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Music Critic? Arts Reporter? What’s the deal?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To the arts community:
I am pleased to let you know that I am back in my old job, and the term “critic” is part of the title. I’ve been assured by my editors that classical music coverage will remain materially the same. That is not to say that the status quo is fixed; The newspaper business is in tremendous flux. However, AJC management has publicly affirmed its support for classical music and for my work, and I feel that I will have a voice in the changes that will inevitably occur.
“Changes,” I want to underscore, is not code for reductions. My editor Michael Gray wants, for instance, to build the fine arts’ presence online while maintaining coverage in the AJC print edition.
If there is a silver lining in these anxious months, it is that management has grown fully cognizant that there is a passionate arts community and readership out there.
Thank you all very much for your support for fine arts coverage.
Pierre Ruhe
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By Lawrence Schenbeck
June 13, 2007 12:28 PM | Link to this
Yay! It’s good to hear from you at last on this vexing subject. Now I have a reason to continue my AJC subscription. BTW especially enjoyed your feature on the new oboe player. We were just in Buffalo, where the sunday paper there had a long feature on young classical musicians from that area. Don’t recall whether our new Principal Oboe was among them.
By Hugh Waddy
June 13, 2007 3:36 PM | Link to this
Mr. Ruhe, at the end of the 2006-2007 concert series, I look back. A few concerts stand out as memorable, more of them positive than negative. I’ve written before to you, mentioning that I don’t personally know many concert-goers. I know none who go to the Symphony. I always like to read your response. If your writing is about a concert I’ve been to, it’s stimulating. Thanks for your work.
The most mesmerizing was the Angela Hewitt presentation of the “Goldberg Variations.” When it was over, I thought, “How fast the eighty minutes went by.” Wow! The fact that Spivey was sold out (or appeared to be) added to the evening.
High on the list was the recital by Joyce Di Donato. What an excellent voice she had and how great was her technique. (I realize there is more to total singing that the physical endowment of the vocal apparatus and the skilled usage of it. We all are different and listen for different facets of the whole singing package.)
With the Atlanta Symphony, of the nine or so concerts I attended, my favorite was the Bach “St. John Passion.” (I was at the dress rehearsal.) The orchestra and chorus did a superb job. Thomas Glenn, Evangelist, was excellent. The other soloists sang well, some quite well. The semi-staging added as did the translations, lighting, etc. And it all meant something spiritually, an added bonus.
Only one was an “educational endurance.” That was the Adams “On the Transmigration of Souls” and his violin concerto. I greatly admired Midori’s talent and technique but nothing about the work was beautiful. I would only want to hear it again to see how I would feel the second time. “On the Transmigration of Souls” was interesting and carried meaning as it brought back memories. (I was a vocal coach in New York City for over thirty years.) Musically the writing left me cold, as have other words of his I’ve heard the Symphony do.
I feel I should hear new works. I do not feel obligated to take to them. As a matter of fact, I can’t make myself take to them. I can only make myself listen to them. I do not feel guilty for not liking it. Neither do I criticize those who do.
I’m looking forward to the next season at Spivey and the Symphony. (I am thinking about hearing “Transmigration” again to see what happens when I do.
Blessings and peace and may you get to keep your job!