Music Chat: Report From The Overflow Room--How I Became A Critic
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Over the years I've been asked on numerous occasions how to become a critic, and how it happened to me. Here's an informal chat on my own background and experience. I hope you enjoy the story.
Yes, indeed, sir: You are far more likable on video than in print! I've read your reviews for years and always respected you while thinking you must be a class-A jerk in person. How wrong I was! How different it is to pan a recording with a smile on one's face and a laugh in one's voice. I enjoy your videos immensely; please keep making them!
But I LIKE being a class-A jerk! I worked very hard at that. You think it's easy?
@@DavesClassicalGuide I've enjoyed the complaints and been sharing them with a friend for years!
I only recently stumbled upon your youtube channel and it's invigorated my classical listening. I live in a small town and no absolutely no one who I know who listens to any classical music so I enjoy my 2500+ discs and watch my 90+ operas alone. It's nice to have some visual input about classical music from a fellow classical music lover. Thanks dude!
My pleasure, and you're not alone!
That’s a great story. I do miss the record store days. I really got started as a collector early in high school, after I’d started thinking of myself as such but then realized I didn’t have any Mozart in my collection. (Not much trumpet playing in Mozart.) But all the record stores at the time had rows and rows of Mozart, hundreds of albums, so I didn’t know where to start. I read Alfred Einstein’s book “Mozart: His Character and His Works” to find out what I should listen to. For a couple of years I spent most of my money from part time jobs at the record stores. By my last year of high school and first year of college, though, the bottom had fallen out of the industry and I had to switch to Amazon to find what I was looking for. I like the virtual industry for the many critics, professional and amateur, and their online discussions, but the loss of record stores is such a shame.
Your candor is refreshing - particularly about the overabundance of Classical performers and elitist snobbery that surrounds so much of the genre.
Thank you.
ClassicsToday has shaped my view and taste on recorded performances when I just got into classical music. Thanks to Hurwitz and Distler.
So glad we could help! I've learned so much from Jed over the years too. The journey never ends...
Thank God you are only 57. You should be good for a few years. You make me feel like much less of a nerd. My basement looks like your room. I have over 8000 physical records plus thousands of bought downloads, records that I cannot get on Tidal or Amazon. I have numerised my collect over the years but your RUclips channel has had me listen to some records I had not listened to I years.
You can do it! Thanks for the encouragement.
Well, a whole three years has gone by since you gave this chat, and you are more valuable and more needed than ever! Thanks for all the time you take to make these videos available, and for inspiring my love and knowledge of how music works. Your videos are a highlight of my day. Thank you.
You are so welcome!
It’s an interesting story. A lot of the people we meet that have an important role in our lives isn’t something we could have planned for. I bought that Bernstein Tchaikovsky recording because I wanted to hear what all the uproar was about. I loved it!
I am always explaining to my wife why I need a particular recording if I already have that piece in my collection. I don’t think she would let me have that wall! Thank you for sharing your story.
Wonderful origin story! Dave is a living testament to what it may mean to be an educated person who doesn’t take himself too seriously!
Great story! I had actually been meaning to suggest a video topic for a while, and this seems like a good time being as you touched on it here. You had mentioned in a comment on the Beethoven cycle video that you thought Vanska's 9th was somewhat lacking, yet your written review refers to it as one of the great 9th. I think it would be interesting to hear about performances you once loved, but have, for one reason or another, cooled to over the years. And, of course, recordings you didn't think much of at first, but grew on you over time. Apologies if someone already suggested this, or if you already did this and somehow, I missed it.
Very interesting! I will have to think about that! It's an excellent idea and I appreciate the suggestion.
Thank you for sharing your background. I'm sure there are many who, like me, would be interested to see your listening room. And maybe you could share some information about your sound system? Keep up the great work. Your video reviews turned me into a Classics Today insider.
What's the use of it all? Why do it? Well, Dave's craziness brought me to a gentil midlife crisis. I returned to the neatly collecting and listening youngster. Thanks Dave! Only bought twice the same disc this far, and I'm keeping myself nicely in budget (just). Plenty of enjoyment now and to come 🙂
Your show helps me fill the void of not working in a classical music record store. The discussions and the insanely interesting people that became my friends and colleagues.
