisienne                                                        Fiedler

 

Joplin                         *      Rags                                                                           Rifkin, Hyman, Schuller