Something I Heard: A New York Times Critic Remembers 1981-2008

For over twenty seven years, music critic Bernard Holland reviewed the most celebrated classical artists of the twentieth century for The New York Times. Reporting both sides of the culture war between an honored past and radical change, Holland writes about Philip Glass to Verdi, Messiaen to Bach, Peter Sellars to Zeffirelli, and Linda Ronstadt to The Three Tenors. Throughout, Holland changes the discussion from "will classical music survive?" to "what classical music really is" and, in the process, argues the myth of "high and low art". Along the way, the reader chats with Herbert von Karajan, takes a plane trip with Yo-Yo Ma, joins in with the boos at Bayreuth, and walks the slow walk with Robert Wilson.