The grand tradition;: Seventy years of singing on record

It's no exaggeration to say that this is the single most important music book published this year, perhaps in several years. Steane (longtime music critic of vocal discs for Gramophone magazine) first published this magisterial history of recorded singing in 1974; it has been out of print for a number of years and is virtually unattainable. Steane has brought back the original book with errors corrected. Writing with elegance and wit that's always put at the service of the music and the listener, the author uses the recorded legacy of well over one hundred classical performers to illuminate the art of singing from Patti and Caruso to Price and Domingo. Both opera and song are included. A bible of singing on record, this should be in every collection that seeks to assist the musically inclined. A second volume, bringing the story up to the present, has been announced and is prayerfully awaited; meanwhile, get this one before it disappears again. (B&w illustrations--139--and an appendix of specific performance comparisons) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.