The Symphony: A Listener's Guide
by Michael Steinberg
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael SteinbergEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-12-10
ISBN: 0195126653
Number of pages: 704
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of The Symphony: A Listener's Guide
Book Review: Symphonic Splendor
Summary: 5 Stars
I couldn't help but notice the seemingly endless complaints about works that aren't included in this book. Well, let's turn to the first page of Michael Steinberg's introduction, where he states that "Most of these essays began life as program notes for symphony concerts." In other words, he wrote about what the Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, which he worked for, were actually playing in the 1970s and '80s. If the Franck Symphony and the Copland Third, let alone any of C.P.E. Bach's twenty or so symphonies, aren't among the "electives" in this book, blame it on the orchestras' music directors, or perhaps the purchasers of season tickets.
Steinberg has the rare talent of writing about music in prose as precise and informed as it is imaginative and informal. He opens our ears to music that so often passes as background noise that we've nearly forgotten how to listen to it. Here, for example, is a stunning passage about the slow movement of Haydn's Symphony no. 102 in B flat:
"For the Adagio, Haydn borrows a movement from the Piano Trio in F-sharp minor he had written earlier that year...The actual sound of the movement is the most remarkable that Haydn ever imagined. Trumpets and drums are muted, a solo cello injects its gently penetrating timbre into the middle of the texture, and just before the end, the two trumpets in their lowest register contribute a sound so extraordinary (literally) that it still tends to frighten conductors, many of whom remove it."
A lifetime's worth of listening, learning, and writing have been distilled into this book, and gems of observation are on nearly every page. Try Steinberg on the question of Nowak vs. Haas in the slow movement of the Bruckner Eighth: "I am talking about thirty-five seconds of music, but the difference is stunning." Then there's the question of "composer approved" cuts in the Rachmaninov Second: "Some of the standard deletions consist of petty impatiences like reducing the four measures of accompaniment at the start of the first Allegro to two, but they have also entailed such brutal surgery as the removal of the entire principal theme from the recapitulation of the Adagio. Cuts do not solve formal problems: they merely shorten the time you have to spend dealing with them."
We also learn of Schumann's homage to Bach in the Second Symphony, and of how much Mahler learned from Schumann's example; of the surprising parallels between Beethoven's rollicking Eighth Symphony and his "Serioso" opus 95 string quartet; and on the seemingly intractable second movement of the Sibelius Third: "Not only can you yourself reverse your hearing of the melody much as you can make the tick-tock of a clock change step, but Sibelius also calls in the basses ever so softly to contradict the flutes and clarinets or the violins in their rhythmic reading. And those basses, though they hardly ever rise above mezzo-forte, want very much to be heard."
Steinberg tells an irresistable anecdote of how Leonard Bernstein, having read one of his program notes for the first time, accosted him at Tanglewood, saying "You -- you have always been such a bitch to me, but now it turns out you love music." Steinberg certainly does, and that love is evident on each page of this book.
Summary of The Symphony: A Listener's Guide
Enriched by biographical detail, historical background, musical examples, and many finely nuanced observations, this volume is a treasury of insight and information. Readers will find illuminating discussion of the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Sibelius, and Mahler, as well as of the most loved symphonic works of Schubert, Bruckner, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and others. We learn how to listen more sharply for Haydn's humor, to Mozart's singular combination of pathos with grace, and to the evolution of Beethoven's musical ideas in his nine symphonies. This remarkable range and variety of composers are illuminated by Steinberg's deft, inviting, and intensely personal essays, which give such a vivid portrait of each composer's personality that the reader gets an immediate sense of how the work is a direct expression of the person from whose soul and brain it has sprung.Tracing the ways in which composers have dealt with the musical challenges that have engaged them throughout the centuries, Steinberg takes us through the revolutions of expression, sound, and form that have shaped the symphony's remarkable history. Whether beginners or veterans, music lovers will listen to the symphony with enlivened interest and deeper understanding with Steinberg's masterful guide in hand.
Anyone compiling a guide to the symphony faces two problems: impartiality versus personal enthusiasm and detailed musical analysis versus help for the newcomer. Michael Steinberg succeeds brilliantly at the task, as he has with his guide to the concerto. He has pared this vast repertory down to 118 entries (Franck and Bizet being the surprising omissions), thus keeping room for music by Schmidt, Hartmann, Harbison, Piston, and Tippett. Many of the chapters have helpful general introductions; the brief one on Mendelssohn and the longer one on Schubert are ideal. The Mahler chapter is superb, with consideration of the original version of the First Symphony and the unfinished Tenth Symphony framing a chronological discussion of the works. Steinberg includes all texts and translations of vocal movements and places even isolated works (such as Górecki's wholly atypical Third Symphony) in context. Absent is the clubby tone that infects classical music programming on public radio, and readers will not need to follow scores to understand Steinberg's points. There are some great but peripheral tidbits in the footnotes, as well as frequently trenchant quotations from various composers' letters. Best of all, Steinberg has clear concerns and enthusiasms: orchestral seating plans for the violins and the reasons that repeats in first movements are so often disregarded become refrains. The descriptions of William Schuman's Sixth Symphony and Bohuslav Martinu's Fantaisies Symphoniques may send readers rushing to listen, and the overly familiar Beethoven Eroica and Schubert "Unfinished" are once again fantastical, odd, and fresh in these pages. In Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, we read, "the oboe is the sweetest and most seductive of tour guides." Steinberg might well have been describing himself. --William R. Braun
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