Back when most of the leading newspapers in the United States employed paid, officially designated music critics, the artists reviewed were, quite naturally, pleased by positive reviews and less happy with negative ones. The only unpardonable offense was when nobody showed up at all – when the concert on which a musician had spent many hours, perhaps years, planning and preparing would be over and relegated only to memory.
This affront is more rule than exception today, for there are likely no more than 20 Americans who still make most of their living writing in newspapers about classical music. In the mid-1980s, The New York Times published more than 1,000 concert reviews a year and there was a column every Sunday devoted specifically to debut recitals. The Daily News had a full-time critic, as did the New York Post; Newsday, after 1987, had two. Reviewing was a good way for young writers to make a poor living: In addition to the newspapers, there were classical music reviews in New York Magazine and the Village Voice as well as in those publications specifically devoted to the field – Ovation, Keynote, Classical, Musical America and others. Coverage at The New Yorker was so copious that critic Andrew Porter was able to assemble a large volume of his published criticism every three years or so.
The profession isn’t entirely defunct – there are some extraordinary critics still on the beat. In cities with major arts centers or celebrated orchestras, such positions are easier for an editor to justify in tough financial times (and it has been mostly downhill since the advent of the internet)…
The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales has poached Bournemouth Symphony’s Lisa Tregale to be its next director. She succeeds Michael Garvey.
The orchestra has just named Ryan Bancroft principal conductor, so it’s a clean sweep.
The British organist Kevin Bowyer has put a Hamburg instrument through its toughest test by performing the second symphony of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988), the noted British iconoclast.
The performance lasted nine hours.
It was part of a daylong Sorabji immersion that began at 11.00 and ended at 23.10.
The new artistic and general director of the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, founded by Malgoire, will be the exceptionally busy François-Xavier Roth, presently Generalmusikdirektor of the city of Cologne and principal guest at the London Symphony Orchestra.
French Baroque just went broke.
In a low-key year, the second basson prize was shared between the Italian Andrea Cellacchi, 22, and local favourite Mathis Stier 25.
This could be a moment for ARD to reconsider its workings. All finalists so far in all disciplines have been male.
The last of the sections, percussion, was win last night by an Austrian, Kai Strobel.
John Pryce-Jones has been talking with fetching humility about his long career, now ending, as principal conductor of Northern Ballet, as well as Halifax Choral Society and Opera North.
‘If all I had to do was stand up, perform and conduct, it could be mega fantastic, but you go through a lot of hard work, self doubt and dealing with a lot of people who are emotionally exposed all the time, which is difficult. But, probably, the rewards are greater than in some other careers.’
‘…Coming back to amateur singers was quite a shock but I began to realise that it was equally fulfilling to work with relatively or completely untrained singers, who had less or no preconceptions of singing technique.
‘I am passionate about voices and singing technique – the latter is a controversial art but thanks to a wonderful teacher and friend, Gerald Wragg, I have had great success helping and improving singers both trained and untrained of almost all ages. This has made my long association with the choral society hugely rewarding.’