Barry Guerrero was a great manager and taught me so much, especially Mahler's music.
Thanks for doing this show. It's my favorite.
My pleasure. Barry was a great manager, I'm sure, but an even better friend.
Well, I have greatly enjoyed your epistles because as a life-long listener of classical music (thanks to my parents who always supported me buying LPs...) there are sometimes remarks that made me change my mind. Particularly I value the Haydn symphony crusade, which I hope you will complete!
Me too.
Your memory is incredible!
Dave, would you consider doing an extensive tour video of the overflow room? I'd love to see your extensive collection and create more reasons to spend money on CDs! :D
I have sort of done it already. That's the problem with 1800+ videos!
@@DavesClassicalGuide What video was that in?
Like I remember? Probably the one on cataloging your CDs.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Sorry, it was a bit of a dumb question :D. Yes I just watched it. Surprisingly good tips on cataloging CDs. My idea was that you could have a video dedicated to a tour of each CD in each composer category. For example, one video would be dedicated to Mozart CDs, the next to Beethoven etc etc. Thanks again! Your videos make my day!
Sincerely: AllComposersbyNumbers
Great to learn a bit about about your background. Keep on making these videos. They are informative educational and very entertaining. Thank you.
David Hurwitz , appreciate your criticism. I used to have hundreds of CDs but when changing homes I had to donate them. Now I have started a library of digital recordings. Only problem I have with these is when a classic recording I like has 24 tracks, in say, 4 movements, where you have 24 pauses in the music, (not good!) something that's not evident when listening to a CD. Or a performance you highly recommend is only currently available on CD.
Oh yes, the musical world is not set up for music in large forms.
Roger Gersbach - then you, dear Sir, are using the wrong playback software. Get one that can do gapless playback, there are plenty out there. There‘s no reason why a computer wouldn‘t be able to play back files without gaps. I‘ve been listening to classical on digital recordings for years and never had a problem with gaps.
@@vinylarchaeologist I am using Groove Music in Windows 10. It's supposed to have gapless playback. Anything anyone else can advise would be appreciated.
Great times, Dave. I've said it before, and I say it again now, thanks for talking about orchestration and getting me more interested in the orchestral repertoire. I thought I knew the standard stuff, but oh how wrong I was. This channel is a lot of fun!
It was fascinating to listen to your biography, and I was surprised to learn that this is not your main job. I greatly enjoy your videos and reviews, and found a lot of inspiration and guidance that is really helpful. Thank you for all your work! The only point where I disagree is that there are too many orchestras...they have been more and more reduced, melted with each other, abolished, and I think this is a great loss, as each orchestra has its specific sound, tradition and cultural background. Another point is, that I think you must have many, many small, mediochre, amateurish orchestras to get one really fantastic, significant orchestra; the small ones are kind of the fertilizer for the world-class ensembles...when you have for example a country where many kids play football on the street, and the sport is widely accepted, because everyone can relate to it, then you will have among those thousands who play one Ronaldo or Messi. The same with classical music, you need many, many music lovers, instrumentalists and singers who are average, who then inspire the one who is really world-class. Therefore, I think each ensemble, each orchestra is a treasure.
one of the best RUclips channels 👍
Thanks for sharing your story. Your videos have been both entertaining and educational, sometimes even managing both at once. The shelves could be worse - imagine if we were still in the days of the LP.
P.S. The Wife, a composer and retired music prof, who went through delayed puberty by doing braces and her Bar Mitzvah only a couple of years before The Daughter did the same, really got a kick out of your Bernstein "Jeremiah" video. Thanks -- it gave me much nakhes!
I’m on board for the journey. On Haydn Crusade #26 and loving it! Thanks Dave.
Welcome aboard!
That was a very illuminating video. And I particularly like your final point. Having worked in the music biz for a while, and genuinely loving music in most of its forms, it's so frustrating to see how its huge infrastructure demands are killing classical music: all these huge buildings, enormous conductor's salaries (and accompanying airline ticket bills) are crippling what could be a far more lively art.
Thank you for this! Very enjoyable, and humanizing. I would love to share a beer with you and chat someday.
Sounds great!
Hi Dave - thanks for telling us the story. And I am sure you have enough stories for a separate channel on “historical classical music gossip”. It will be such fun. Like “Why did Jessye Norman block her recording of Elektra?”. Such fun!
