Books by Alex Ross
Found 3 books
Here is the video, audio, and transcript . Of course Alex has a new book out Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music , which explores the complicated legacy of Wagner and music more generally. We learn Alex’s nomination for the greatest pop album ever made, but many of my questions focused on progress in music and musical performance, the nature of talent, the power of culture, and also cancel culture, Wagner of course having been a frequent target for a long time. Here is one exce...
I will be doing a Conversation with him. If you don’t know he writes for The New Yorker as a music (and literary) critic, writes a wonderful music blog , has first-rate books on music and has a new book coming out titled Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music .
That's from the new book on music by Alex Ross . It's not a comprehensive tour de force like The Rest is Noise was, but it is smart and well-written on every page and if you liked the first book you should buy and read the second. The portraits cover, among others, Radiohead, Bjork, John Luther Adams, Marian Anderson, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Uchida. The chapter on Bob Dylan is especially good and it eclipses Sean Wilentz's entire recent book on Dylan.
5. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century , by Alex Ross. Ross won’t quite say it, but he tries to convince the reader that the twentieth century is the best century for music, ever. That’s without pushing serialism too hard or resorting much to popular music. Sibelius, Janacek, Messiaen, and John Adams are among the heroes in this story. If you are only going to buy (and read) ten books on music, ever, this should be one of them. Here is one good review . Here is a Jason Kot...