Sunday, September 24, 2006

Retirement of a Great Music Critic

Posted by olvlzl

I just read Richard Dyer’s last column for the Boston Globe. It says that he has written 12,000 articles, mostly about music but also about books and other events. I must have read at least ten thousand of those.

Over the years my opinion of Richard Dyer has changed drastically. I remember thinking he was an irritating pill when he first started but over the years we both changed and today he is certainly one of the best writers on classical music in journalism. His clear, sensible and fully informed reviews are worth looking up and reading. He surpassed Virgil Thomson when the full measure of their criticism is taken. Thomson was a great critic when he was at his best but Dyer never used his criticism to settle personal scores.

Most of all I will miss his entirely reliable reviews of CDs, as I did his reviews of LPs. Luckily neither of us goes back farther than that.

I hope that Richard Dyer continues to write on music with the same insight and originality. I will miss him, the Boston Globe lost a real star when he retired. I hope they realize that.

His last column about the future of music is certainly up to his usual standard.