# Who are some of the greatest living Classical Music Scholars?



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Who are some of the greatest living classical music scholars? 

Interesting if you also know their specialties, like the great living Liszt scholar.


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

I was going to say Charles Rosen but I wasn't aware he passed away in 2012


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Some of the members around here carry on as if they are great music scholars


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would say myself, but I died in 2012.

Therefore I would endorse David Dubal, one of the greatest, most knowledgeable authorities on great pianists and piano music.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

arpeggio said:


> Some of the members around here carry on as if they are great music scholars


With that in mind, I nominate arpeggio as TC's Resident Scholar. He can thank me later.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

The musicologist Richard Taruskin. His main focus is Russian music, but he has written widely (and brilliantly) on just about everything! His five-volume Oxford History of Western Music is a work of genius. He skillfully integrates music analysis with social, cultural, and political history--not an easy task. Reading his work is not an easy task either, but it is well worth the effort.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

An amazing Rossini scholar, as well as a great conductor: Alberto Zedda.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Bettina said:


> The musicologist Richard Taruskin. His main focus is Russian music, but he has written widely (and brilliantly) on just about everything! His five-volume Oxford History of Western Music is a work of genius. He skillfully integrates music analysis with social, cultural, and political history--not an easy task. Reading his work is not an easy task either, but it is well worth the effort.


Good call.

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/UC-music-historian-Richard-Taruskin-relishes-5519900.php


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

arnerich said:


> I was going to say Charles Rosen but I wasn't aware he passed away in 2012


But if not, he would be a good contender.


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## Marsilius (Jun 13, 2015)

Robert Letellier - author of scholarly studies on Meyerbeer, Auber, Minkus and other 19th century composers.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Bulldog said:


> With that in mind, I nominate arpeggio as TC's Resident Scholar. He can thank me later.


This will be my only response to your very unfair remark.

Not once in all of the years I have participated in this forum have I ever claimed to be an authority on classical music. There is only one area that I have some expertise on and that is concert band music. I reinforced this position in a post that I submitted just a few weeks ago: http://www.talkclassical.com/47294-how-much-time-do.html#post1183258

In many posts I admitted that I was a flop as a professional musician.

I do not have the wherewithal to be a great musical scholar but I can recognize SPEOE's when I see them.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

arpeggio said:


> This will be my only response to your very unfair remark.
> 
> Not once in all of the years I have participated in this forum have I ever claimed to be an authority on classical music. There is only one area that I have some expertise on and that is concert band music. I reinforced this position in a post that I submitted just a few weeks ago: http://www.talkclassical.com/47294-how-much-time-do.html#post1183258
> 
> ...


There you go again, being overly sensitive about nothing. I was just being humorous, and I never thought of you as a scholar. Musically, the only things I know about you are that you play an instrument and have an affinity for band music.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> There you go again, being overly sensitive about nothing. I was just being humorous, and I never thought of you as a scholar. Musically, the only things I know about you are that you play an instrument and have an affinity for band music.


That's the internet for you.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Herold C Schonberg... "Lives of the Great Composer's". Sorry that he is not living now, but I considered him not only a great reviewer but scholar, even if he didn't know which end was up when it came to Mahler-his blind spot. But I loved virtually every biography he wrote in this marvelous book about our greatest of composers. I haven't read it in years but I remember it like yesterday with his unforgettable insights. For a living critic and scholar, I like Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times. I think he's full of amazing insights. For the absolute lowest on the list, it would be Dr. David Wright of the UK and his hatchet jobs on such composers as Chopin and Schubert-the absolute bottom of the barrel in music criticism, hubris, and mischaracterizations.

Tommasini: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079WNQWTC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Lewis Lockwood for his original Beethoven sketch studies and his comprehensible books!.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Larkenfield said:


> For the absolute lowest on the list, it would be Dr. David Wright of the UK and his hatchet jobs on such composers as Chopin and Schubert-the absolute bottom of the barrel in music criticism, hubris, and mischaracterizations.


I wonder how this guy became a Doctor, because even I can tell that what he calls essays are closer to ramblings. He throws a bunch of facts and baseless opinions in a blender, sprinkles it with bias, and somehow the outcome of that is supposed to be an essay from an expert.


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## fliege (Nov 7, 2017)

DeepR said:


> I wonder how this guy became a Doctor, because even I can tell that what he calls essays are closer to ramblings. He throws some facts and baseless opinions in a blender, sprinkles it with bias, and somehow the outcome of that is supposed to be an essay from an expert.


Getting a PhD isn't that hard. Probably easier than an undergraduate degree in many ways.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I was thinking of Robert Craft, but he passed on in 2015. That said, I'll pick:
Leon Botstein
David Lloyd Jones
Lewis Foreman
Jeremy Dibble
Richard Taruskin, as mentioned above


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

DeepR said:


> I wonder how this guy became a Doctor, because even I can tell that what he calls essays are closer to ramblings. He throws a bunch of facts and baseless opinions in a blender, sprinkles it with bias, and somehow the outcome of that is supposed to be an essay from an expert.


That's unkind. David Wright makes me think of our Eugene.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

fliege said:


> Getting a PhD isn't that hard. Probably easier than an undergraduate degree in many ways.


Have you got a doctorate from a reputable university?


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> That's unkind. David Wright makes me think of our Eugene.


So he has at least some value then.

It's inevitable Schubert's fan club will hate this fellow. Until he was quoted I'd never heard of him, but now I feel less alone in my assessments.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Orfeo said:


> I was thinking of both Vardo Rasmussen and Robert Craft, but they passed on in 2015. That said, I'll pick:
> Leon Botstein
> David Lloyd Jones
> Lewis Foreman
> ...


I'll add to this list both David Fanning (an expert in Russian/Soviet music) as well as John Tyrrell (arguably the leading authority of Janacek and his music).


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