Three recent events involving newspaper writing about classical music:
- November 12, 2017: New York Times devotes its Sunday classical page to an upcoming album of pop songs sung by a former opera singer.
- November 12, 2017: Philadelphia Inquirer devotes its classical page to a preview of upcoming new music events in Philadelphia.
- November 16, 2017: David Patrick Stearns announced on his blog that he is accepting a buyout from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
I’m not saying there is an causal relationship among these events. But the juxtaposition of the two Nov. 12 articles was striking - by wasting the limited space available for classical music that day, the Times seemed parochial compared with the Philadelphia paper.
I am sad to see David Patrick Stearns go. His writing annoyed me, it pleased me, it offered me fresh insights - sometimes all in the same article. But it was always solid and thoughtful writing and never boring. He will be greatly missed.
Okay, I’ll bite the bait (since we stopped getting the Sunday version of the Times a number of years ago out of paper guilt;): which opera singer now? Hope you’re well; Nanette
Dessay. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/arts/music/barbra-streisand-natalie-dessay-michel-legrand.html