Joseph Kerman is emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley. He began writing music criticism for The Hudson Review in the 1950s, and is a longtime contributor to The New York Review of Books and many other journals. His books include Opera as Drama (1956; new and revised edition 1988), The Beethoven Quartets (1967), Contemplating Music (1986), Concerto Conversations (1999), and The Art of Fugue (2005).
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Playing in Time
May 15, 2008
A Concise History of Western Music
by Paul Griffiths
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Mozart’s Magic Marriage
January 12, 2006
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The Voice of Masters
October 20, 2005
Choral Masterworks: A Listener’s Guide
by Michael Steinberg
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Mystery Man
April 28, 2005
The Life of Bach
by Peter Williams
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On Carlos Kleiber (1930–2004)
September 23, 2004
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That Old Labyrinth Song
June 24, 2004
The Maze and the Warrior: Symbols in Architecture, Theology, and Music
by Craig Wright
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Beethoven the Unruly
February 27, 2003
Beethoven: The Music and the Life
by Lewis Lockwood
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The Full Monte
June 13, 2002
L’incoronazione di Poppea conducted by Christophe Rousset, directed by Pierre Audi
Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria conducted by William Christie, directed by Adrian Noble
Orfeo conducted by Jane Glover, directed by Diane Paulus
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Bayreuth Blues
August 9, 2001
The Wagners: The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty by Nike Wagner, translated from the German by Ewald Osers and Michael Downes
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The Miracle Worker
March 23, 2000
Mozart
by Peter Gay
The Life of Mozart
by John Rosselli
Mozart in Revolt: Strategies of Resistance, Mischief and Deception
by David Schroeder
Mozart: A Cultural Biography
by Robert W. Gutman
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Beethoven and the Big Change
June 24, 1999
Beethoven’s Concertos: History, Style, Performance
by Leon Plantinga
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4, Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor,” and Choral Fantasy Choir fortepiano Robert Levin. the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, and the Monteverdi, directed by John Eliot Gardiner
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Two Cheers for Rach 3
April 24, 1997
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The Beethoven Takeover
October 3, 1996
Beethoven Hero by Scott Burnham
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The Big Sound
July 13, 1995
The Romantic Generation by Charles Rosen
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Bach’s Greatest Hit
October 6, 1994
Bachanalia: The Essential Listener’s Guide to Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’
by Eric Lewin Altschuler
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Mozart à la Mode
May 18, 1989
Mozart, Piano Concertos No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, and No. 21 in C, K. 467 conducted by John Eliot Gardiner with Malcolm Bilson, fortepiano, and English Baroque Soloists,
Mozart, Piano Concertos No. 22 in E flat, K. 482, and No. 23 in A, K. 488 conducted by John Eliot Gardiner with Malcolm Bilson, fortepiano, and English Baroque Soloists,
Mozart, Piano Concertos No. 25 in C, K. 503, and No. 26 in D, K. 537 conducted by John Eliot Gardiner with Malcolm Bilson, fortepiano, and English Baroque Soloists,
Mozart and Schnabel, Vol. II, Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Walter Susskind
Mozart and Schnabel, Vol. II, Piano Concerto No. 21 with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Mozart and Schnabel, Vol. II, Sonata No. 12 in F, K. 332 with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 26 in D, K. 537, and Rondos, K. 382 and 386 with Murray Perahia, piano and, the English Chamber Orchestra.
Mozart, Piano Concertos No. 23 in A, K. 488, and No. 27 in B flat, K. 595 with Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano and, the Philharmonia Orchestra.
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The Residue of Genius
August 18, 1988
1791: Mozart’s Last Year
by H.C. Robbins Landon
Mozart: Studies of the Autograph Scores by Alan Tyson
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Wagner Goes West
August 15, 1985
Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner. produced by the San Francisco Opera, June 1985
Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung by Nicholas John
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Wagner and Wagnerism
December 22, 1983
Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century by Martin Gregor-Dellin, translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn
The New Grove Wagner by John Deathridge, by Carl Dahlhaus
The Fertilizing Seed: Wagner’s Concept of the Poetic Intent by Frank W. Glass
Wagner’s Siegfried: Its Drama, History, and Music by Patrick McCreless
I Saw the World End: A Study of Wagner’s Ring by Deryck Cooke
Wagner and Aeschylus: The Ring and the Oresteia by Michael Ewans
Kingdom on the Rhine: History, Myth and Legend in Wagner’s Ring by Nancy Benvenga
Staging Wagnerian Drama by Adolphe Appia, translated with an introduction by Peter Loeffler
My Life by Richard Wagner, translated by Andrew Gray, edited by Mary Whittall
Wagner Rehearsing the ‘Ring’: An Eye-Witness Account of the Stage Rehearsals of the First Bayreuth Festival by Heinrich Porges, translated by Robert L. Jacobs
In Search of Wagner [Versuch über Wagner] by Theodor Adorno, translated by Rodney Livingstone
TétralogiesWagner, Boulez, Chéreau: Essai sur l’infidélité by Jean-Jacques Nattiez
Dichtungen und Schriften: Jubiläumsausgabe in Zehn Bänden by Richard Wagner, edited by Dieter Borchmeyer
The Opera Quarterly, Commemorative Wagner Issue, volume 1, no. 3 (Autumn 1983)
Three Wagner Essays by Richard Wagner, translated by Robert L. Jacobs
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Verdi’s Hit Parade
March 4, 1982
The Operas of Verdi, Vol. 3: From Don Carlos to Falstaff by Julian Budden
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A Bachward Glance
October 8, 1981
Bach and the Dance of God by Wilfrid Mellers
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Vissi d’arte
April 2, 1981
Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend by Arianna Stassinopoulos
Callas: Les Images d’une Voix by Sergio Segalini
Diva: The Life and Death of Maria Callas by Steven Linakis
Maria Callas: A Tribute by Pierre-Jean Rémy, translated by Catherine Atthill
The Callas Legacy by John Ardoin
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Theme and Variations
October 23, 1980
Sonata Forms by Charles Rosen
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William Byrd and the Catholics
May 17, 1979
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Words & Music
April 20, 1978
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Reading Opera
February 9, 1978
Romantic Opera and Literary Form
by Peter Conrad
Literature as Opera by Gary Schmidgall
Mozart and Beethoven: The Concept of Love in Their Operas
by Irving Singer
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Follow the Lieder
August 4, 1977
Schubert’s Songs: A Biographical Study
by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, translated by Kenneth S. Whitton
The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder
translated by George Bird, translated by Richard Stokes