Norman Lebrecht facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Norman Lebrecht
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Lebrecht in 2004
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| Born | 11 July 1948 London, England
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Norman Lebrecht (born 11 July 1948) is a British music journalist and author. He writes mostly about classical music. He is famous for owning Slipped Disc, a popular classical music blog. On this blog, he often shares new articles.
Unlike many music writers, Lebrecht usually doesn't review concerts or recordings. Instead, he focuses on the people and groups involved in classical music. Some people say he is a very important and entertaining journalist. Others think his writing can be too dramatic or not always correct.
He wrote columns for The Daily Telegraph from 1994 to 2002. He was also an assistant editor for the London Evening Standard from 2002 to 2009. On BBC Radio 3, he hosted shows like lebrecht.live and The Lebrecht Interview. He has also written for magazines such as Standpoint and The Critic.
Besides writing about the classical music world, Lebrecht has written 12 books about music. He has also written two novels. One of his novels, The Song of Names (2001), won an award and was made into a movie. In 2019, he published a book about social history called Genius and Anxiety.
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Early Life and Education
Norman Lebrecht was born on July 11, 1948, in London, England. His parents were Soloman and Marguerite Lebrecht. He went to Hasmonean Grammar School in London.
From 1964 to 1965, Lebrecht studied at Kol Torah Rabbinical College in Israel. He then attended Bar-Ilan University (1966–1968) and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1977, he married Elbie Spivack, who is a sculptor and writer. They have three daughters.
Journalism Career
After finishing his studies, Lebrecht worked at Kol Yisrael news from 1970 to 1972. This was part of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. He moved back to London in 1972. There, he worked as a news executive at Visnews Ltd from 1973 to 1978.
From 1982 to 1991, he was a special writer for The Sunday Times. In 1993, he became a music columnist for The Daily Telegraph in Britain. He held this job until 2002.
In 2002, he became an arts columnist and assistant editor for the Evening Standard. He wrote a weekly column there until 2015. Gilbert Kaplan said that Lebrecht's column was "must-reading around the world." He focused on reporting about the groups and people who manage the classical music world. He was one of the first to predict that major classical record companies would struggle.
Lebrecht also wrote a monthly column for Standpoint magazine. Later, he moved his monthly essay to a new magazine called The Critic.
Books by Norman Lebrecht
In the 1980s, Lebrecht published several books about music. These included Discord (1982) and The Book of Musical Anecdotes (1985). He also wrote Mahler Remembered (1987) and A Musical Book of Days (1987).
After leaving The Sunday Times, Lebrecht released The Maestro Myth (1991). This book looks at the history of music conductors. It explores how conducting became an important job in the 1870s. The next year, he released Music in London (1992) and The Companion to 20th-Century Music (1992).
In 1996, he published When the Music Stops. This book tells the history of the classical music business. It also predicted problems for the record industry. He also wrote Covent Garden: The Untold Story (2000). This book covers the history of the Royal Opera House.
Novels and Other Works
Lebrecht started writing novels in 2002 with The Song of Names. This story is about two boys growing up in London during wartime. It also touches on the impact of the Holocaust. The book won the 2002 Whitbread Award for First Novel. Lebrecht was 54 years old when he won this award.
A movie based on The Song of Names was released in 2019. It was directed by François Girard and starred Tim Roth and Clive Owen.
His second book about Mahler, Why Mahler?, came out in 2010. In 2014, Lebrecht received the Cremona Music Award. This award recognized his efforts to share music culture around the world through his books and articles.
Another novel, The Game of Opposites, was published in 2009.
In 2019, Lebrecht published a social history book called Genius and Anxiety. This book explores how Jewish people influenced the world between 1847 and 1947. Many reviewers praised the book for its wide scope and interesting details.
Lebrecht's book Why Beethoven was published in 2023. It offers a guide to Beethoven recordings. Reviewers called it an "enjoyable read" with "unforgettable" descriptions.
Legal Case
His 2007 book, Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness, was about the classical record industry. However, the book was removed from sale. This happened after its publisher found that it contained claims that were not true.
In 2007, Klaus Heymann, the founder of Naxos Records, sued Lebrecht's publisher, Penguin Books. Heymann claimed that Lebrecht had wrongly accused him of "serious business problems." The case was settled outside of court. As part of the settlement, Penguin said that Lebrecht's accusations were false. They also apologized for the harm caused to Heymann.
Broadcasting Work
Starting in 2000, Norman Lebrecht hosted lebrecht.live on BBC Radio 3. This show was a cultural debate where people discussed issues in the arts. BBC Radio 3 mainly focuses on classical music and opera.
From 2006 to 2016, he also hosted The Lebrecht Interview on BBC Radio 3. In this show, he talked to important people in classical music.
Slipped Disc Blog
Lebrecht started his classical music blog, Slipped Disc, in March 2007. It began as part of ArtsJournal.com. Today, it gets over one million readers every month. In 2014, the blog became its own website, supported by ads. The blog often shares news and interesting stories about the classical music world.
When asked why he covers such stories, Lebrecht said it's like "human comedy." He explained that he started writing about music because no one else was writing in a way that interested him. He believes people are interested in what happens to a conductor, not just the music itself.
