Cancer claims San Francisco critic
mainThe San Francisco Chronicle has an obituary for Allan Ulrich, its former music and dance critic who also contributed to the Financial Times, Dance magazine and other journals. Allan was 78 and had been suffering from cancer.
His colleague Joshua Kosman writes: ‘He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the arts, and a commitment to the field that was truly second to none. San Francisco and the entire artistic world is a sadder and more forlorn place today.’
Joshua Kosman is a master. He’s a wonderful music writer and a thoughtful, intelligent critic. When he writes an obituary or a remembrance of someone from the world of music, it is always extraordinary. This magnificent tribute to his colleague is no exception. Bravisimo.
Thank you Anon, Norman Lebrecht, and Joshua Kosman. I gratefully remember Allan Ullrich’s writings on music and ballet when he was one of a new generation coming along with Michael Walsh at the San Francisco Chronicle until he left for TIME, and the ineffable Heuwell Tircuit, who left after crossly reviewing a Bella Davidovich piano recital that had been canceled and never took place. No-one told Heuwell.
California music criticism was in good hands then: Albert Goldberg at the Los Angeles Times; Joseph Biskind at the Argonaut; Alexander Fried and later Robert Commanday at the Examiner; and Alfred Frankenstein and Walsh at the Chronicle; Arthur Bloomfeld at the third daily.
They were heady days. Herb Caen, Lucius Beebe, Charles McCabe, Stanton Delaplane, and Count Marco kept their columns and other Chronicle departments more or less in order. Tales of Twin Peaks were still to come.