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Lives of the Critics.
Published: 12/12/2008 3:31 PM
Last Modified: 12/12/2008 3:31 PM

We ran a notice a few months ago about the imbroglio in Cleveland earlier this year, when news that the Cleveland Plain Dealer had reassigned its long-time classical music critic to cover things other than the Cleveland Orchestra.

At the time, the issue seemed to be writer Donald Rosenberg's continued criticism of the orchestra's music director, Franz Welser-Most. Orchestra officials, who had granted Welser-Most a 10-year contract in June, had petitioned the newspaper to do something about Rosenberg, characterizing his reviews as "petty and vindictive."

Now, the second movement has started.

Read the story:
Plain Dealer’s Music Critic, His Beat Changed, Sues Paper and Orchestra


According to Rosenberg's suit, this effort to get him ousted stemmed from his reporting of comments Welser-Most made four years ago to a European publication -- comments that painted Cleveland as something of a backwater town full of rubes willing to pay vast amounts of money to share some air with the great conductor.

Welser-Most is not the first conductor to look down on the city supports hims and the management that signs his paycheck. But, as I understand the history, Welser-Most made these remarks right before, or right after, he received his first contract extention from the Cleveland Symphony.

Then, on the other hand, there is this assessment, also from 2004, by English critic Norman Lebrecht

Read the story: The Conductor They Love to Hate


On a not entirely unrelated matter, the two major papers in Dallas and Fort Worth have taken an unusual -- and controversial -- step to the idea of collaboration: One critic reviewing productions for both papers.

Read the story: Hearing Fewer Voices




Reader Comments 3 Total
dean (4 years ago)
One thing missing from the above coverage is the fact that the Plain Dealer's publisher, Terrance Egger, sits on the orchestra's Board of Directors. I don't know if that's relevant to the lawsuit, but it's absolutely pregnant to the story.
watts (4 years ago)
"Pregnant to the story?"

That's a new one to me.
dean (4 years ago)
I was about to apologize for having studied economics in school. On a lark, I checked out dictionary(dot)com.

4. full of meaning; highly significant: a pregnant utterance.
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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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