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I have been extremely busy lately with things that seem to be mostly designed to keep me… well, busy. Don’t ever doubt busy work, it really does exactly what it says it will do. In the process of doing this work, however, I came across an old review from my time in the San Francisco Symphony. This was a review of a concert during my first season with that orchestra that featured Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony on the first half and the Brahms Second Piano Concerto on the second half. The review was glowing regarding the Shostakovich, which was fortunate for me since I was playing principal on that piece, but the Brahms incurred the wrath of Joshua Kosman, the classical music reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle (where do these guys come from anyway?). His discussion of the second half opened with the following phrase:
After intermission, though, things went bad in a hurry, as pianist Vladimir Feltsman conspired with the orchestra to stomp on Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto.
I have always gotten a kick out of that particular piece of journalistic bravado. I’m sure all involved parties enjoyed their stomping conspiracy, but sadly I was left out of that particular round, maybe next time.
By the way, where is it that we get to write about someone who conspires to stomp on some of the best classical musicians in the world on a weekly basis? Oh yeah, that’s right… That can be done right here!
I tried looking for a bio for Joshua Kosman online, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. The closest thing I found was a page that mentioned that he had received his Master’s Degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Master’s in what? It didn’t say. I wonder how much real music training one has to go through before you are qualified to shred world class musicians in major publications? It’s ironic that the ones getting criticized are the musicians who have dedicated their lives into creating a product, rather than the critics who essentially spend their lives destroying one.
Here’s a quote for you. ” There are two useless things on earth. Mammary glands on a boar hog and music critics”
Roy