{"id":12525,"date":"2013-03-05T17:45:10","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T01:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=12525"},"modified":"2013-03-05T17:45:10","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T01:45:10","slug":"criticizing-the-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/05\/criticizing-the-critic\/","title":{"rendered":"criticizing the critic"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s New York Times Anthony Tommasini reviewed pianist Stephen Hough’s recital at Carnegie Hall<\/a>. A major component of Hough’s recital was a piece of his own invention, his Piano Sonata No. 2 “Notturno Luminoso”.<\/p>\n

My problem with this review is that there seems to be no critic alive (with the possible exceptions of Steven Smith and Alex Ross) who is not afraid of praising a work or a performance without also giving some sort of sly, backhanded dressing down of same. Here is what I mean:<\/p>\n

\n

At 51, Mr. Hough has\u00a0established himself as an extraordinary pianist<\/a>, a\u00a0thinking person\u2019s virtuoso<\/a>. Whether he is a towering composer is another question. Music history usually takes some time to make those calls. And, from this one hearing, I cannot claim that Mr. Hough\u2019s Second Sonata is destined for a slot in the repertory.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it is an exhilarating and inventive piece, brilliantly conceived for the piano. Mr. Hough, a polymath who also conducts, paints and writes poetry, is a lively writer on music who contributes a\u00a0blog to The Daily Telegraph<\/a>\u00a0in London that is essential reading. Not surprisingly, he wrote a vividly detailed program note for his sonata.<\/p>\n

The title \u201cNotturno Luminoso\u201d is meant to suggest the experience of a fantasy on a sleepless night in a brash city setting. As the piece, loosely organized in three parts, opens, we hear steely chords thick with clusters, like Messiaen\u2019s harmonies but with a touch of bracing Copland or early Carter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, what was wrong with saying it was an ‘exhilarating\u00a0and inventive piece, brilliantly conceived’ without saying that it also might not be ‘destined for a slot in the repertory’? Is it too much to simply enjoy a piece without also downgrading its chances at entering the repertory? How many of Liszt’s piano works were criticized at their premieres because the critics were concerned with whether any other pianists might not be up to their virtuoso challenges? I would guess that contemporary critics of Liszt were more concerned with the performance of the great pianist\/composer, and with the novel techniques he may have introduced in his compositions, rather than if pianists would be playing his works fifty years hence.<\/p>\n

Does this seem strange to anyone else but me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today’s New York Times Anthony Tommasini reviewed pianist Stephen Hough’s recital at Carnegie Hall. A major component of Hough’s recital was a piece of his own invention, his Piano Sonata No. 2 “Notturno Luminoso”. My problem with this review is that there seems to be no critic alive (with the possible exceptions of Steven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":12526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,1027,135],"tags":[3293,17,2664,3295,3294,1166],"class_list":["post-12525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appreciations","category-piano-music","category-soloists-recitals","tag-anthony-tommasini","tag-criticism","tag-new-york-times","tag-notturno-luminoso","tag-piano-sonata-no-2","tag-stephen-hough"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-3g1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":393,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/07\/18\/denk-thinks-portland-listens\/","url_meta":{"origin":12525,"position":0},"title":"denk thinks, portland listens","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my favorite music bloggers, the pianist Jeremy Denk, made quite a splash at the Portland International Piano Festival this past weekend - click here for a complete review by Oregonian classical music critic David Stabler. Here's the lead-in: Many piano concerts are like trips to the shopping mall:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/12481484_82a5ceb2f7_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1506,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/09\/hough-blows-down-the-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":12525,"position":1},"title":"hough blows down the house","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo: Oregon Symphony While it was great to hear the entire second act of The Nutcracker with the orchestra front and center (and sans dancers), and to hear the seldom-heard Coronation March, the main focus of our just concluded classical series devoted to Tchaikovsky was his mammoth Second Piano Concerto\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/stephen-hough1-400x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12486,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/21\/angry-symphony-guy-strikes-again-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12525,"position":2},"title":"angry symphony guy strikes again!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"From Angry Symphony Guy (aka Classical Beaver, Brian Horay, Huffington Post guest blogger) posting at the Portland Mercury arts listing pages: STEPHEN HOUGH, OREGON SYMPHONY (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) Chief cultural blogger for the Telegraph of London.\u00a0Prodigious recorder of more than 50 albums.\u00a0MacArthur genius.\u00a0Theologian. Poet. Queer activist.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8233,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/29\/symphonyquartet-violinist-gives-recital-tonight\/","url_meta":{"origin":12525,"position":3},"title":"symphony\/quartet violinist gives recital tonight","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Violinist Shin-young Kwon, who is a member of the Oregon Symphony and also the Arnica and Mousai Remix string quartets (!), gives a recital tonight (Tuesday, January 29th) with pianist Yoko Greeney at Portland State University's Lincoln Recital Hall (Room 75). The recital begins at 7:30 p.m., and is free\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo: \u00a9 Charles Noble","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/shin-young-8x10-300x375.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12512,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/01\/byo-piano\/","url_meta":{"origin":12525,"position":4},"title":"byo piano?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen Hough, in a recent blog entry, answered an oft-asked question directed towards him: what kind of piano do you play on at home? Here's what he said: The truth is that most musicians I know have pretty rough pianos at home (not to mention the hi-fi systems on which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "piano"","block_context":{"text":"piano","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/piano-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"piano","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/piano-photoshoot.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/piano-photoshoot.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/piano-photoshoot.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1497,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/07\/stephen-hough-as-teacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":12525,"position":5},"title":"stephen hough as teacher","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We all know the pianist Stephen Hough as one of the most briliant pianists on the concert stage today, but he's also very much in demand as a teacher.\u00c2\u00a0 Here's an excerpt of a master class DVD on which he teaches the Liszt Spanish Rhapsody and the Hungarian Rhapsody No.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "education"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Stephen-Hough.jpg?fit=300%2C276&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}