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I, too, find it odd that there are no comments.

Although, once you start noticing that, you notice it all the time. There are a ton of articles in the NYTs which don't accept comments, so I'm not sure how relevant that is here.

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I love the part where he writes, "The unshakable sense that I owned this performance — the way people own paintings and hang them in their homes — prevented me from reviewing it, in my usual sense." Then he proceeds to review it.

I read that as well, and just interpreted it to mean that this article was more of an account of his experience than a traditional review. Of course, my views about bias is that there's no such thing as an unbiased review, so the conflicts of interest here (and I recognize now that there are some) really aren't an issue for me.

But anyway, I'm obviously out of step here, since I didn't react the way everyone else here did.

In fact, the things I reacted to are things that haven't been discussed here at all. Like the fact that the composer must be a control freak. You can compose something and stipulate that it be performed in a specific space or specific way, but once it's out in the world, you can't maintain control on it. I wonder how LVB feels about the first section of "Fur Elise" being decoupled from the rest of it (and as a result, decoupled from the emotive thrust of the piece) so that it can be played by every beginning piano student ever...

SK — I cannot even begin to tell you the ways in which composers can be control freaks. Maybe over a long lunch sometime!

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Originally posted by RealPlayer:
SK — I cannot even begin to tell you the ways in which composers can be control freaks.

Here's an article that provides some insight as to what is expected of journalists

https://www.washingtonpost.com...fa7482a77_story.html

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Originally posted by piqué:

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Thanks for the clarification.

So, what is an appropriate separation? Musicians shouldn't mix with critics or presenters?

It's the responsibility of critics--and the news organizations they work for--to not cross these lines. A journalist has a responsibility to be agnostic about the subject they write about, to not write about artists they have a personal or business relationship with, and to not form personal or business relationships with artists they write about.

I remember when I was writing Grand Obsession, one of the piano dealers who is in the book wanted to pay me a commission for a piano sale he had made. I had to decline because to accept would have changed our relationship and created a conflict of interest.

piqué, I somehow missed this comment of yours, thanks for explaining these details, it makes a lot of sense.

I'll see if I can read that WaPo article let, when I can get past the paywall. :P