For classical, try The Symphony, For the Love of Music, and The Concerto, all by Michael Steinberg. The NPR Listener’s Encyclopedia is a huge, but handy guide with recommended recordings. The encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues is a bit out of date due to artists dying off, but aside from that, the info is accurate and it is excellent. You can usually these used on Amazon and other book sites. Hope this helps, I’d love to hear other folks chime in on this.
Books!
I realized that all of my other hobbies - cooking, biking, photography, brewing, have plenty of books written about them, and I in turn have many of them. Listening to my stereo system is probably the hobby I spend the most time with yet have absolutely no books on the subject. So I ask of you, what are the essential books?
I will l note I’m more interested in the “how to listen” flavor versus the super super technical end of things. Ideally it would be a nice mix of both, how a and b leads to this, and how c and d leads to that and later on I could get more into the engineering side. Also would be interested in historical context reads. Lastly I would like recommendations that are actually published in book form. Look forward to your responses. Thanks all!
I will l note I’m more interested in the “how to listen” flavor versus the super super technical end of things. Ideally it would be a nice mix of both, how a and b leads to this, and how c and d leads to that and later on I could get more into the engineering side. Also would be interested in historical context reads. Lastly I would like recommendations that are actually published in book form. Look forward to your responses. Thanks all!