Adrian Sinclair

Allan Kozinn

McCartney Legacy Vol. 1

A dazzling appraisal of the definitive classical music performances available today For classical music lovers, there is nothing more beguiling and exciting than the range of technique and emotion that can capture or transform the great works in the hands of a conductor and musicians. But with hundreds of recordings released every year, discovering the jewels is a challenge, for newcomers as well as for connoisseurs. New York Times classical music critic Allan Kozinn offers the ultimate collector's guide, packed with a rich history of the composers and performers who stir our souls. From Bach's eloquent Goldberg Variations performed by master pianist Glenn Gould at the beginning and end of his career in startlingly different interpretations, to a lyrical performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade conducted by Kiril Kondrashin shortly after his defection from the Soviet Union, Kozinn places each work in the greater context of musical development and stretches the listener's understanding of each pivotal composition. These original essays on the one hundred greatest recorded classical works provide both practical guidance for building a library and deep insight into the transcendent power of music itself.

A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings

The New York Times Essential Library: Classical Music

Set against the backdrop of the Beatles splintering over both business and creative issues, The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969-73 covers a period in which Paul McCartney recreated himself, both as a man and as a musician. This is an in-depth and revealing exploration of his creative life beyond the Beatles--featuring hundreds of interviews with fellow musicians, tour managers, recording engineers, producers, filmmakers, and more. The story of the Beatles has been told many times, covering all periods and perspectives. Paul McCartney's work in the 50 years since the Fab Four's breakup has been extraordinarily successful and enduringly popular--his 26 post-Beatles albums have sold upwards of 86.5 million copies; McCartney's 2019 Freshen Up tour was the highest grossing tour ever, in the entire world; and his last solo album McCartney III debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and number two on Billboard 200. Beside his extraordinary, creative solo output, he has collaborated with the most influential artists of his generation and the next: from Elvis Costello to Stevie Wonder, from Michael Jackson to Dave Grohl, even with Johnny Cash and Kanye West. McCartney, too, has explored new poetry styles with Allen Ginsburg and teamed up with Peter Martins and the NYC Ballet to create Ocean's Kingdom. The list goes on from there. And he has done all this post-Beatles and while maintaining a mostly normal family life. Paul McCartney has lived ten lifetimes in the span of one and become increasingly more relevant, yet curiously, his creative output since the Beatles has never had the full exploration such a life and body of work demands. The McCartney Legacy gives McCartney's post-Beatles life and work the kind of in-depth treatment that Mark Lewisohn has given the Beatles, and Philip Norman has given John Lennon. It is the first truly comprehensive biography, and the most finely detailed exploration of McCartney's creative life beyond the Beatles, ever undertaken.

Volume 1: 1969-73

The Mccartney Legacy

The Beatles follows the extraordinary development of four self-taught musicians from Liverpool, from their beginnings, until the break-up in 1970. This biography sets the group's evolution against the backdrop of a popular culture explosion in the 1960s. A serious study of the Beatles' music is expanded here by consideration not only of the group's commercially released disks but also of rare working tapes which both shed light on the compositional process and reveal how many of their milestone recordings took shape in the studio. It also examines why the innovative music of the Beatles - created, at least initially, as ephemera - has remained so durable.

Allan Kozinn

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