Breaking: Anne Midgette quits
mainAnne has resigned as chief classical music critic at the Washington Post, a position she has filled with distinction for 11 years. We’re finding out why.
There is nothing on her social media.
The paper has been relatively well funded since it was taken over by Amazon’s owner. It will not be the same without her.
UPDATE: She’s writing a book.
She’d like to spend more evenings at home with her son.
Her last day at the Post is November 22.
No, the Washington Post is not owned by Amazon. That is a well known fact.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, aquired the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million.
owned by Bezos personally and not part of the amazon empire itself.
Norman, ever contemplated a “Slipped Disc Pedant of the Year Award?”
Maybe one for “Boor of the Year” as well …
How about “sloppy on the facts” or “misleading headline” of the year, among classical music blogs.
hard to differentiate the two…
This is the journalist who wrote the article on Katherine Needleman.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/bso-musician-files-eeoc-complaint-against-the-orchestra/2018/09/17/04b29bc4-bab2-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html
She apparently hands the megaphone to any #metoo. Since you brought it up, what has happened in the last year since this complaint was filed?
Is there a reason she shouldn’t have? One high profile musician at war with her orchestra’s management who goes outside to file a complaint is newsworthy in and of itself. Whether or not Needleman or Carney turn out to be the aggrieved. That is a story.
I wonder if that issue is related to her departure.
“The paper has been relatively well funded since it was taken over by Amazon’s owner.” That’s what NL wrote and it is precisely correct. Nothing there about Amazon running WaPo.
Now there is no reason whatever to read at the Post. Will be glad to stop paying for it.
The Pulitzer Prizes for national reporting in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 aren’t gonna do it for you, then?
No, it is not correct, as Jeff Bezos is not the owner of Amazon, which is a public company. He is one of many owners. Given Amazon’s stock market capitalization, most Americans with any mutual fund or retirement plans will also be owners of Amazon.
Midgette’s not THAT magnificent …
She has been a very thoughtful critic; I’ve enjoyed reading her from time to time. Is she not married to Greg Sandow, another music critic, or at least former music critic?
She has done irreperable harm to the reputation of the National symphony with her biased reviews.
I doubt it. She didn’t have a high regard for their former music director Christoph Eschenbach.
Does anyone have a high regard for Eschenbach except as a pianist decades ago?
High regard is a problem – because if we just looked at every German conductor alive today, there are some that are potentially great, but most of the great German conductors are no longer with us.
Most of the great German conductors never were with us.
Eschenbach is still going strong at 79, and she’s at home looking after the kids.
All good when any music critic stops taking up space.
I don’t like your condescending tone about the job of staying home and looking after the kids. I got the impression she was going to be writing a book; both hugely worthwhile pursuits.
Nothing wrong with another book about child care.
The Houston Symphony musicians for once.
But not the Philly Orch musicians who couldn’t wait for him to leave.
What makes them biased, dare I ask? I don’t read every review but I’ve seen ones that were positive and others that were tough but fair. For one example, she was quite encouraging about the Kennedy Center’s casual concerts programmed by Mason Bates.
Anne just doesn’t go for the tired, formulaic programming of the sort that would sometimes appear at the NSO and hold it back as an institution.
Does she know anything about music? Or does she think its all about “how you say it”. The latter seems to more and more common.
No comment is anywhere near important enough to damage anything. No matter how they might like to think they are.
Critics for major publications have a big responsibility, bigger than that of bloggers or niche essayists – their reviews are influential on decision-makers who may not personally have the expertise to second-guess the critic’s judgment. Anne Midgette is one of very few in the US who knows enough to merit that kind of trust, and one of the few who can explain an opinion in good English. Where opera is concerned, her retirement reduces the US ranks of competent big-megaphone critics by at least 33.3% at a stroke.
Faultless? No way – nobody is – and that was easier to take when there were 25 or 30 major critics on the scene to balance each other’s blind spots. But she will be remembered for doing her job vigorously, honestly, and expertly.
Complete agreement. I always found her a pleasure to read in the Post, whether I agreed with a judgment or not. On opera specifically, she was one of the best in any mainstream publication. I wish that that were higher praise in the 21st century, but I mean it as such. In addition to everything else, she knew how to get the most out of the space she had to work with.
