International Who's Who in Classical Music 2015 (31st edition)

摘要

Worldwide in its coverage, over a thousand pages in length and nearly two kilogrammes in weight, this directory is a massive work in every sense. As the publisher's blurb states on the cover, the intention is to provide a "one-stop resource" for all aspects of the classical and light classical music fields, and the information here is certainly impressive in both its breadth and its organization. However, this 31st edition's own foreword immediately refers its readers elsewhere, first to a companion title in the series The International Who's Who in Popular Music, with which this volume can be purchased as a set (review forthcoming in Reference Reviews). Moreover, the editors devote a paragraph to detailing the online version of the Classical Music title itself, updated quarterly. This latter promotion is underscored by featuring the web address at the foot of each page throughout. So, imposing as the print version certainly is, there is a sense of some self-undercutting here and of witnessing a dignified slide towards obsolescence.