I loved hearing about how you got into this unique business, or field, of classical music criticism. I can really resonate with your saying that it is hard to make a living at it. To wit, I got involved literally as a kid, when a prominent local arts maven heard me go on about my growing record collection at a Pro-Mozart Society meeting in Miami, and then recommended me at 17 years old to be the music critic of an emerging little periodical called the Florida Arts Gazette. With clips from that I started writing for the Washington Post when I was in school there, and after I left. But I quickly learned that you could not make any money in it, and the friends I had made in the Music Critics Association, who had full time jobs as critics, were, for example, going to law school to have something to fall back on when they saw that field likely to end as a paying gig. So I stopped writing for the Post after two years as stringer, and got on with making a living. But I had the desire to collect records and CDs, and I like your refreshing candidness that it is kind of crazy. I am thankful my husband puts up with it, that is love.
Indeed it is! Thank you for sharing your own experiences of this nutty calling.
Great to know your backstory. Brought back great memories of JHU (me-- JHU Med Institutions; you, presumably, Homewood campus), Recordmasters Baltimore, and Serenade Records (DC) in the early 1980s. Your work is much appreciated from this corner.
Yes, Homewood, a convenient walk to Recordmasters, my home away from home!
Thank you again and always - in this case especially for your reflections on your work and on record criticism generally. I did not think of you as an unfriendly person before, but I'm pleased now to have the sound of your voice when I read your reviews. By the way: The videos are great, but please don't stop to write because you do that greatly in my eyes.
Your collection overshadows everything I've seen (not to speak of the stuff I own and which is already too much for our flat). Somehow nice to know that it exists and that you use it for producing recommendations and comparisons. Viele Grüße aus Berlin, and keep up the great work! Martin
Thanks very much!
I love listening to an erudite, experienced curmudgeon go on about music and some of my favorite musicians, anytime, so your brand of criticism is refreshing and a thoroughly educational addition to my musical life altogether. Hanslick would approve!
Of course I believe you’re wrong so much, however; but we both have assholes as we both have opinions: inevitably they’re sometimes a little shitty. What can we do? 🤷♂️
But I can’t help but push back on your definition of what is classical. That the “canon” of repertoire, arbitrarily pronounced as THE classics by lazy, ignorant, avaricious producers/conductors and some of their sycophantic critic-friends of yore, is still defended, while crowing that some symphony by Cannabich wasn’t vetted and therefore unworthy our consideration, is narrow minded and uninteresting to both enjoying music, and, moreover, enjoying music history (which, face it, is the point of your channel-recording history being a part of music history.) Composers (especially from iconic landmarks in history, such as Mannheim,) are/were not just footnotes in their place and time. They were vital, instructive and remarkable within their place and time, as they are to us today, to primarily entertain us as their contemporaries you approve of did (Gluck, Haydn, Mozart,) but also to teach us something of their place and time. What? For some it’s historical, for some philosophical, for some sociological; who cares? There is something important to any positive, tangible piece of evidence in history, to give humanity and culture that much more nuance and understanding.
But first: the music is fine. Cannabich ROCKS! Listen to it. Don’t be such a snob.
You may be surprised that Koželuh used devices in some of his music that would not be heard until deep into the nineteenth century! Look at that! Imagine! Or, this may shock most people (perhaps not you, since you’ve heard a bit more music than most,) that Beethoven rips off Gyrowecz, Cherubini, Rejcha, Mèhul and a half dozen other contemporaries from far and wide across Europe, to create what everyone else thinks is THE classic-because people like Toscanini, Klemperer, Jochum and Munch never heard* of Gyrowecz, Cherubini, Rejcha and the rest...
Who made the repertoire finite, and who the hell decided what does and doesn’t belong in those arbitrary parameters?
*Yeah, I’m making a point; I don’t mean that they literally didn’t know or appreciate their music. I don’t know, and probably neither do you.
Don't confuse what we like with what is a "classic." It's a purely technical distinction, but being "remarkable in your place and time" DOES in fact make you a footnote in history and does NOT entitle you be considered "classical."
