With all due respect Deryk Barker, an excellent reviewer of classical music
along with many others on this list, I've tired of Fanfare and American
Record Guide and have taken a liking to the Penguin Guide.  I've always
used it, but now more exclusively than in the past.  The reason is simple
enough: Penguin isn't afraid of calling bald shots in as little amount of
space as needed and necessary.  It also juxtaposes other recordings of
merit for comparison.

Too many of the standard classical music periodicals really don't say very
much, or if they do, it's more often than not (Vroon always the exception)
noncommittal and insecure.Too often there is no comparison with other
recordings.  I like a robust endorsement that I can measure and use that
measure to apply to other recordings.  With Penguin, you're dealing with
three individuals who work by consensus.  With the periodicals one gets
certain recordings often measured by the same person (which is good) but
more often an ad hoc approach to the whole repertoire.

Lastly, the Penguin Guide is more economical, at the expense of not
always being the most timely.  But with the annual updates, it gives
the economically-oriented buyers (like me) a chance to evaluate all the
previous year's releases, not only in context to each other, but to the
releases from the dawn of CDs.  Perhaps it's not as thrilling as waiting
for the next issue of Fanfare or ARG, but it's more to the point, more
exhaustive, and more economical.

Stephen Heersink
San Francisco
http://home.att.net/~dshsfca/