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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000087.txt from 2006/10
From: David Lurie <klingsor@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [DR-L] critics - Phil's comment
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:46:40 -0400
This reminds me of an incident I observed happen at the Eastman
School of Music a very long time ago. The critic for the local paper
reviewed a concert that I attended which took place in a small
concert hall in the School called Kilbourne Hall. This hall had a
little entrance way that was like a small foyer, with some seats
where people could sit down. But this foyer had doors leading to the
hall itself, which were kept closed during all performances - so as
to eliminate any outside sounds. It also served to block the sound of
the performances inside the hall from coming out. IOW, you could
hardly hear anything of the performance if you were sitting out there.
But that is where I saw him sitting, making written notes. I saw him
there before the concert started, and also during intermission as
well as at the end of the concert. The next day his review appeared
in the paper, and his comment was that "the diction of the singers
was reminiscent of Choctaw". Well, I was inside the hall and heard
every note, and I could absolutely understand everything the singers
sang. Now this guy was supposed to be a professional critic, and he
reviewed al performances by the Rochester Philharmonic and Civic
Orchestras, plus every public concert given by Eastman students. So
you never know about critics.
David Lurie
At 09:19 AM 10/11/2006, you wrote:
>I once performed a concert where the Bizet Symphony in C was replaced on the
>program by L'Arlesienne and the critic waxed poetic about the beautiful oboe
>solo in the second movement which of course was never performed.
>
>Robert Losinno
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Victoria [mailto:orchplayers@-----.net]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 6:19 PM
>To: doublereed@-----.org
>Subject: [DR-L] critics - Phil's comment
>
>I like the way you expressed that, Phil! (See below) However, I do believe
>that a critic should know of what she/he writes. We've (Oregon Chamber
>Players) had a few reviews, some good, some not-so-good, some just plain
>strange. We once had a critic praise our 'wonderful brass section'. We
>don't have a brass section, though we did have 2 French horns playing one or
>two pieces on that concert... Another critic, when writing about a historic
>performance of a concerto for 4-hand pianoforte on a custom-built
>instrument, wrote something about the soloists 'sitting on the piano bench
>like two siblings at the dinner table', and something else about fluttering
>eyelashes. Nothing substantial at all, though, as Herb said, we did manage
>to pull one or two useable quotes for our site. (It was a highly-favorable
>review - just odd.) I came away from reading these reviews thinking that a
>critic should at least have some sort of arts degree, and be able to
>recognize instruments and write intelligently about musical style periods,
>etc. After all, typical audience members aren't going to be writing a
>column that thousands will read that may or may not affect future ticket
>sales. Most importantly, of course, a critic should actually LIKE music,
>and enjoy going to concerts!
>
>My two cents,
>
>Victoria Racz
>
>Phil typed: "Sniping at a critic's degree in Forestry, or lack of Music
>degree,
>seems like a dubious strategy, to me. Doesn't that imply that the
>proper appreciation of your performances requires a Doctorate? If so,
>you're going to have to do a lot of "educating" to build any sort of
>following, as most of us don't have Ph.D.'s in Music History...."
>
>
>
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