Music at the Limits

September 24, 2007
Though best known for his political writings (Orientalism
), Said was also, from 1986 until his death in 2003, the music critic for the Nation
, and this collection draws together reviews from that publication and other magazines. Said had very firm opinions and lashed out against New York City's classical music scene in the 1980s and early '90s for producing “safe but grimly uninteresting performances and repertories.” Instead of simply blaming “the intellectual cowardice of most contemporary musicians,” however, he was able to provide detailed technical critiques of a conductor's handling of a Beethoven symphony or a singer's inadequacies in a Wagnerian role. Glenn Gould's intellectualized style of playing was a source of fascination to the critic, and new biographies or films about the pianist would inevitably draw his attention. Said also writes about his friendship with Daniel Barenboim (who contributes an introduction), which leads to one of the few discussions of Middle Eastern politics; a review of the controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer
sparks another. For the most part, however, his attention is strictly on the music, and he proves himself to have been astute and passionately engaged.

September 15, 2007
Said (19352003), best known for his seminal "Orientalism" and the author of several books on the Middle East, was not just a literary scholar of high repute but also an acute observer of the classical music scene. This collection contains essays dating from the 1980s that Said wrote mostly as music critic for the "Nation". Said's essays are usually of the moment (whether concert or book review) but almost always provoke interesting reflections on the permanent things in music. One of his great loves was opera, but Said was never an uncritical admirer, and he could be perceptively critical about performers. The 1994 essay Music as Gesture describes Georg Solti as one-third busy maître d', a third circus lion-tamer, another third 'maestro' as imagined by Hollywood musicals of the forties and fifties. Said displays a warm affection for the music making of Glenn Gould and writes that only Sergey Rachmaninoff among 20th-century pianists was as interesting. In Barenboim and the Wagner Taboo, Said discusses the relationship between politics and music, especially in Israel. This fine collection by one of the most perceptive music critics of the last half-century is highly recommended for all libraries.Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib., Kingsville

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2007
These 44 essays collected from The Nation and other magazines stimulate thought about the state of classical-music performance between 1983 and 2003. In considering concerts, opera, performers, and books, the late Said, better known as a champion of the Palestinians, combines criticism of performance, analytical insight, and the history of the works and authors at hand. He laments the declining artistic quality of some contemporary artists and often criticizes the staid (safe) productions of the Metropolitan Opera. Said, a pianist himself, writes excellent essays on Glenn Gould and commentaries on other pianists, expresses fondness for Pierre Boulezs adventurousness as composer and conductor, weighs Wagners operas and the reverence for them in the Nazi era, and cogently discusses Bachs life, music, and influence on all subsequent music. He can be caustic when he finds nothing of worth in a work or its author. Though perhaps dated, these penetrating discussions of music, performance, culture, and human nature are refreshing, enlightening, and definitely not to be tossed aside as yesterdays journalism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)