Page 276 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 276
glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
tional newspaper. It still appears occasionally in Večer and is most present
in Dnevnik. But even in Dnevnik there is no longer continuous coverage of
the music scene but, instead, occasional pieces on “more attractive” events.
Music criticism has survived on the radio, where, however, it has its own
particular problems because of the nature of the medium. It is more dif-
ficult to access, because you have to tune in at the right time, while since
it is only broadcast once, it is also more difficult to analyse. There are also
some websites, such as the Slovene Music Information Centre (SIGIC) with
its online magazine Odzven, where music criticism appears somewhat spo-
radically, and various private blogs maintained by critics manqués. In these
cases, however, these are media that lie outside the daily mainstream. Such
websites are mainly visited by musicians and cannot reach and address the
general public and, in this way, place music among the current topics of
daily discourse. In such conditions, it is no longer possible to talk about
music criticism as an integral part of musical life and the life of society.
The following comments on the phenomenon of music criticism in Slove-
nia therefore relate to the situation as it was some years ago.
Just over 25 years ago, in a paper I presented at the Slovenian Music
Days, I talked about the state of opera criticism at that time. In doing so,
I made most of the same points that I made in the introduction to today’s
paper. It is a fact that we are experiencing the same development as oth-
er countries. For this reason, it may be easier to identify the characteris-
tics and peculiarities of music criticism in Slovenia from those aberrations
that are impossible or at least very unlikely in other contexts. For exam-
ple: nowhere else have I seen a newspaper publish a sensationalistic nega-
tive review of an opera – before the premiere! – on the basis of a rehears-
al closed to the public. Similarly, it is not normal for critics to wreak their
anger on blameless prompters, to complain that singers were out of tune
when reviewing performances characterised by faultless pitch and intona-
tion, to accuse singers of being vocally weak and inexpressive in roles in
which they were “clearly miscast”, and so on. Rhetorical questions in re-
views asking why specific individuals were not among the performers are
probably another peculiarity of music criticism in Slovenia. For a critic to
ask such questions is particularly ethically problematic, given that in most
cases artistic directors cannot respond publicly out of consideration for the
musicians and loyalty to the house that employs them. The case of a critical
overview of an opera season in a publication of the national theatre muse-
um in which the central problem of the season would appear to be the ter-
276
tional newspaper. It still appears occasionally in Večer and is most present
in Dnevnik. But even in Dnevnik there is no longer continuous coverage of
the music scene but, instead, occasional pieces on “more attractive” events.
Music criticism has survived on the radio, where, however, it has its own
particular problems because of the nature of the medium. It is more dif-
ficult to access, because you have to tune in at the right time, while since
it is only broadcast once, it is also more difficult to analyse. There are also
some websites, such as the Slovene Music Information Centre (SIGIC) with
its online magazine Odzven, where music criticism appears somewhat spo-
radically, and various private blogs maintained by critics manqués. In these
cases, however, these are media that lie outside the daily mainstream. Such
websites are mainly visited by musicians and cannot reach and address the
general public and, in this way, place music among the current topics of
daily discourse. In such conditions, it is no longer possible to talk about
music criticism as an integral part of musical life and the life of society.
The following comments on the phenomenon of music criticism in Slove-
nia therefore relate to the situation as it was some years ago.
Just over 25 years ago, in a paper I presented at the Slovenian Music
Days, I talked about the state of opera criticism at that time. In doing so,
I made most of the same points that I made in the introduction to today’s
paper. It is a fact that we are experiencing the same development as oth-
er countries. For this reason, it may be easier to identify the characteris-
tics and peculiarities of music criticism in Slovenia from those aberrations
that are impossible or at least very unlikely in other contexts. For exam-
ple: nowhere else have I seen a newspaper publish a sensationalistic nega-
tive review of an opera – before the premiere! – on the basis of a rehears-
al closed to the public. Similarly, it is not normal for critics to wreak their
anger on blameless prompters, to complain that singers were out of tune
when reviewing performances characterised by faultless pitch and intona-
tion, to accuse singers of being vocally weak and inexpressive in roles in
which they were “clearly miscast”, and so on. Rhetorical questions in re-
views asking why specific individuals were not among the performers are
probably another peculiarity of music criticism in Slovenia. For a critic to
ask such questions is particularly ethically problematic, given that in most
cases artistic directors cannot respond publicly out of consideration for the
musicians and loyalty to the house that employs them. The case of a critical
overview of an opera season in a publication of the national theatre muse-
um in which the central problem of the season would appear to be the ter-
276
