The Listener's Companion: Great Composers and Their Works

by Nicolas Slonimsky

Renowned for his literary style as well as his musical scholarship, Nicolas Slonimsky wrote many program notes and articles for newspapers and other periodicals, in addition to his well-known books. These shorter writings, edited by Slonimsky's daughter, Electra Yourke, are collected for the first time in this excellent introduction to the classical repertoire, from Bach to Shostakovich. Arranged chronologically by composer, the chapters begin with biographical sketches and go on to describe some of each composer's most popular and imporant works.

350 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Nicolas Slonimsky (April 27 [O.S. April 15] 1894 – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy was a Russian-American musicologist, conductor, pianist, lexicographer, and composer.

Throughout his life, Slonimsky wrote extensively for periodicals and newspapers, produced program and liner notes, and contributed to numerous reference works. He is best known for editing Theodore Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not to my taste. I found it incoherent - just a jumble of biographies and concert notes thrown together and lightly edited. The editor (his daughter) is fairly honest in the preface about what this book is - warts and all - so take a look at that and see if it interests you.