Criticism Masterclass 1: Chopin from the Chopin Competition

CHOPIN
Scherzos, opp. 20, 31, 39, and 54
Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 21
Seong-Jin Cho, piano
London Symphony Orchestra
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor
Deutsche Grammophon

[Lohensteinio]

What a great chance to experience the thought processes of an expert critic/writer/editor! And Dave’s advice, taken broadly, is applicable to most any genre of writing. I look forward to more of these.

[vinylarchaeologist]

I am neither a writer nor a critic but I will watch this series with enthusiasm. I think there's a lot to learn here.

[onesandzeros]

"little discs" is probably a literal translation of "compact disc"

[bl]

Love this new series and look forward to future installments

[jonathanhenderson]

Funnily enough, I was going to submit my own entry covering a recent Valentina Lisitsa disc of (what else?) the Chopin Scherzos! Hopefully this won't be a problem as I've already starting taking notes for my review. I agree with Dave here about too much time spent being witty about the competition and far too little on the music itself. I mean, I had a laugh at the former, but it shouldn't be the bulk of the review.

[patrickhackett]

Maybe the reviewer meant "FLOUTING time and dynamics without fear"? In which case, it's not a translation error but a typo.

[johnd]

What a dreadful review which deserves everything Dave throws at it! As I was growing up in England and learning so much about classical music, it seemed to be a golden age for music criticism. Excellent critics are not always great writers but what a joy to read the likes of Andrew Porter, John Higgins, Gerald Larner, Conrad Wilson, Edward Greenfield, William Mann and a host of others! Even if they did not enjoy performancs, they made it perfectly clear why they did not without any of the fancy "I know better" rubbish that we tend to see today.

[mike-williams]

Confusing to refer only to the scherzos when talking about the orchestral accompaniment, when that applies only to the unmentioned concerto.

[kaswit]

To be honest I thought this video would be disparagingly with swear words flowing around but it's very funny indeed.
Like you said he said too much about introduction (which me laugh by the way) and say too little about recording just a word or two.