Candid confessions of an avid critic, Part One

I'm only an amateur critic, starting my blog here at The Classical Commentator after years of writing reviews on Amazon. I starting writing for the thrill of it; after hearing inspiring music, it's only natural to want to share your experience with others. So I was slowly pulled into the art. I'm still too young to be critic, really; how many twenty-year-olds own over a thousand Classical CDs and have over 400 reviews posted online?

But the joy is so fulfilling. After years of intense piano practice, I slowly came to feel that I understood music in a special way. When I starting reviewing, I didn't have anything insightful to say at all. I think I was fifteen when I started. But after years of listening to an increasingly wider variety of both compositions and interpretations, I felt things started to click.

Here's the truth. In the one sense, anyone with decently trained ears can be a good critic. But part of being a critic requires scrutinizing music. You can't merely praise the music you love. You need to learn to recognize the great from the mediocre. And once you get into it, you stop listening exclusively to music from artists you respect. You go out of your way to listen to music you're not expecting to end up praising. Why? Because deep down inside, every critic, professional or otherwise, finds satisfaction in passing judgment.

But I constantly have to ask myself hard questions. Do I enjoy denigrating another man's musical efforts? Honestly, I can say that I don't. If I enjoy writing a negative review, the satisfaction comes from the ability to hear what's lacking, the ability to point to the musical ideas that should be present. Listening with an alert ear to an hour of music does wonders for the soul. If I end up feeling the performance was mediocre, my intellect has been stirred by the process of listening and critiquing.

I draw my lines. If I am nearly certain I will dislike an interpretation, I don't bother listening to it, unless it is one that has gotten widespread attention. Let's say other critics are praising an artist I tend to dislike. If there truly is something lacking in the recording, perhaps other listeners would benefit from hearing me lay out an evaluation from another perspective. But bashing for the sake of bashing is philistine and has no place whatsoever in a critic's writing. I wish all critics would follow this guideline.

Stay tuned for more.