The Symphony: A Listener's Guide

by Michael Steinberg

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.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference, Classical Music, Art

704 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Michael Steinberg was an American music critic and musicologist closely associated with the San Francisco Symphony.

Reviews

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Subjective and a conservative "playlist"

I got this book nearly a decade ago, and valued it a lot at the time. I hadn't seriously used it in quite some time, then, while reviewing some books I had just read, decided to post one about it.

When I got online, I first noticed the comments in the line of "It's too bad that 'Composer X' gets omitted."

But, this is a book about music, I was thinking, and "de gustibus non disputandum" will always be the rule in the arts.

Then, I started looking through my current collection of nearly 500 classical CDs and said, "Whooah, there."

First, Steinberg appears to operate with a narrow definition of what is a symphony, perhaps. Why else is Rachmaninov's "Symphonic Dances" omitted, for example? Or Hindemith's "Four Temperaments" or "Symphonic Variations"?

On symphonies themselves, where is Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms"? Or anything by Schnittke, the best symphonist of the last third of the 20th century? Or Malcolm Arnold? Or Nicolai Myaskovsky, a great contemporary of Prokofiev? Or Ernst Krenek? Or Szymanowski? Or Hovhaness, as "pop" as he may be to some?

And why so much Haydn?

In other words -- and this is why Steinberg's book started falling like a rock for me -- his "playlist" is quite conservative. I don't think either Boston or San Francisco (he served as orchestra program annotator in both places) are that conservative musically, so why is he?

I mean, someone could do a separate volume just out of all the 20th century composers he omitted.

As my title notes, this is an in-depth book for what it covers, but it fails in what could have been a great didactive exercise. I moved my classical music boundaries beyond 1900 through dint of my own open-mindedness, but sure would have loved the help of a book like Steinberg's that analyzed more 20th century symphonic works.

If your "playlist" is stuck where many heartland American classical listeners' may be, then this book could be just for you. But, if you want to learn a lot about modern symphonies, skip it.

[Stephen Gamble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by some one who clearly has both passion and knowledge. Approachable language. Somewhat idiosyncratic choice of works to review. Not many people can write about music, Michael Steinberg can.

[Philippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Steinberg’s The Symphony is a useful companion for both beginning and experienced listeners. It’s basically a collection of program notes written for the Boston Symphony and San Francisco Symphony when he acted as the orchestras’ publications director and artistic advisor.

Its main focus is on the core symphonic repertoire, including discussions of the complete cycles of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Mahler and Sibelius. There is much other material besides including generous but partial surveys of the symphonies by Nielsen, Shostakovich, Bruckner and Tchaikovsky. Given the genesis of the book comprehensiveness was not an aim. Still it is a pity that works by composers such as, for instance, Franz Liszt, Leonard Bernstein and Witold Lutoslawski are totally absent. Also, the reference to ‚the symphony’ needs to be taken quite literally. Introductions to tone poems such as Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra or Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade are nowhere to be found.

Typically Steinberg situates the work in the composer’s career and personal life and provides a movement by movement description. Often, when it concerns contemporaneous composers (Sessions, Harbison, Piston, Hanson) he admixes personal reminiscences. There are few notated examples, lowering the bar for listeners without a musical background.

The introductions are longer and more developed than a standard CD booklet text. For instance, the discussion of Sibelius Seventh Symphony references Wagner, Schoenberg and Palestrina, and includes an extended quotation from Donald Tovey’s Essays in Musical Analysis. In his discussion of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Steinberg dwells for a full page on the work’s very first bars to make us understand how the composer was able to trick us, almost, in believing that the music had been going on all along and that we just happened to come within earshot.

The celebrated composer John Adams paid tribute to Steinberg’s erudition and eloquence in his autobiography Halleluja Junction: „Michael’s ability to render, in beautiful and uncluttered English prose, complex and subtle musical issues set the gold standard for how one communicates about music in words.” That should count as an endorsement. Oxford University Press published similar companion volumes dedicated to Steinberg’s notes on key choral works and concertos.

[Imlac · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Steinberg focuses on the music, he can be very helpful and illuminating. He is clearly an intelligent, educated and cultured listener and writer. Unfortunately, he tends to devote more space - sometimes much more - to biographical and historical detail. This is explained, and I suppose justified, by the origins of these discussions in program notes he wrote for various orchestras over an extended period of time. He therefore caters to the interests of typical concertgoers, which are basically biographical and historical gossip; they're not really interested in getting formal musical instruction.

Much better is The Classical Music Lover's Companion to Orchestral Music, which has a much broader selection and much deeper musical analyses.

[Scott Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent primer prior to attending symphonies by classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven, Romantic composers such as Mendelssohn and Mahler, and 20th century composers like Gorecki, Shostakovich and Schoenberg (though not every symphony is disucssed). The composer introductory remarks are excellent! Steinberg has produced another primer for the Concerto.

[Kalliope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this as a Companion, matching chapters to my listening, concerts or otherwise. Brilliant.

[J. Andrew]

Incredible! A most own book and a valuable and easy to read resource. The text is clear and interesting and unfolds more like a beautifully wound story than an informative book.

[Mills College Library]

784.2184 S8198 1995