In The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker, gives us a riveting tour of the wild landscape of twentieth-century classical music: portraits of individuals, cultures, and nations reveal the predicament of the composer in a noisy, chaotic century.
Here, as part of our music-themed month on the blog, we present an abridged version of the chapter-by-chapter Listening Guide that can be found in the back of the book, complete with corresponding Spotify playlists. Alex has also kindly updated his recommendations to accommodate the first years of the 21st Century.
A tip-of-the-iceberg introduction to a century of classical music, we recommend you immerse yourself in these recordings right away (and immerse yourself in the book immediately afterward!).
In one of the most ambitious music projects in recent years, Southbank Centre will chart the history of 20th century classical music in a year-long festival of concerts, talks, films, performances and participation events throughout 2013 inspired by Alex Ross’ seminal book The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.
