Boston Globe music critic quits
NewsMessage from Jeremy Eichler:
… After 18 years at the Boston Globe, I am moving on from my position and joining the faculty of Tufts University, where I’ll be taking up a newly created professorship in music history and public humanities, beginning this fall.
I will really miss working with many wonderful Globe colleagues. I’m also very excited for a new home base where I will be able to bring my experience into the classroom, continue with my public-facing writing (including a new book project about which I hope to share more soon), and embark on a new set of collaborations including a position next season as the first Writer-in-Residence of the London Philharmonic Orchestra….
Will he be replaced?
Yes, I’m confident he’ll be replaced – if even only by freelancers. I wasn’t a fan and we’ll leave it at that, but I wish him well in his new position.
Great news! Congrats to Eichler. People with genuine writing talents need not waste their life working for corporate music journalism.
Are there… private humanities?
I was intrigued by that appellation too — made me think. Perhaps it will discuss the public role of the humanities in a way that could ultimately make sense to our politicians, bean-counters and even philistines.
I’ve enjoyed Jeremy’s writing for many years. Sadly, the Globe itself has cut back on what gets covered, but that is not his fault.
Having just completed a 2nd or 3rd residency at Tufts, I can say he is joining a lovely place. They have eager and curious students, great facilities, and a good vibe between music faculty.
Will be missed. Wrote Times Echo, a truly thoughtful book about time and the memory of the holocaust.
He could well be replaced by that intelligent writer Artie Fischl.
A real loss. If they promote ZM to the position I will be cancelling my Globe subscription.
To each his own…Jeremy Eichler may be an outstanding writer but I don’t trust his ears (or his predisposition to loving everything atonal). Zoe Madonna on the other hand has been pretty consistently on-target in my experience. I wish Mr. Eichler well in his new position, but I do feel he never filled the shoes of the great Richard Dyer.
Zoe Madonna is the worst. I can always tell when it is her vs Jeremy within the first few phrases of a BSO concert review. She is vague and doesn’t seem to actually understand classical music. Hopefully the Globe does not plan on handing all classical reviews over to her as that will be awful.
I’ve enjoyed most of her writing, though Jeremy is a more experienced hand. It’s ideal to have both a younger and somewhat older critic on staff, for they balance each other out. That’s the problem with the NY Times now – it’s all young guys for the most part and their opinions follow a similar framework.
Me too!
I like his writing. His recent book, Time’s Echo, is a worthwhile read. That said, he has only occasionally reviewed performances of the local musical ensembles for the Globe in recent years. That task was left to others. I suspect the Globe will hire a successor.
His recent book was a revelation.
Congrats, Jeremy!
A thoughtful writer. In his reviews, however, he was overly focused on contemporary music. He always waxed lyrical about anything 20th or 21st century that wasn’t late romantic, and sometimes looked down upon anything earlier. I recall a review of Ma Vlast under James Levine full of snark about the work and even the attendees. I was one of those naive people who enjoyed the performance.
You call him a “thoughtful” writer, but the writer you then go on to describe doesn’t sound thoughtful at all.
I don’t have access to the review you are referring to and I don’t remember it, but having been a regular reader of Mr. Eichler’s your description doesn’t sound like him at all and I never noticed the particular musical prejudices that you attribute to him.
You have a point: my comment is not well written. Let me try to clarify.
– If memory serves, the Ma Vlast concert was on a Thanksgiving weekend, I think in 2004.
– Eichler’s prose has displayed knowledge and feeling of music. He’s generally been articulate, often eloquent.
– His attitude towards non-contemporary music was inconsistent, and certainly didn’t display ignorance. But he was often dismissive of repertory staples. He went well beyond (rightfully, I think) complaining about staples being overperformed. He was often condescending.
– His reviews were overbalanced in favor of contemporary music, for which I never came across any negative review. He would write at disproportionate length about even the shortest modern piece, and save very little space about earlier works.
In sum: knowledgeable, thoughtful, articulate and flawed.
So, in other words, he spent more time writing about what was new rather than what was old hat. Seems to me that’s exactly what he should have been doing.
As for your claim that he praised every new piece while showing disdain for older works. I can’t prove you wrong. I don’t have his collected reviews to go through, but as someone who has probably read close to 100% of his BSO reviews as they appeared I think that’s hogwash.
The Ma Vlast performance was in November 2007.
Congratulation Jeremy. Your book Times Echo is a scholarly addition to music history research. Tufts is fortunate to have you on their faculty.
Good luck Jeremy. You were always very kind to us from Germany.
Wishing Mr. Eichler much success in his new chapter. He has been a wonderful asset to the Boston Globe. He’s a thoughtful & educated critic who’s added so much to Boston’s world of music.
He will not be missed. No one ever shed a tear for music critics. They’re a necessary evil in performing arts.
A good critic not only gives their opinion of the performance, but also explains why and helps the reader understand their own reaction to the work in question. Jeremy Eichler has been an excellent critic and this regular reader of his reviews will definitely miss him.