What are some of your favorite classical music periodicals?

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 2:29 am

Years ago, I subscribed to BBC Classical. But my favorite has to be Fanfare. Though I rarely buy it now.

MaestroDJS · Post by **MaestroDJS** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:24 am

Gary wrote:Years ago, I subscribed to BBC Classical. But my favorite has to be Fanfare. Though I rarely buy it now.

I agree that Fanfare is (or was) a great magazine. For 2 decades, from 1981 to 2001, I subscribed to the British magazine Gramophone but then it lost my interest, possibly due to editorial changes. I also tried the French Diapason and the German Fono Forum but they were pretty pricey. In the late 1990s I discovered a great Australian magazine called Soundscapes; unfortunately it folded after only a few years, but I still refer to my back issues from time to time.

Nowadays I seem to get all the music news worth knowing right here. Corlyss, Lance, Ralph, Pizza, jbuck919 etc. are some of my most trusted sources.

Dave

David Stybr
Personal Assistant and Der Webmeister to author Denise Swanson
http://www.DeniseSwanson.com
~ Scumble River Mysteries ~
Book 7: Murder of a Smart Cookie, July 2005
Penguin Putnam ~ Signet, New York, New York

David Stybr, Engineer and Composer: It's Left Brain vs. Right Brain: best 2 falls out of 3
http://members.SibeliusMusic.com/Stybr

Coordinator, Classical Music SIG (Special Interest Group) of American Mensa

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:20 am

MaestroDJS wrote: Nowadays I seem to get all the music news worth knowing right here. Corlyss, Lance, Ralph, Pizza, jbuck919 etc. are some of my most trusted sources.

Somebody cue up "Mutual Admiration Society." I feel the same way and frankly am flattered if I've ever given any useful hints to these people who are prodigious CD collectors in comparison to me and probably (certainly in the case of Ralph) far the superior concert goers. Which reminds me, I'd better get on the ball lining up my non-subscription tickets here in Bamberg. I already had everything I wanted to see and the Konzerthalle picked out before I left the States.

springrite · Post by **springrite** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:24 am

My favorite had been IPQ (International Piano Quarterly), a pricey small magazine but well worth the price. But later (2002?) they changed format, into a larger (page size-wise) issue, but the content was not as good as it was, I thought. After I moved back to China I have not checked on it again. But I do have all my back issues.

Ralph · Post by **Ralph** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:23 pm

I subscribe to Gramophone, Fanfare, American Record Guide and BBC Music Magazine. The latter is my favorite-it's informative and written for people like me with no background in music.

Gramophone is my next favorite because of the quality of the writing.

ARG and Fanfare are especially useful for capsule reviews when I search for works by a particular composer. I like the ARG thematic overviews.

Haydnseek · Post by **Haydnseek** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:51 pm

Once in a while I buy Gramophone off the newsstand. I visit their website fairly often, usually to search the CD reviews which have been reliably interesting and helpful.

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:22 pm

What about David Hurwitz's online Classics Today? When it comes to Beethoven, he's a bit anti-Karajan.

MahlerSnob · Post by **MahlerSnob** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:42 pm

I usualy read Symphony, as well as any other choir/organ magazines that happen to be around.

Ralph · Post by **Ralph** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:57 pm

Gary wrote:What about David Hurwitz's online Classics Today? When it comes to Beethoven, he's a bit anti-Karajan.

*****

Hurwitz has always been, for some regulars here, a sort of suspect pitchman for favorite musicians and orchestras. I occasionally check that site.

Mark Antony Owen · Post by **Mark Antony Owen** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:15 am

For quality and an acceptable level of depth (I have no musical training background), The Gramophone is an excellent choice, and its cover CDs tempt me into trying works and composers I wouldn't otherwise have experienced.

For a more generic but still informative read, it has to be the BBC Music Magazine. I particularly enjoy - and collect - the complete works that feature on its cover CDs.

For a light, first-thing-in-the-morning-on-my-way-to-work-by-rail read, I choose Classic FM Magazine. Frothy, but often with some reasonable ticket or CD offers, and its cover discs make for a nice, light listen from time to time.

I subscribe to all three of the above.

