Music critic (The New Yorker) Alex Ross is a perceptive and articulate writer, his style perfectly attuned to what one would expect in that magazine. This present volume is a collection of his essays and addresses a wide variety of topics. Ross is usually adroit at weaving observations about musicians and their works into the cultures and artistic movements, and at his best his writing is compelling. I especially enjoyed his essays on “Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues” in which he traces a musical form through its many permutations through the years, on Mozart and the persistence of certain elements throughout his oeuvre, on Schubert and Verdi, on Mahler, finding much to admire and much to learn from his observations. I was far less interested in his essays on Radiohead, Björk, and Bob Dylan, and I confess to having skimmed these chapters, not because they were poorly written but because they held no fascination for me.An essay assessing the influence of recording on musical performance was especially interesting. Discussing the contrasts between technical proficiency, which recording often highlights and values, with emotional intensity, Ross writes, “Most modern playing tends to erase all evidence of the work that has gone on behind the scenes: virtuosity is defined as effortlessness. One often-quoted ideal is to ‘disappear behind the music.’ But when precision is divorced from emotion it can become anti-musical, inhuman, repulsive.”This book impressed me enough that I would like to read more of Ross’ work, although I would prefer a collection that was more unified in theme than this encyclopedic mélange. This book is a great Collection of new Yorker essays, mostly about classical music. I liked it, but the only way to read it is with the iPad/iPhone guide that allows you to play the parts of the songs he writes about. Reading about pieces I was unfamiliar with would have been to boring. You have to really follow along to understand how great he is at describing different structures and moo changes. The chapters on lament, music education, Mozart, and brahms were my favorites.
What do You think about Escucha Esto (2012)?
This book almost got me to listen to classical music.
—Flipsev0
Excellent read. Ross is the consummate music writer.
—AshDeM