As you said, DH, the key thing is we need to make judgements: we can hear so much, but that doesn't make everything worth listening to. Outside the core 'validated' repertoire (='classic(al)'), we have the opportunity to re-assess the judgements of the past, and perhaps re-reject the material we are now able to encounter anew. A part of it might be reassessed and become 'classic'; but my experience says most of it hasnt got the staying power of the canonised greats. That doesn't mean we shouldn't listen; but we shouldn't pretend everything is as good as everything else, either.
Thanks dear David! It was wonderful. And, by the way, I can now tell my wife and friends that, in fact, I don't THAT many recordings!
Totally agree Bernstein sets out to 'teach' - his narrative of the Carnival of the Animals is a case in point - thanks for your instructive and informative RUclips reviews
I also live in an apartment in Brooklyn! But my overflow room is just one little box.
Thanks for the interesting back story Mr H. Great to also see the overflow room and someone with a far larger storage problem than myself (actually I'm doubling up shelves now, even though my wife grudgingly allowed me to use the spare bedroom, I've run out of space). Actually it's funny, when the local independent record shop I use to shop at closed down (well over fifteen years ago.now), they said if they ever wanted some one to get an idea what their shop looked they'd send them round to me!
Anyway thanks again for the effort you put into making the videos - I don't always agree with you but you're always extremely knowledgeable, thought provoking, often funny and never dull (and I have to say less fearsome than I imagined, from just reading your Classics Today critiques!). Cheers.
Damn! Got to get my fearsome back!
@@DavesClassicalGuide Oh ok then, you're still pretty frightening!
Thanks again for sharing your story david
We are all having a fabulous time, David. Thanks a million - and I just subscribed (don’t know why I didn’t do so years ago) because nothing comes of nothing or for free.
Subscribed to Classics Today, that is.
Thank you!
Thanks for the insight into your craft, Dave. Avoiding making reviews into autobiography is important to every critic, as is establishing empirical facts like tempi and orchestration which people can react to with their own views.
Thanks much for sharing your backstory! I have gained a lot from your recommendations and added a number of CDs to my burgeoning collection.
Wonderful! Thank you.
David, God Bless! I enjoy all your videos even if don't agree with all your videos. LOL! I look forward to each and every one.
I appreciate that
i've been enjoying your videos enough to prompt me to subscribe to your website, and i agree strongly with your critical values around describing the recording--in fact, that approach you take is a big part of why i decided to subscribe after watching a few of these videos.
in fact, i often disagree quite vehemently with your conclusions (my favorite pianist - sokolov, my favorite brahms 3rd - furtwangler 1949, but on pristine instead of emi), but i still find your reviews and videos very useful for exploring new repertoire, guiding what i put on my shopping list, and making me rethink and revisit some recordings in my infrequently-listened-to pile. So, thank you!
Thank YOU, That is all I can hope for.
Hellooo! Thank you so much for your videos, Dave! They have been a very, very important distraction for me in the last few weeks. Please, keep on vlogging!
(And thanks for ClassicsToday.com as well. I’m a happy subscriber since 2016 or 2017.)
Thanks so much!
Back in the 70’s-80’s Henry Fogel was my Classical music guru. You’ve become mine now, 40 or so years later.
Henry was fantastic, a true music lover and a consummate professional. I learned a ton from him too.
If you haven't already done it, I would luv some musical chats on the state of the classical record industry over the last 60 years or so.
Thanks for suggestion, but I like to talk about these issues within the context of the regular videos as circumstances dictate (and I do).
Wow Dave, what an honest, intelligent and revelatory insight in you as a person and what's brought you to become a critic. I feel really connected with you since you started your great chats. I don't always agree (but most of the time i do), but your infectious enthousiasm is always such fun to hear and watch! Never a dull moment, the serious is alternated with the not so serious, and that's how it should be. Yesterday i told a friend of mine that i never read any other reviews anymore since starting watching your talks, same for him (is that a good thing??). You can summarize a work and tell everything you need to know about it in just over 6-30 minutes, that's quite an achievement!! So thanks again for sharing your knowledge and fun, it has really enriched my life. PS this friend of mine has a 'as recommended by Hurwitz' collection..i'm glad i only stream music these days, for i would be bankrupt, lol
Thanks very much--that is very kind and I'm so happy that you are enjoying the videos. I am sorry for busting your budget, though.
