Of all the words and aphorisms written about personalities in the performing arts, the essay How To Become A Music Critic by George Bernard Shaw sticks in my mind. “There are three main qualifications for a music critic, besides the general qualification of good sense and knowledge of the world. He must have a cultivated taste for music, he must be a skilled writer and he must be a practiced critic. (This can also apply to female music critics, too). Shaw’s thoughts appeared in the 1894 edition of Scottish Musical Monthly, just when newspaper readership in Europe and the UK was soaring.
In the 19th century, Vienna boasted an average of 30 daily journals, but as American cities developed and grew, so did her appetite for cultural news. Although one could read reportage about entertainment offered at garden parties or social clubs, it wasn’t until 1825 that the New-York American ran a legitimate concert review, under a mystery nom de plume.
From that time to present, publications in this country have staffed an assortment of brilliant, outspoken and musically enlightened reviewers of various genres - of which classical music will be highlighted here. Browse through the internet or archives to find newspaper columns by high profile writers such as Henry Krehbiel, Virgil Thomson (composer of the opera Four Saints in Three Acts), Olin Downes, Deems Taylor, Harold C. Schonberg, Robert Commanday, Martin Bernheimer and Anthony Tommasini.
A reporter’s ability to combine seriousness with hype makes us want to read more, as shown in these snippets.
“Martha Argerich, the Garbo of pianists appeared at Tanglewood last night..” (Boston Globe, 2004);
“Could any pianist today other than Lang Lang sell out the Albert Hall for a Beethoven concerto cycle?” (The Guardian, 2012);
“Over the years, it has been highly enjoyable to watch the evolution of Renee Fleming from ingénue soprano to opera star to iconic diva.” (Seattle Times, 2012);
“To sit (not without physical discomfort or creakiness) through the entire 17-plus hours of this tale {SF Opera’s Ring cycle of Wagner} is to plunge into its uttermost regions and come out renewed on the other side.” (SFGate, 2018);
“No one has worked out the details of a piece the way Andras Schiff has..” (Philadelphia Inquirer, 2018).
Of course, publications come and go, and many have eliminated or scaled back positions for full-time classical music reporters due to budget constraints and the social media. The iPad is eclipsing the morning ritual of thumbing through pages of ink while sipping a cup or two of java. Fortunately, many rags offer Print and E-Edition formats, which makes perusing your favorite column even more accessible.
Everyone is a music critic in the sense that everybody has an opinion about how a piece should be played or if it is worthy of the concert hall. So do we really need critics? After all, they just rehash what we have already heard or heard about, with an expected tinge of subjectivity or forgiving understanding towards certain celebrity artists who might have an off night on stage.
The answer is both philosophical and practical. Music writers provide us with a window to the world of the performing arts. Through their eyes and ears we get to experience events that touch our lives on an aesthetic, emotional and even socio-political level. During the WWII years, hard-hitting music journalism permeated both American and European newspapers.
Since Shaw’s first assignments, classical music has undergone a radical transformation in terms of technological advancement. The DVD and YouTube now bring live concerts into our home. We are living in a digital environment and often forget that reporters used pen or typewriter to document historic happenings such as premieres of Shostakovichs’ Lady Machbeth of Mtsensk, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun and Chopin’s debut as pianist. Robert Schumann etched his impressions about the composer in a journal he founded in 1834.
“It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant lost in his dreams; to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing.” And there is the now legendary review Thomson wrote for the New York Herald Tribune entitled Silk-Underwear Music, in which he eloquently asserts that super nova violinist Jascha Heifetz was at his best in fluffy encore pieces.
Critics gave us the scoop on debuts of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rubinstein (Anton and Arthur), Toscanini, Von Karajan, Dudamel and MTT (Michael Tilson Thomas). And they can help us decipher new works of Adams, Rzewski, Glass and all the stuff featured at Ojai Music Festival.
