BaL reviewers - a question of taste?

[Karafan]

I have been listening recently to some of my old BaLs from aeons ago (I know, I know, I need to get out more).

I listened back-to-back to the late Michael Oliver reviewing Die Walküre and John B Steane with Rigoletto. Their beautifully succinct, elegantly phrased and above all, deeply knowledgeable surveys started me thinking about reviewers. Music lovers suffered a great loss with the passing of men like these. Who among reviewers (whether on BaL or in written form, or both) seem always to stand out to you?

Of the current crop I must admit to a soft spot for dear old Professor Deathridge, but find my interest dips decidedly when Rob Cowan, for example (though I do not mean to single out RC for criticism particularly; I find him more suited to the 'convivial chat' format) is the reviewer. I find his 'take' too generalised and 'woolly' for my liking and it doesn't have the solid grounding and expertise which MEO and JBS, for example, so effortlessly embodied and, more importantly, communicated with such passion.

[subcontrabass]

[I][/I
dear old Professor Deathridge, .

At the age of 67 I am not sure that Professor Deathridge would appreciate being referred to as "dear old".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Michael Oliver and John Steane were (and Richard Osborne still is) superb commentators on Music and performance, their relaxed learning easily persuading the listener that their selections were at the very least worthy of inclusion in any self-respecting record collection. But they had an easier job than "the current crop": there were fewer recordings to review, what was available and what deleted was more easily catalogued and there weren't as many HIPP versions to consider alongside the Klemperers and Amadeuses.

I think reviewers today acknowledge that, if professional Musicians perform and record a piece, then they must feel that they have something valid to say about it, and with so many alternatives available, it is unfair for the reviewer to plump for any single recording. They have become more "diplomatic", to the extent that (particularly when they get together for a group review) they can seem to be suggesting that every available disc is worth having! Which may be true, but makes the very basis of BaL unworkable (and often ends up with my not buying any of the discs mentioned).

It would perhaps be more useful nowadays if reviewers pointed out the ones to avoid!

[Alison]

I so agree about dear Michael Oliver who died as long ago as 2002.

He was always so interesting and yet not at all self aware.

Of the current rosta maybe Sir Jonathan Swain comes closest to that quiet and dignified authority.

[Karafan]

Aah, yes Alison and Ferney - I agree. JS and RO had inexplicably slipped my mind, but are also satisfyingly 'old school' and are always a rewarding listen (or read).

[Alison]

An excellent obituary here for Michael:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/...artsobituaries

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, Alison; he was my favourite broadcaster from when I first heard him in 1974 and somewhere I have a cassette of his last edition of Music Weekly.

It was nothing short of a disaster for any intelligent listener when the philistine hands in charge of Radio 3 in the late 1990s decided, more or less, to dispense with his services as a presenter

Well, quite (not to mention some of us lesser intellects)!

[Karafan]

Thanks, Alison; he was my favourite broadcaster from when I first heard him in 1974 and somewhere I have a cassette of his last edition of Music Weekly.

It was nothing short of a disaster for any intelligent listener when the philistine hands in charge of Radio 3 in the late 1990s decided, more or less, to dispense with his services as a presenter
Well, quite (not to mention some of us lesser intellects)!

Seconded. And what is it they say about those who do not learn from history being condemned, forever, to repeat it. Hmmmm......

[VodkaDilc]

I recall some excellent reviews given by Nicholas Anderson, the doyen of Bach reviewers. Simon Heighes seems to be to be his more recent equal. (Though, as far as I remember NA is still reviewing for IRR, so why not on R3? A little too well-spoken for the tastes of current R3 management? I do hope not!)

[Alison]

There have been comebacks from Richard Osborne, Robert Phillip and Geoffrey Norris -
so why not Nicholas Anderson too ?