Norman Lebrecht
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Norman Lebrecht

Norman Lebrecht (born 11 July 1948) is a British commentator on music and cultural affairs and also a novelist. He has been Assistant Editor of the Evening Standard since 2002 and has presented lebrecht.live on BBC Radio 3 from 2000 to the present. Before working for the Standard, he wrote for the Daily Telegraph.

Writings

The Maestro Myth (1991) charts the history of conducting from its rise as an independent profession in the 1870s to its subsequent preoccupations with power, wealth and celebrity. When the Music Stops (US title: Who Killed Classical Music, 1997) is the first documented history of the classical music business, examining its backstage workings and foretelling the collapse of the record industry. Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry (US title: The Life and Death of Classical Music, 2007) is billed as an inside account of the rise and fall of recording, combined with a critical selection and analysis of 100 discs and 20 recording disasters.

Lebrecht has written extensively about the composer Gustav Mahler, in Mahler Remembered (1987) and elsewhere; and about contemporary music, in The Complete Companion to 20th Century Music (2000). He is the founder and editor of the Phaidon Press series of 20th century composer biographies.

His novel The Song of Names, a tale of two boys growing up in wartime London, appeared in 2001 and went on to win the prestigious 2002 Whitbread Award for First Novel.

Criticism

Lebrecht's writing has often been attacked as provocative and misinformed.¹ For example, musicologist Richard Taruskin described Lebrecht as "a sloppy but entertaining British muckraker".² An unnamed figure identified as "one of the world's leading conductors" told The Independent that Lebrecht had for years been getting away with "pompous, preposterous judgment" and "inept research".³

In October 2007 the founder of Naxos Records, Klaus Heymann, sued Lebrecht's publisher, Penguin Books, for defamation in London's High Court of Justice. ³ Heymann claimed that Lebrecht had wrongly accused him of "serious business malpractices" in his book Maestros, Masterpieces & Madness, and identified at least 15 statements he claimed were inaccurate.¹ As a result of the settlement of the case, Penguin issued a statement apologizing for "the hurt and damage which [Heymann] has suffered". The publisher also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum in legal fees to Heymann, to make a donation to charity, to refrain from repeating the disputed allegations and to seek the return of all unsold copies of Lebrecht's book.¹ Commenting on the affair, Heymann said that "For me it’s beyond belief how any journalist in five pages can make so many factual mistakes. It’s shocking. Also, he [Lebrecht] really doesn’t understand the record business."¹ The settlement did not extend to the US edition of Lebrecht's book, but Heymann vowed to seek its withdrawal in the United States, saying "The book made me look like a shit, so something had to be done. When Lebrecht talks to people he doesn't take notes so he confuses and confounds what people say."³

Lebrecht is on record as attacking the accuracy of music reporting in the blogosphere. In his Evening Standard column he wrote that "Until bloggers deliver hard facts … paid for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town".⁴ Some bloggers used this statement to charge Lebrecht with hypocrisy in light of the Heymann settlement.⁵⁶ (Despite his criticism of classical music blogs, Lebrecht launched his own blog, Slipped Disc, in March 2007).⁷

Books

• Lebrecht, Norman (1982). Discord: conflict and the making of music. London: A. Deutsch. ISBN 0233974423. 
• Lebrecht, Norman (1985). The Book of Musical Anecdotes. London: Deutsch. ISBN 0233977309.  Also published as Hush! Handel's in a Passion: tales of Bach, Handel, and their contemporaries.
• Lebrecht, Norman (1987). Mahler Remembered. London: Faber. ISBN 0571150098. 
• Lebrecht, Norman (1987). A Musical Book of Days. London: Collins. ISBN 0002177153. 
• Lebrecht, Norman (1991). The Maestro Myth: great conductors in pursuit of power. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671710184.  Updated editions published 1997, 2001
• Lebrecht, Norman (1992). Music in London: a history and handbook. London: Aurum. ISBN 1854102230. 
• Lebrecht, Norman (1992). The Companion to 20th-Century Music. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671710192.  Revised edition published 2000 as The Complete Companion to 20th-Century Music.
• Lebrecht, Norman (1996). When the Music Stops: managers, maestros and the corporate murder of classical music. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684816814.  Also published as Who Killed Classical Music?: maestros, managers, and corporate politics.
• Lebrecht, Norman (2000). Covent Garden: the Untold Story: dispatches from the English culture war, 1945-2000. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684851431. 
• Lebrecht, Norman (2002). The Song of Names: a novel. London: Review. ISBN 0755300947. 
• Lebrecht, Norman (2007). Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness: the secret life and shameful death of the classical record industry. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 9780713999570.  Also published as The Life and Death of Classical Music: featuring the 100 best and 20 worst recordings ever made.

Notes

External links

• Norman Lebrecht Official site
• BBC Radio 3 - lebrecht.live
• "The Lebrecht Weekly", La Scena Musicale