@@DavesClassicalGuideluckily not my budget, my friend's. I've sold my cd collection recently, it became a bit suffocating seeing all the cds that i would listen to only a few times. Spotify is ideal, especially since you recommend so unknown music
Keep the videos coming !
I don't think of you as a critic, but more of a guide/educator/enthusiastic fan of classical music 👍
Thank you very much. I do try!
I’m amazed at the recordings and scores you’ve amassed, David.
Thank you. It's been a long time, and I've been doing this professionally for almost four decades. I've got to have something to show for it!
Love your channel, very refreshing and interesting talks. It's good to learn about composers and/or recordings I don't know yet. Also it's fun to listen to your opinions and rants ;-) I wonder what you think of all the concerts popping up on RUclips these days. Are theses performances review-worthy?
I think there's way too much of everything--I sure don't have time to watch many of them, but maybe I'm just getting old and cranky. Certainly the range of stuff on view is incredible, even if I find it chaotic! Thanks for commenting.
Critics are some of the greatest entertainers, I think ;-) (They also make me think more seriously/nuanced about my own tastes for certain music and certain recordings, sometimes changing them, sometimes not.)
Thanks. I hope so. Music is entertainment and talking or writing about it should be entertaining too--you can convey useful information in an entertaining way.
Love the collection!! Nice to hear all the background as well. I could fill that wall single layer deep, but maybe in another 20 years mine will be double...lol. Those shelves look built in. Are the shelves in your apartment built in, or something you bought or built?
I had them custom built in my apartment, but they are free-standing. Then there are shelves, and the closet, and the floor, and under the bed...
Thanks!
Thanks very much!
i'm hoping you will invite one of your other critics of classicstoday some day, that's something to look for.
That is the plan, when this virus thing is over.
It's great to hear from you such a lot of information and details about the recordings. Thank you for sharing it with us. I wonder from day 1, since I started to watch your videos, do you prefer to listen music on (professional) headphones or some super Hi Fi equipment? :) All the best from Serbia! Take care and give us more! :)
Neither. I am not an audiophile. I like good sound, of course, and have a terrific pair of custom speakers, but I don't make a fetish about it. I never listen on headphones unless I'm traveling. I like to have space between me and the sound source.
Great video David. Now... can you do a best version of Bruckner’s 8th? Thanks
Eventually. What's the rush?
Your story is very interesting - thank you for sharing it! I wonder why you refer only to CDs when all the performances are available on streaming platforms in optimal conditions? This means that today's listener can navigate with greater flexibility (and at a lesser cost) between different versions. I think that finding defects or merits in previous performances is fascinating as it teaches one to listen, and reveals what makes some performances special - but I'm not sure why one needs to have a 'best version' any more. Having said this, I have 1000s of CDs and the ones I love are frequently your top choices...
I refer to CDs because that is how I enjoy my music. I'm old fashioned that way. I do mention digital services and their impact on the recording industry, but as of yet I don't bother with them, although I suppose I'll have to eventually. There's an element to being a collector that is a joy in itself, beyond the actual object of the exercise. I also collect rocks. And scores. And pocket knives...
I wish I had a room like that. But instead I have CD's and DVD's and Blu rays all over the place stacked on every surface. All over the place!
Great story thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks David for your story , really interesting, wondering if you still keep vinyl records and what do you think of its revival.
Ridiculous.
Kind of reminds me of a conversation I had with a fellow employee who also did some buying of classical music for a retail store (not Tower). He asked me how one becomes a buyer. I answered that if you have to ask, you're not a buyer. I left it at that.
Good to finally see the overflow room! All I will say is MY GOD!!! And now that you have access you can really pump out the videos!
Real Estate you say? Same here...banking and real estate. It has paid for more than a few CD's.
Very interesting!
Thanks for sharing that! Happy to be a subscriber.
Thanks for the sub!
@@DavesClassicalGuide * and Insider.
Congrats for your Overflow achievement! Isnt it so that even if a recording exists on spotify these days they can be worth having only for the material in the booklets, some really intersting information....
And congrats that music critic is so dear to u as a profession, and I now its not an easy profession, have enjoyed the youtube channel of yours alot, they are funny and made me listen and revisitingold recordings....remember my music (cello) teacher said, dont listen to others, had to disagree with him still today...
