The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs, Yearbook 1997-1998 (Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and DVDs Yearbook)

An essential guide to both the most current releases and classic backlist musical selections provides alphabetical listings; rates the interpretation and excellence of performances; evaluates sound quality, financial value, and content of recordings, and bargains; and contains a special editor's choice section. Original.

Intended as a companion volume to The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs of 1996, this Yearbook succeeds remarkably well in offering a comprehensive look at recent compact disc issues and reissues, with 700 tiny-type pages of thoughtful reviews. The mass of Schubert recordings issued for the composer's birth bicentennial in 1997 are here, as are the many marvelous reissues that returned to record-company catalogs after a sonic cleaning and repackaging. To prevent the back strain that buyers might suffer in attempting to take both the mammoth original guide and this volume on a jaunt to a record store, the editors have thoughtfully included 500 reviews of "key recordings," for "a comprehensive series of 'best buys'" excerpted from the first book. The Penguin guides are among the best available, and the Yearbook is definitely a worthwhile volume for music lovers.