# Music Critics that you actually respect…



## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

Who are the three classical music critics whose opinion you respect (even if you do not often agree with them)?

1. Andrew Clements 
2. Tim Rutherford - Johnson
3. Alex Ross


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

1. Robert Schumann
2. Arnold Schoenberg
3. Aaron Copland


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Respect means both thoughtful and useful...
Tony Duggan
Ralph Moore
Dan Morgan
Edward Greenfield


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

1. Me
2. Myself
3. I


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I don't recall any names, but in the early nineties most of my CD purchases were based on Gramophone (monthly magazine) and Penguin CD Guide (book) reviews. In general, I was pretty happy with the CD's selected that way.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Andrew Porter, retired New Yorker Magazine (the volumes of his collected reviews are essential)
Michael Steinberg, deceased Boston Globe (the volumes of selected program notes are good.)
G. B. Shaw (always a hoot, but a knowledgeable one)


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

1. Harold C. Schonberg
2. Alex Ross
3. Anthony Tommasini


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Rob Cowan
Ivan March
Jim Svejda
Ralph Moore


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## 4chamberedklavier (12 mo ago)

I'm fairly new to the classical world, so forgive me if this question has an obvious answer, but what qualities should you look for in a critic worthy of respect? I've read some posts in the Hurwitz thread, so I have an idea of what a critic _shouldn't_ do, but what are the things a critic _should_ do?


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

4chamberedklavier said:


> I'm fairly new to the classical world, so forgive me if this question has an obvious answer, but what qualities should you look for in a critic worthy of respect? I've read some posts in the Hurwitz thread, so I have an idea of what a critic _shouldn't_ do, but what are the things a critic _should_ do?


It‘s really all about your own ear. as in life, question everything. From what I’ve seen of his Youtube channel, Hurwitz gets a bad rap, and he says some crazy … like Hohenstein’s Mahler 3 with the LSO is awful, but he can also says some insightful stuff.


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## sAmUiLc (9 mo ago)

Me, me, me!

I subscribed to Gramophone during 80's. Then I fired all the critics. It's been more than 3 decades since the last time I read any critic's review. I've been avidly listening to classical music for over 6 decades now. I know what I want and don't want. Not saying I am right since there is no right or wrong in opinion. I know best on what/who I am as a classical music listener.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> I don't recall any names, but in the early nineties most of my CD purchases were based on Gramophone (monthly magazine) and Penguin CD Guide (book) reviews. In general, I was pretty happy with the CD's selected that way.


Yes, I've found the same very useful, and PrestoClassical a helpful source of the various awarded recordings, whether _Gramophone_, Radio3 or whoever.

Better than a mere critic is Tom Service (_Guardian, BBC_) who is an enthusiast. For example...









The symphony and how it changed our world


Next week, Tom Service begins a weekly series about the symphony, exploring through the greatest 50 how it tells the story of music and also our own place in the world




www.theguardian.com





I also like Alex Ross. I recall former member Mahlerian objecting to the way the TV series _The Rest is Noise _(based on Ross' book) portrayed Schoenberg, but I'm not sure whether it was Ross or the TV version that was at fault. I've not read the book, so I can't comment further on that, but I do like the articles of his I've read in _The New Yorker _and elsewhere.


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## maladie (Oct 14, 2015)

Ludwig Schon said:


> Who are the three classical music critics whose opinion you respect (even if you do not often agree with them)?
> 
> 1. Andrew Clements
> 2. Tim Rutherford - Johnson
> 3. Alex Ross


Solid list there. What I like about all three, is that even if I disagree with them, I find their various exploration of themes and ideas quite interesting. They bring something to the discussion.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

I think one has to say that often music critics aren’t professional musicians themselves. To give two notable examples: John Steane was an English teacher and Edward Greenfield’s qualifications were in law.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I am far less attached to any music critics now than I was when sampling recordings was more difficult. But I do enjoy reading Alex Ross and have found reading the (now quite old) articles by Neville Cardus always interesting. I do also quite like some of what Andrew Clements does. We still get quite a bit of classical music on TV in UK but often (there have been some notable exceeptions) the presenters (for both concerts and documentaries) make me cringe. I think on science and history the BBC tends to give us actual experts but they seem more keen to dumb down classical music.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I used to like Roger Dettmer and Mortimer Frank....generally, if I liked aomething, they would, as well......Henry Fogel is ok, he doesn't always agree with me, but often does.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

George Solti had a right goat Claudia Cassidy the Chicago critic saying she knew nothing about music but w as only in the paper because people enjoyed her negativity.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Here are some I trust ... though I don't buy recordings just because they (or anyone else) likes them:

James North, Henry Fogel and Arthur Lintgen of Fanfare.

Paul Althouse, Nathan Faro, Roger Hecht from American Record Guide.

I never found a critic online or in either BBC Music or Gramophone magazines I could trust.

When I say I trust a critic I mean the critic is telling me what s/he thinks regardless of pressure from advertisers, the editor or owner of the publication or website, or any other outside influence. There is an online critic discussed often in these parts I have never trusted going back to when he wrote for Fanfare. He is influenced by advertisers; so are many critics in various media. They either soften their criticism of products advertised in their medium or exaggerate the good aspects of recordings. In my opinion this is more true today than it has ever been and there is less independence between products and critics than there has ever been.

Another critic once talked about widely, Huntley Dent who went by the handle Santa Fe Listener on Amazon, told me bluntly he disliked period performance. Now that he writes for Fanfare, a magazine in bed with the recording and advertising industries that will guarantee a good review to certain advertised products, I've read him say things like, "now that period performance has been with us 30 years..." to justify the efficacy of a recording. His magazine clearly has an interest in sales of products it advertises. So does every website and magazine supported by advertising. I always wonder how much this changes the equation on reviewed products.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

1. David Hurwitz
2. Bernard Michael O'Hanlon
3. Edward Greenfield
4. Tony Duggan
5. Ralph Moore


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Richard Taruskin, sometimes.


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## Andrew Kenneth (Feb 17, 2018)

HenryPenfold said:


> 1. David Hurwitz
> *2. Bernard Michael O'Hanlon*
> 3. Edward Greenfield
> 4. Tony Duggan
> 5. Ralph Moore


Bernard Michael O'Hanlon deserves a fan-club.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

1. Paul Griffiths
2. Kyle Gann
Their writings are very good introduction to modern, avant garde, experimental, minimal/postminimal, contemporary music.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Seeing Ralph Moore's name in some posters' lists reminds me of his many reviews on the Amazon sites - I guess that is how he started. I used to find him quite reliable in Romantic repertoire (less so in Classical and not at all in Baroque) although he had a taste for the sort of immaculate but sometimes overblown and often dull performances of Thielemann and others like him. His speciality was opera but he was no fan of most of today's singers so I trusted him on the recordings of the 1950s to 1980s but less so with later recordings. The thing that worried me about him was a tendency to become angry with those who disagreed with his judgments: he could sound like he felt he was the true connoisseur and those who disagreed were ignoramuses.


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

HenryPenfold said:


> 1. David Hurwitz
> 2. Bernard Michael O'Hanlon
> ...


Please tell me you're kidding. 

I don't think we can be friends if this is true. 

I can't think of two more pig-ignorant, puffed-up, self-important arseholes in all of classical music criticism!

YMMV


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Knorf said:


> Please tell me you're kidding.
> 
> I don't think we can be friends if this is true.
> 
> ...


😉


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

Ok. Whew. We can still be friends.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Knorf said:


> Ok. Whew. We can still be friends.


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