The biggest claccical record shop I´ve visited was in Japan, two floors of classical music!
Next question, how does your stereos look like? Do u listen from headphones most of the time?
Yes, it is!
Stereos I will not discuss. Music is crazy enough; audio is worse, but I never use headphones unless I'm traveling. I need space between me and the sound source. The room is part of the experience.
And I thought MY collection might be thought of as somewhat excessive. I've got the equivalent of two of those shelving units behind you, also double-stacked, with additional discs crammed horizontally between the tops of the cases and the underside of the shelf above. Oh, and about nine smaller plastic boxes in our storage unit. (And all of it, in lossless and high-res formats, fits on a single 8TB hard drive…)
Also, to provide some chronological exactitude for your timeline, the Bernstein Tchaikovsky 6th was released in 1987, after being recorded in August of 1986. I was pretty sure about that because I only saw any reviews of it sometime after getting my first CD player, which was at the very end of '86.
Thanks for that. I knew is was very early on and that sounds about right.
I'd be interested in what organizational system you use so that you can find stuff. Any hints are welcome.
I have a revolutionary, proprietary method. Alphabetizing. I wish I had a more creative answer for you. Sorry.
Interesting what you think about concerts compared to recordings. Have you ever thought about reviewing non-recorded concerts on RUclips?
No. It's a black hole that would suck up my entire life.
Two decades ago, a Tower records store did not have this many, no comparison. (Maybe that was the reason Tower records was out of business).
Haven't been able to review all the comments in detail, but it doesn't look like anyone has asked the obvious question. How many disks do you think you have in total? It so happens I don't know how many I have. I estimate around 30,000. I started keeping an Excel spreadsheet of the ones I was buying in 2008, since I was increasingly frustrated by the fact that I was buying cds I didn't think I had and then found out I had bought it already.
I have no idea. Lots, evidently.
Now that all my music-loving friends have moved away or passed on, I look forward with unbridled joy to my daily visits to your videos. They sure help me to keep on listening
I have long surrendered to the services of streaming services and seeing this hoarder-like overflow of CDs that cover every wall and inch and part of one's apartment just assures me in my decision to go for streaming services. Most of the CDs are now in the cellar.
Don't go down there. They know you've abandoned them and are waiting to take their revenge. And I don't blame them.
in what order do you arrange your cd? alphabetical? epochs? Can you pinpoint the location of each title flawlessly?
Straight alphabetical by composer, sometimes performer for collections or the main work I'm collecting, and of course it's not flawless. I'm always finding stuff I forgot about. I think it's fun--sort of a treasure hunt. My apartment, on the other hand, is a complete mess with multiple alphabets and stuff all over the place, never mind what on earth to do with boxed sets that can't be stored property because each is a different shape and size. That is a nightmare.
David Hurwitz I know what you mean! Have the same problem with over 4000 titles 😊
How is your collection arranged and catalogued?
By faith and hope, mainly.
I'm a bit confused when you claim that Christian Cannabich is not classical music. If I understand you rightly, although CC was a notable of the "classical era", even a good buddy of Mozart, I believe, his stuff isn't classical music because at some point in the past he wasn't one of the select names that everyone agreed was "classical music". I assume that Haydn and Mozart were definitely "classical music", and Gluck too? Were the sons of JS Bach? Leopold Hofmann? I'm guessing that Johann and Carl Stamitz were not; but if not, what were they?
Good if your confused. That is my point. It's not a simple matter. Being "a classic" used to be relatively staightforward. Now it's a mess. As for the sons of JS Bach, CPE, yes for a number of reasons, WF, no.
What are your thoughts about what will happen to your collection when you pass, young man?
I really don't care. I'll be dead. If someone wants them or wants to donate them, fine by me.
That's a lot of Ikea Billy bookcases!
No, they were custom build by a friend of the family.
@@DavesClassicalGuide They certainly look like Billies, I use them for my CD collection. Not that much (yet) and not double rows (yet)...
Do you remember tThe Record Hunter and Sam Goodys in Manhattan?
Of course I do.
Looks like you're more a CD guy than HIFI guy. I agree, better to spend more on the collection than the equipment. Do you use headphones?
You've got it right. I only use headphones when traveling.