Kerry Murphy

An insightful view at Berlioz' role as a critic in relation to the musical life in the Paris of his day. The author compares Berlioz' critical reviews to those of other critics. Several different categories are held to light (opéra-comique, grand opera, instrumental music, soloists; book reviews are only mentioned in passing). Berlioz' critique can be divided into three sections: reviews of works he loved (generally Beethoven, Gluck and Weber), works he liked and works he disliked. All three types of reviews have specific characteristics and vocabulary. When reviewing works he disliked, Berlioz frequently tried to avoid reviewing the work at all by focusing on the libretto or talking about general issues such as instrumentation or the state of music in Paris.

Unfortunately this book was written without the benefit of the publication, still in progress, of Berlioz' complete critical output and is thus limited to a narrow period of time at the beginning of Berlioz' carreer. This massive undertaking will undoubtedly generate more studies on this topic, but Kerry's insightful and pleasant first steps definitely lead the way.… (meer)