RebLem · Post by **RebLem** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:48 am

I have been a faithful subscriber to Fanfare for about 20 years now. I used to subscribe to ARG, but they stopped publishing 2-3 times and then restarted, and I would move between times. I am now in my fourth home since I moved out of my parents' house in August, 1968. It just got to be too much of a hastle, so I just gave up on them.

I dip into Classics Today now and then. I do like their rating system, though I think it is a little too basic. I'd like to see a more complicated one line bar with symbols, the way lots of city magazines tell you about restaurants in their permanent, capsule reviews, or the way Consumer Reports will rate a product on different aspects of its performance.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 3:37 pm

Well, I got nearly all of the above (gratis!) when I still worked at Tower.

I remember the now-defunct Classic CD magazine, one of the first to come with an enclosed CD. This leads me to ask: Does ANYONE have that magazine's "Greatest Of The Century" lists, included in the last issues of 1999? I have the CONDUCTORS list, but I still need the SINGERS and SOLOISTS lists. If anyone could run off copies of these, please drop me a private message.....I'll gladly reimburse for postage & the copying.

Post by **Corlyss_D** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:09 pm

My favorite? Music and Musicians and Records and Recordings, both defunct. I liked BBC Music but we haven't been on speaking terms since they won't renew me at a price/issue, like they did before I moved. None of them are as good as they used to be - most try to pack way too many reviews into too little space, so they cut the length and quality of the reviews. These days, the mags sound more like local newspapers.

Gregg · Post by **Gregg** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:00 pm

Classical Record Collector.

I read many different magazines off and on, but I learn the most with the above. I do get a lot of information online.

Gregg

Reed · Post by **Reed** » Mon May 01, 2006 9:59 am

The only one I keep, and ever read more than once, is Fanfare. I usually buy Gramophone on the news stand, and sometimes search their website for reviews of a piece that I'm particularly fascinated by at the moment.

Webwise, I sometimes look at Classics Today, but they give too many 10/10 reviews to have any credibility. ("And all the children are above average.") I also get news and recommendations from this site, from the Mahlerlist, and from SA-CD.net.

Post by **Lance** » Mon May 01, 2006 11:50 am

When one thinks of the good mags that were once available. I used to subscribe to all of them. I think Classical Record Collector is one of the best but it is only published four times a year and is pricey. They used to have a similar magazine for pianists as I recall. I regularly subscribed to Gramophone, but now I get it at the newsstand when I feel so moved. ARG and Fanfare were also fine magazines, but I simply stopped the subscriptions and also get them at newsstands from time-to-time. High-Fidelity used to be one of my favs when Harris Goldsmith was a reviewer for them. I learned more about listening to music and what to draw from it from his reviews than just about anywhere else. Then I had the pleasure of meeting him - and he even stayed at our house for a weekend some years ago. To watch the man listen, with intensity, is also an experience. I prepared his piano for a concerto wherein he played Schubert's B-flat, Op. Posth. sonata. Not only a fine writer, but a wonderful pianist. I credit him for giving me much.

Like everything else, even the great magazines have changed.

Cyril Ignatius · Post by **Cyril Ignatius** » Wed May 03, 2006 11:02 am

I receive Opera News, which I am pleased with. Excellent features on singers, conductors, directors of music, coupled with great photography.

There are also many advertisements/features that keep one abreast of upcoming festivals and interesting events.

A second source is WCPE the classical music station based in the northern suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina. This is a great station! All classical music, privately funded/listener-supported. It was a great loss moving out of Virginia, and out of earshot of this. But I continue to access its website for great info, including an excellent classical music news section. The address is www.theclassicalstation.org

anasazi · Post by **anasazi** » Thu May 04, 2006 1:46 am

I have tried so many over the years. I agree that FANFARE is among the best. I really enjoy Royal Brown's columns. At the moment I have a BBC subscription. I do enjoy it, although I think it a bit lightweight at times.

Some of my favorites from the past: remember when the Musical Heritage Society had an interesting magazine. One writer, David Greene wrote some really good pieces about early music and composers. I kind of treasure those articles.

Being a pianist, I've also had subscriptions to both Clavier and Keyboard. Both good and illuminating different aspects.

And then there was always The Music Quarterly. Does anybody remember that one? Could anybody else actually understand what they were saying?

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What are some of your favorite classical music periodicals?

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