In 1935, the famous violinist Fritz Kreisler fessed up to playing a slew of Baroque compositions he claimed were discovered, but were really his own. The venerable Ernest Newman of London’s Sunday Times was particularly uptight about this seemingly good-natured musical sham, which Kreisler addressed in an open letter. “Mr. Newman is a musical writer of great experience. Had he kept his attack within the decent bounds of his prerogative as a critic, he would never have drawn a word of reply from me.”
Although the relationship between musician and critic has not always been amicable, intrigue can increase readership, subscriptions and concert attendance. In fact, many artists rely on reviews to help jump-start or sustain a career, as do managements who use up market tactics to sell their artists to record companies, concert promoters and the public. Despite the ethereal nature of classical music, it is also a business. But since rock, pop and rap concerts seem to enjoy a greater audience market share, perhaps PR companies are a classical musician’s best friend.
Who hasn’t received glossy brochures or upscale E-blasts that tout the merits of a performer, orchestra or newly composed piece. While there are lots of accolades to sift through, press releases are often accurate and make you want to find out more – or at least peak one’s curiosity. I was proudly told by the editor of a now defunct journal, “We only publish good reviews.” Interestingly, Olga Samaroff, one of Juilliard’s renowned piano teachers was fired from her stint at the New York Post because of a refusal to write a bad review. In reality, not writing a five star review has been the new normal for quite some time.
Centuries ago, poets like Homer outlined what they considered the most pleasing aspects of music, and the Old Testament also highlights the benefit of soothing harmonies. In fact, the debate about consonance and dissonance in music has been raging for hundreds of years and the beat goes on with compositions that use electronic techniques instead of traditional orchestration. But let’s discuss that another time.
It wasn’t until 1722 that Johann Mattheson published Critica Musica in Germany, which is considered a first of its kind journal of music criticism. Other publications quickly followed, including one that included grudge match commentary between supporters and opponents of JS Bach’s music – the beloved composer whose melodies are as symmetrical as lines of computer code.
Many musical luminaries have felt the sting of a critic’s verbiage including Mahler, Schoenberg, Bernstein, Horowitz, Copland, Rostropovich, Grimaud, Welser-Moest and Mitsuko Uchida. Prodigies have always been an easy mark, but everlasting exceptions include George Enescu, Yehudi Menuhin, Glenn Gould, Jacqueline du Pre, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Barenboim and Evgeny Kissin.
Some of the most erudite and cutting reportage can be found in writings of Eduard Hanslick, particularly in his1876 evaluation of Wagner’s The Ring; “There is music in it, but it isn’t music.” Like it or not, music writers exert an enormous influence simply because they were there to document magnificent and outrageous moments. In 1839, Franz Liszt sent a letter to the Gazette Musicale in Paris in which he declared, “When a critic is not an artist, when he does not practice the things he claims to be informed about, people accordingly reject his authority.”
Although Liszt’s letter was initiated by a bad review in which he was accused of being more showman than musician, he does bring up a valid point, which is echoed by Thomson in his essay The Art of Judging Music. Early on, critics led a double life as reporter and either active performer, composer or aesthetic philosopher. And many important and lesser-known music writers in America, Europe and beyond could be considered highly educated amateur musicians – just as Shaw had envisioned in his essay.
However, having a zillion PhD’s in musicology or the ability to play Ligeti’s piano etudes, Paganini’s violin caprices or sing Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria from the Magic Flute doesn’t necessarily mean that one has all the right attributes to be a music critic.
Some universities in this country offer courses and degrees in music criticism, but the best way to try your skill is by going to a concert or watching a musical event on YouTube and role play; be your own critic. Even if you don’t know the exact musical terminology, because you didn’t take classes in theory, harmony, form and analysis, orchestration, music history, score reading (and the list goes on), listen to the conviction and accuracy of the performance and see if the interpretation speaks to you in an expressively convincing way.
If you still have ambivalent feelings about what you heard, then reflect on these words of Heifetz. “It was a critic who gave me a scathing review in 1921..who taught me that it is not enough to play a piece; you must think it.”