Volume 18, Number 11 · June 15, 1972
The Big Three
By Alan Tyson
The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
by Charles Rosen
Viking, 467 pp., $12.50
Charles Rosen is a brave man. In this long, exuberant, and well-illustrated book he has undertaken a formidable task: first to describe and then to explain and trace the development and maturation of what has so far proved the richest stylistic achievement in Western music. He has done it in such a way and on such a scale as to make it hard for anyone who cares about the music characterized here to remain without illumination. At times, indeed, his effect on readers is likely to be positively penitential, as they discover to their shame how inattentively they have been listening to the works they thought they knew best.
Review, 2741 words
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