Overview

"For twenty-plus years, music critic Bernard Holland heard it all. He reviewed and interviewed many of the most celebrated classical artists - singers, conductors, instrumentalists, composers and the avant garde - of the twentieth century for the New York Times. Reporting both sides of the culture war between music history and radical change, Holland writes critiques on Philip Glass to Verdi, Messiaen to Bach, Peter Sellars to Zeffirelli, and Linda Ronstadt to The Three Tenors. Throughout, Holland changes the discussion from 'will classical music survive?' to 'what classical music really is' and, in the process, destroys the myth of 'high and low art'. He also asks what a music critic really is. Along the way, the reader chats with Herbert von Karajan, takes a plane trip with Yo-Yo Ma, joins in with the boos at Bayreuth, and walks the slow walk with Robert Wilson. ""No one today can match the limpid elegance and intellectual precision of his style, which recalls the heyday of Virgil Thomson."" -The New Yorker Perhaps the most important of this town's arbiters."" The Independent Holland has a remarkable ability to conjure up the essence of a composer of a piece of music in a few deftly chosen words. He is, I think, an aphorist of unparalleled virtuosity."" - San Francisco Chronicle"

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Perhaps the most important of this town's arbiters. The Independent

"Holland has a remarkable ability to conjure up the essence of a composer or a piece of music in a few deftly chosen words. He is, I think, an aphorist of unparalleled virtuosity. ""San Francisco Chronicle"""" No one today can match the limpid elegance and intellectual precision of his style, which recalls the heyday of Virgil Thomson. ""The New Yorker"""" Perhaps the most important of this town's arbiters. ""The Independent"""" ""Holland has a remarkable ability to conjure up the essence of a composer or a piece of music in a few deftly chosen words. He is, I think, an aphorist of unparalleled virtuosity."" --San Francisco Chronicle ""No one today can match the limpid elegance and intellectual precision of his style, which recalls the heyday of Virgil Thomson."" --The New Yorker ""Perhaps the most important of this town's arbiters."" --The Independent"

No one today can match the limpid elegance and intellectual precision of his style, which recalls the heyday of Virgil Thomson. The New Yorker Holland has a remarkable ability to conjure up the essence of a composer or a piece of music in a few deftly chosen words. He is, I think, an aphorist of unparalleled virtuosity. San Francisco Chronicle Perhaps the most important of this town's arbiters. The Independent

Author Information

Bernard Holland was born in Tidewater Virginia and attended the University of Virginia. He spent the next decade studying piano performance in Europe, first in Vienna, then Paris and finally London. He returned to the United States where he reviewed concerts for a supermarket news circular before being hired as a rock critic for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. A review of a John Denver caught the eye of the the New York Times culture department. He was hired as a classical music freelancer and a year later because a staff critic. He divides his time between New York City and Campobello Island in Canada with his wife of many years.

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