Page 45 - 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. 45
innovation, art, society, and life: deliber ations on music cr iticism’s past, pr esence ...
The muck swamp particularly concentrated in some corner of every big
city can be just good enough for the cinematic romance of climbing
max culture, and for the rest, however, is really just a matter of police
street cleaning procedure.20
Criticism Today
As we have seen, music criticism is a phenomenon strongly linked to the
bourgeoisie. Thus, in the late 20th century music criticism faced a decline
which, to a certain extent, was due to the decreasing importance of classi-
cal music and its institutions for a broader public that is no longer a bour-
geois one. Despite this pessimism critics are still present today. And they
are still the object of artist’s anger as a recent startling event in Germany
shows when a performer, the director of the ballet in Hannover, attacked a
FAZ-critic, Wiebke Hüster, with dog poop.21 Politer is the attack by Hugo
Wolf, who in the well-known song Abschied based on a text by Eduard
Mörike expressed the artists’ anger at critics ironically. Nevertheless, we
should bear in mind that the critic’s description in the song follows antise-
mitic stereotypes, as does Wagner’s portrait of Beckmesser.22
But how do successful critics fulfill their role today? I’d like to take
Wilhelm Sinkovicz, Austrian’s most prominent critic as an example, who
writes for the traditionally conservative newspaper Die Presse. He com-
ments regularly on all aspects of the classical music market: he reviews
CDs, writes concert critiques, and comments on public debates in the cul-
tural life, such as the development of opera staging, for instance. His voice
serves a well-informed, interested public. According to this mission he
occasionally organizes musical saloons where he presents the upcoming
highlights of the cultural life in Vienna. By doing so he also takes up some
concerns characteristic for musicology, such as promoting compositions by
20 “Der in irgendeinem Winkel jeder Großstadt besonders konzentrierte Drecksumpf
kann für die Kinoromantik der Klettermaxekultur gerade noch gut genug sein und
ist im übrigen aber wirklich nur eine Angelegenheit des polizeilichen Straßenreini-
gungsverfahrens.” Völkischer Beobachter, July 23, 1929 [München]. Cf. Bertold Brecht
and Kurt Weill, “Die Dreigroschenoper” (Kammerspiele der Josefstadt, Programm
2021/22), 12.
21 Vgl. Thomas Kramar, “Die fäkale Attacke eines Ballettdirektors auf eine Kritikerin
lässt sich nicht rechtfertigen. Auch nicht durch unfaire Kritiken. Auch wer ‘Schas’
schreibt, soll nicht gezüchtigt warden,” Die Presse, February 15, 2023, 17.
22 On antisemitism in Vienna around 1900 see: Kay M. Knittel, Seeing Mahler: Mu-
sic and the Language of Antisemitism in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna (Burlington: Ashgate,
2010).
45
The muck swamp particularly concentrated in some corner of every big
city can be just good enough for the cinematic romance of climbing
max culture, and for the rest, however, is really just a matter of police
street cleaning procedure.20
Criticism Today
As we have seen, music criticism is a phenomenon strongly linked to the
bourgeoisie. Thus, in the late 20th century music criticism faced a decline
which, to a certain extent, was due to the decreasing importance of classi-
cal music and its institutions for a broader public that is no longer a bour-
geois one. Despite this pessimism critics are still present today. And they
are still the object of artist’s anger as a recent startling event in Germany
shows when a performer, the director of the ballet in Hannover, attacked a
FAZ-critic, Wiebke Hüster, with dog poop.21 Politer is the attack by Hugo
Wolf, who in the well-known song Abschied based on a text by Eduard
Mörike expressed the artists’ anger at critics ironically. Nevertheless, we
should bear in mind that the critic’s description in the song follows antise-
mitic stereotypes, as does Wagner’s portrait of Beckmesser.22
But how do successful critics fulfill their role today? I’d like to take
Wilhelm Sinkovicz, Austrian’s most prominent critic as an example, who
writes for the traditionally conservative newspaper Die Presse. He com-
ments regularly on all aspects of the classical music market: he reviews
CDs, writes concert critiques, and comments on public debates in the cul-
tural life, such as the development of opera staging, for instance. His voice
serves a well-informed, interested public. According to this mission he
occasionally organizes musical saloons where he presents the upcoming
highlights of the cultural life in Vienna. By doing so he also takes up some
concerns characteristic for musicology, such as promoting compositions by
20 “Der in irgendeinem Winkel jeder Großstadt besonders konzentrierte Drecksumpf
kann für die Kinoromantik der Klettermaxekultur gerade noch gut genug sein und
ist im übrigen aber wirklich nur eine Angelegenheit des polizeilichen Straßenreini-
gungsverfahrens.” Völkischer Beobachter, July 23, 1929 [München]. Cf. Bertold Brecht
and Kurt Weill, “Die Dreigroschenoper” (Kammerspiele der Josefstadt, Programm
2021/22), 12.
21 Vgl. Thomas Kramar, “Die fäkale Attacke eines Ballettdirektors auf eine Kritikerin
lässt sich nicht rechtfertigen. Auch nicht durch unfaire Kritiken. Auch wer ‘Schas’
schreibt, soll nicht gezüchtigt warden,” Die Presse, February 15, 2023, 17.
22 On antisemitism in Vienna around 1900 see: Kay M. Knittel, Seeing Mahler: Mu-
sic and the Language of Antisemitism in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna (Burlington: Ashgate,
2010).
45
