The Art of Music Criticism

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - way out of his depth with the Floyd, Keller was the dedicatee of works by Britten (who wouldn't have written the 3rd Quartet without Keller's nagging), Simpson and many others. He was also the only British-based Music commentator for whom Milton Babbitt had any high regard. That Britten and Babbitt both regarded Keller highly speaks volumes for the intellect and perceptivity of the man - as does the fact that so many of the finest chamber ensembles from the UK that began their careers in the '60s and '70s sought his advice on performing the Classical repertoire. His book on The Great Haydn Quartets is a remarkable achievement - it is the work of an intellectual heavyweight, but written in such a way that anyone who reads it feels not overwhelmed by the writer's erudition, but empowered by their own greater insights.

And anyone who comes up with a phrase like "boredom is a sign of stupidity" has my own undivided attention.

[LeMartinPecheur]

may I put (push?) forward Wilfrid Mellers, for his big broad studies of a nation's music (Music in a New Found Land) and musical periods (Man and his Music), but most of all for his composer studies, e.g. RVW, Grainger and Poulenc? Like someone said at the top of the thread, they always make me want to listen more closely to the music!

That reminds me: must read Bach and the Dance of God...

[Flosshilde]

I like reviews that offer elements of both but if pushed I'd chuck the objectivity

& if one knows the reviewer's particular quirks & tastes one can take thos into account; for example, to switch from music to film briefly, Alexander Walker, film critic for the London Evening Standard, loathed Ken Russell, so one knew that any review of the latter's films wasn't going to be a balanced, objective, view.

[Hornspieler]

I think HS has hit the spot - there is a difference between the sort of newspaper copy that Cardus (and others) had to produce regularly and quickly and the considered analyses that Keller (and Simpson, Rosen, Tovey, Solomon etc etc) were able to spend time producing books and articles for learned journals. It's unfair of me to expect Cardus to be able to say anything of more than passing interest in the circumstances under which he worked (and his book on the early Symphonies of Mahler show greater perception - and if he seems content to comment mainly on thematic material, his "remit" there was to introduce unknown Music to a wider public.)

I don't seem to care for journalists' copy (not even Corno di Bassetto's) - but the work of the analysts I find spellbinding.

Just a subjective response.

I dont disagree with any of the replies to my earlier post, but the point that I was making was purely in regard to the title of this thread and this word criticism.

Criticism suggests to me complaint or codemnation. But the word Critic suggests a person qualified to air an opinion or reaction to a performance (or indeed a publication)

The posts received so far have named many distinguished Music Critica (Cardas, Keller, Simpson etc.) but they are/were read for the value of their appraisals which may contain ether praise or criticism and for me, I would like to feel that our own message boarders should feel the same freedom of expression either way when giving their own impressions of a performance

Hs.

[Thropplenoggin]

I dont disagree with any of the replies to my earlier post, but the point that I was making was purely in regard to the title of this thread and this word criticism.

Criticism suggests to me complaint or codemnation. But the word Critic suggests a person qualified to air an opinion or reaction to a performance (or indeed a publication)

The posts received so far have named many distinguished Music Critica (Cardas, Keller, Simpson etc.) but they are/were read for the value of their appraisals which may contain ether praise or criticism and for me, I would like to feel that our own message boarders should feel the same freedom of expression either way when giving their own impressions of a performance

Hs.

One definition of criticism is the analysis and judgement of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work. 'Critic' surely derives from this noun. When I wrote the title, I did so in the belief that most belief were aware of this definition of the word.

criticism
noun
1. the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
2. the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.
3. the act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc.
4. a critical comment, article, or essay; critique.
5. any of various methods of studying texts or documents for the purpose of dating or reconstructing them, evaluating their authenticity, analyzing their content or style, etc.: historical criticism; literary criticism.

[VodkaDilc]

Hans Keller was before my time. Folk seem to refer to him when they're reaching for gravitas. Did he know his stuff?

His reputation might suggest otherwise, but he was a very entertaining after-dinner speaker at a function I attended around 1970.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Further to #32, my regard for Mellers increases still further now that I know he's honoured one of our most distinguished boarders http://www.amazon.co.uk/Caliban-Rebo...ilfrid+mellers

[Nick Armstrong]

Indeed, the boy was clearly no fool !!

