Jeremy Siepmann (1942–2016)

OK, again, so not technically a book, but I am loving the Jeremy Siepmann music history lessons available on Hoopla. If you ever wanted to take a Music Appreciation class, you can save some money and listen to this instead. Siepmann covers traditional orchestral instruments and includes some "oddities" that have found their way into symphonic music. Of course, he can't cover everything, and his assessment as to the value of certain composers/compositions/instruments is at times quite stodgy (read: stereotypical old English dude), but overall these works are an absolute delight.… (mais)

So not *technically* a book, but it's classified as such on Hoopla. THIS WAS SO FANTASTIC. Every audiobook on music should be structured like this--with the music interspersed with the speaker. (I get why they're not...aside from copyright issues, the audio itself would be impossibly long.) I loved getting a concise biography of Chopin. I loved hearing his works, some of which I had not heard before. I am beside myself that there is a whole Life and Works series from Naxos. Rest assured I will be devouring it this year.… (mais)