Classical music purchasers,
and certainly readers of this site,
are well familiar with the vast selection
of discs available from Naxos; what
you might be less familiar with, however,
is the company's expertise in audiobooks.
Naxos has extended their low price philosophy
to audiobooks. ‘The Life and Works’
series, with more than a dozen titles,
examines the biography and works of
major composers.
This 4-CD set about
Franz Schubert gives an extensive biography
and 31 excerpts from his works, beginning
with his earliest compositions (his
first string quartet and symphony) and
ending with his last.
The series features
an excellent presentation: first, the
150-page booklet gives an overview of
the historical context of the 19th century,
a brief essay on "Schubert in His Time",
then a list of his major works. A "Graded
Listening Plan" presents a suggested
approach to Schubert (through Naxos
recordings, of course), then a reading
list helps those who want to go further
in understanding this composer. Finally,
there is a list of "Personalities",
or names that figure in Schubert's life,
a timeline of Schubert's life, and a
glossary.
Then we get to the
discs themselves. Each CD contains more
than an hour's listening, alternating
between a biography and examples of
the works. The narrative is well-written,
excellently narrated and brilliantly
produced - it has the quality of a fine
radio show, with a variety of voices
used for the different characters. The
pacing, especially the length of narrative
compared to the excerpts, is ideal.
The set is filled out
with an interactive approach: each CD
contains all the text that is in the
booklet, as well as the spoken text
of the entire set. With simple HTML
(web) pages that can be viewed with
a web browser on any platform, this
is a fine example of how interactivity
can be made useful, useable and simple.
You can follow the spoken text as you
listen - or read it on-screen if you
prefer - and links for each excerpt
take you to the Naxos pages for specific
recordings.
Naturally, Naxos sees
this as more than just an audiobook
about Schubert's life, but also as a
way to get listeners to buy more of
their discs, but I see nothing wrong
with this. After all, Naxos's Schubert
recordings are generally good to excellent,
and you couldn't go wrong with a selection
of, say, their complete recordings of
Schubert's lieder.
The question remains
as to the intended listener of this
audiobook. While I have long been a
fan of Schubert's music, I found the
text interesting and informative, and
certainly learned a great deal about
his life, as well as the context in
which he wrote his music. Naxos may
have created these sets more for the
school or library, but individuals will
find them interesting as well. Given
the low price of this set, anyone who
wants to learn more about their favorite
composers would benefit from listening
to it.
For now, Naxos has
only released a dozen or so of these
Life and Works sets, focusing on the
A-level composers: in addition to Schubert,
there is Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn,
Brahms, etc. Hopefully, in the future,
they will approach lesser-known composers;
I'd heartily suggest one on Charles
Ives, for which Naxos has begun an excellent
series of recordings, or a title on
American composers in general, to go
along with their American Classics series.
Kirk McElhearn
see also review
by Anne Ozorio
Peter Schreier, tenor; Walter Olbertz, piano 