[Nick Armstrong]

Semi-off-piste I know, but with a chuckle or three this morning I came across the following riposte to criticism - literary rather than musical - but all the same it's very artistic (or is that artful?):

“A certain critic - for such men, I regret to say, do exist - made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.”

[Roehre]

And then, of course, there is the reaction to some of the critics, like the following by Reger:

Dear Sir,
I am sitting in the smallest room of my home, reading your article.
I still have got it in front of me.
Regards,
Max Reger.

[Serial_Apologist]

'I played the first movement. Never a word, never a single remark. Do you know the awkward and ridiculous sensation of putting before a friend a meal which you have cooked yourself, which he eats - and holds his tongue? Oh, for a single word, for friendly abuse, for anything to break the silence! For God's sake say something! But Rubinstein never opened his lips. He was preparing his thunderbolt ... I did not require a judgement of my work from the artistic side; simply from the technical point of view. Rubinstein's silence was eloquent. 'My dear friend', he seemed to be saying to himself, 'how can I speak of the details, when the work itself goes entirely against the grain?' I gathered patience, and played the concerto straight through to the end. Still silence.

'"Well?" I asked, and rose from the piano. Then a torrent of abuse broke from Rubinstein's lips. Gentle at first, gathering volume as it proceeded, and finally bursting into the fury of a Jupipter-Tonans. My concerto was worthless, absolutely unplayable; the passages so broken, so disconnected, so unskilfully written, that they could not even be improved; the work itself was bad, trivial, common; here and there I had stolen from other people; only one or two pages were worth anything; all the rest had better be destroyed, or entirely rewritten. 'For instance, that?' 'And what meaning is there in this?' Here the passages were caricatured on the piano. 'And look there? Is it possible that anyone could?' etc., etc., etc. But the chief thing I cannot reproduce: the tone in which all this was said. An independent witness of this scene must have concluded that I was a talentless maniac, a scribbler with no notion of composing, who had ventured to lay this rubbish before a famous man ... I was not only astounded, but deeply mortified, by the whole scene. I require friendly counsel and criticism; I shall always be glad of it, but there was no trace of friendliness in the whole proceedings. It was a censure delivered in such a form that it cut me to the quick. I left the room without a word and went upstairs. I could not have spoken for anger and agitation. Presently Rubinstein came to me and, seeing how upset I was, called me into another room. There he repeated that my concerto was impossible, pointed out many places where it needed to be completely revised, and said if I would suit the concerto to his requirements, he would bring it out at his concert. 'I shall not alter a single note', I replied, 'I shall publish the work precisely as it stands'. This intention I actually carried out".

Tchaikovsky, in a letter describing Arthur Rubinstein's reactions on the composer's trialling of his first piano concerto to its intended dedicatee and premier giver, to Nadjeda von Meek in February 1878.

[Richard Barrett]

I am sitting in the smallest room of my home, reading your article.
I still have got it in front of me.

But Roehre, you missed out the punchline! The quote from Reger's letter, so far as I know, goes "Ich sitze in dem kleinsten Zimmer in meinem Hause. Ich habe Ihre Kritik vor mir. Im nächsten Augenblick wird sie hinter mir sein." (I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment it will be behind me.)

Slightly less pithy are these words sent by a composer to a well-known English critic in 2009: "Reading this I am so glad to have once again left the UK, where sloppy, perfunctory and mean-spirited hackwork like this passes as journalism in an "intelligent" newspaper. You ought to be ashamed of it, or better still step aside and let your position in the Guardian go to someone who still has some life left in their listening."

[Serial_Apologist]

But Roehre, you missed out the punchline! The quote from Reger's letter, so far as I know, goes "Ich sitze in dem kleinsten Zimmer in meinem Hause. Ich habe Ihre Kritik vor mir. Im nächsten Augenblick wird sie hinter mir sein." (I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment it will be behind me.)

I think Roehr deliberately left it hanging, in a manner of speaking...

[Roehre]

I think Roehr deliberately left it hanging, in a manner of speaking...

That's called suspense

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... and then there was Beethoven's review of a fellow composer's opera: "I liked it very much. In fact, I'm seriously considering setting it to Music."

Or Verdi about a young composer's Requiem to the memory of Rossini: "Don't you think it would have been better if you had died and Rossini wrote a Requiem to your memory?"

And Stravinsky to a Los Angeles Music Critic: "Last night, the LAPO were world-beaters, whilst your Review of them was a local disgrace."