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Insults And Praise On The Classical Campaign
Tchaikovsky was not shy about expressing his distaste for the work of Johannes Brahms.
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Commentator Miles Hoffman offers a classical variation on a political theme: insults and endorsements among the great composers. Invectives hurled at their colleagues and competitors were effective means of shaping public opinion. Whether positive, negative or the all-too-common flip-flop, classical-music criticism, just like political commentary, is little more than biased opinion in time.
In the waning days of the presidential campaign, music commentator Miles Hoffman offers a classical variation on a theme: insults and endorsements among the great composers. Just like politicians, many classical composers hurled invective at their colleagues and competitors. (They could also be nice when they wanted to.) Sometimes, music critics might even commit a flip-flop, endorsing a certain composer at one point before taking it all back later.
Hoffman calls the evaluation of composers' work by their peers "a continuous campaign for the future of the art form," and at its heart lies the competition for the praise of critics and attention of patrons.
Many examples of criticism cross the line from constructive to destructive, but there are also instances of composers and critics using their respected opinions to encourage positive attention. Enthusiastic endorsements, whether they stood the test of time or not, shaped public opinion just as effectively as insults.
However, as with politics, criticism of any kind, when taken out of context, is little more than biased opinion. In the end, the merits of a musician's (or politician's) work are illuminated only through time.
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