Guest Blog: Frances Wilson - Thoughts from a reviewer's desk...

Frances Wilson responds to Tom Hammond's recent article on music criticism for the Music Haven Blog:

I read with interest Tom Hammond's recent post in which he queries the usefulness of reviews and the role of music critics and reviewers. I often question the purpose of reviews myself and take the (perhaps rather naive) view that a review should offer an objective overview of the concert, while giving the reader a flavour of what is was like to "be there". I also believe that reviews should not seek to tell the public how to listen - nor instruct the musician in his or her art. As a reviewer (I refuse to call myself a "critic" as the word has negative connotations for me) and a blogger on classical music, I'd like to offer a response to Tom's article, based on my personal experience and the world of classical music reviewing as I see it at the moment.

Tom Hammond: What's the Point of Reviewing Concerts?

Conductor Tom Hammond ponders the efficacy of music criticism, and wonders why - with the growth of online reviewing platforms - there isn't more variety in the types of concerts being reviewed.

I recently conducted three concerts - all with non-professional orchestras and not in famous venues - which were attended by about two hundred people in each case.

Tom Hammond on Sibelius and The Tempest

Conductor Tom Hammond writes about his performance with the Hertford Symphony Orchestra next May. They will perform Sibelius’s little-known music for Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Q&A: Tom Hammond on Amateur Music Making Part 1

In a two-part blog Rob Edgar, questions conductor Tom Hammond and composer James Francis Brown about the world of amateur music-making.

Part 1
Tom Hammond airs his views – informed by a wealth of experience conducting professional and amateur both nationally and across the globe.

Two-Part Blog: How to Teach Music (Part 2)

Following on from from his previous article, conductor Tom Hammond writes about the best methods of teaching music.

Hours of debate and forests of trees have been devoted to this topic. What is the right way to teach, and learn, about music?

Two-Part Blog: Music, Education and the Future (Part 1)

In the first of a two-part blog, conductor Tom Hammond ponders the future of music education in this country, and suggests a workable way we can all have a role in its future:

Cuts to music education that began in the 1980's seem to have no end, with state schools especially badly hit. Even in the private sector, the competing demands on children's time with extra-curricular activities plus league-table induced pressure for exam results, means that learning a musical instrument is seen by many as a non-essential luxury item.