She also handled it with grace and tact when she got abuse in comments sections from some of her more hidebound readers, or from readers enraged that she had criticized one of their special woobies…both frequent occurrences.
I thought her music reviews were of no value and stopped reading them all together a long time ago. Now, she has finished her career trying to damage the careers of others. Maybe this is not such a sad say for the music world.
Good riddance. Get all these phonies out of a job. Wasn’t needed, didn’t help, won’t be missed.
This should free up some budget space at the Post for another hip-hop critic.
That would simply end up being ‘racism’.
I like her writing and her investigative reports have been very thoroughly researched. She’s also a foxy lady. Good luck to her on her next chapter!
Well shit.
She’s been pretty good.
I did not find her tenure so distinguished; certainly not compared to Tim Page, her predecessor. She is clearly an aficionado of vocal music, but her knowledge of orchestral music is quite limited. She often spent more time discussing some tangential aspect of a concert than the concert itself. Often the review was more about her opinion of the piece being played than the concert. I rarely found her to be an inspiring writer and even less often providing insight as to the performance. No ill will toward her but I wont be at a loss without her. Charles Downey of Classical Review is by far the best local critic.
Overall the WaPost is almost total garbage. It is infected
with political correctness and poor writing in its entirety. Nothing more than a propaganda paper for the Democratic Party. At least it could be well written propaganda. The Pulitzer Prize like the rest of those awards is dumbed down and given mostly to those with the same views as the committee. The KC awards is now a joke based on demographic attributes rather than serious accomplishments in the high arts. The recent KC celebration of reach had one classical concert, one jazz concert and dozens of pop concerts with a huge emphasis on Hip hop! Just what a non profit institution should be showcasing
Your second paragraph echoes much of what I’ve read elsewhere about the WP. Newspapers today are in a world of trouble because of the advocacy and PC rather than reportage. The clock is ticking on these institutions. Bezos won’t save it or anything else which promulgates an agenda from a small proportion of the population.
How true. One look at the programing for REACH shows that the KC is running on fumes as a “cultural” institution.
If they were all free concerts, it’s probably a hell of a lot more expensive to put on a pop show than a classical one. I don’t imagine the 90 or so NSO musicians volunteered their services for that show. Also, it’s not like they cancelled their full slate of orchestra, chamber music, ballet, opera, etc. slate next door.
Also, they are a nonprofit. They also are the national performing arts center. If the art in the US changes and expands… why wouldn’t they?
“Remember: a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic!”
Jean Sibelius
Reminds me of the saying: A parasite bug is never the star of any meal. Forgot who said it.
Manuela Hoelterhof, Wynne Delacoma, Claudia Cassidy, and Anne Midgettee are the only female classical critics I can think of and recognize by name.
When John von Rhein retired from Chicago Tribune last year, his job went to Howard Reich, their jazz reviewer, who is working himself to death covering both surprisingly well, proving t’s not far from Reich to Rhein. But I wish Alan Artner w was still there.
Zoë Madonna is a classical music critic for the Boston Globe.
I’ve never seen her write one positive review of anything. I know she is a critic, but she is basically impossible to please. I think she wants all live performances to sound like studio recordings or something.
Aweful reviewer, she will not be missed and many are today celebrating for her departure . she has been on a crusade to destroy people’s careers . Her reviews (in opera at least ) are always negative ,she seems to compliment someone and then proceeds to destroy them . I often wondered if she even knew anything really about music except contemporary music …. her critics were never constructive …
Her worst columns came when she would try to forecast the future of orchestral music or the symphony business. No clue about the market, or marketing, and only the most superficial grasp pf finance. Why do music writers try to be music business writers?
Ann Midgette was a decent critic. She became gradually more of a pontificator, however, and she seemed to embrace the wave of political correctness of late. Something tells me that her heart was not into it and perhaps this is why she quit. The WP became a piece of trash. Compared to what it used to be, brings back to mind a verse from a poem about glorious warriors who vanished and in their place rose worthless recruits: “where heroes used to dwell, now gypsies hang their ware”,
The new “agenda” in the Arts will destroy them. Ann is better off away from the bloody battlefield.
Gone are the days my friends.