Building A Chamber Music Collection in 1953 (The 'A' List)

New York Times critic Howard Taubman is back with his chamber music "A" List recommendations for record collectors in 1953, and it contains the by-now-expected mix of repertory standards and curiosities, presumably dictated by what was then available. Let's take a look!

[pauldavidartistclub]

As a book lover and former proprietor of a used book store, I’m loving this series. If you have more such books I for one would enjoy your presentation of them…or even just delving into passages or reviews you agree ir take issue with from other old review books

[heatherharrison]

I have been enjoying this series and its reminder of those scratchy early 1950s hard plastic LPs that I used to dig up at the thrift stores and record stores. I wonder if there are other books like this that are even older. It would be interesting to see what the recommendations would have been in the 1930s, for example, when people had to buy huge albums of brittle shellac 78s in order to acquire works that would later fit on a single LP.

[jdistler]

I think that the recommendations were limited to US releases available at that time. The local branches of European Decca and DG had a wider range chamber repertoire in their catalogs, but very few of these came out on the American market.

[robertdandre]

thank you for this series....by the way, will the cover of your book last until the end of this series....?