Pablo Massa wrote:

>Stirling Newberry to James Tobin and Steve Schwartz
>
>>Hanslick is probably the commentator among the 19th century academics
>>read to day". Paritally because he was the most eloquent defender of the
>>Brahmsian camp,
>
>There are other reasons too. Hanslick strongly influenced many works
>of musical aesthetics in the XX century: Brelet, Schloezer, etc. Even
>Strawinsky's "Poetique musicale" --though not directly related to
>Hanslick-- is not far from the general lines of  "Von Musikalisch Schonen".

Donald Francis Tovey, who admired the music of Brahms, Bruckner and Wagner
each for very different reasons, wrote the following about Hanslick (in his
essay on Bruckner's 4th Symphony):

   ...Hanslick, who constituted himself the official leader of the
   Brahminen, saw in Bruckner fair game.  Wagner gave Hanslick only too
   lenient a treatment when he immortalized him in Beckmesser, named
   Hans Lich in the first sketch of the poem of Meistersinger.  Beckmesser
   at all events knew the rules he so humbly adored.  I have read
   Hanslick's collected works patiently without discovering either in
   his patronage of Brahms or in his attacks on Wagner, Verdi, Bruckner,
   the early works of Beethoven, Palestrina's Stabat Mater, or any other
   work a little off the average Viennese concert-goer's track in 1880,
   any knowledge of anything whatever.  The general and musical culture
   shown in Hanslick's writings represents one of the unlovelier forms
   of parasitism; that which, having the wealth to collect objets d'art
   and the birth and education to talk amusingly, does not itself attempt
   a stroke of artistic work, does not dream of revising a first
   impression, experiences the fine arts entirely as the pleasures of
   a gentleman, and then pronounces judgement as if the expression of
   its opinion were a benefit and a duty to society.

The above comment, if not read carefully, might sound like mere carping.
One should bear in mind, however, that Tovey's musical credentials were
much more formidable than Hanslick's.  When Tovey writes about music, it is
from the perspective of a practicing musician and composer who understands
what other composers do on a very practical level.  So when he writes about
moving beyond the obvious-even-on-first-hearing problems of Bruckner's
symphonies to get to the real value of the man himself, you understand what
he's talking about.  In the above quote, what stands out for me is Tovey's
awareness of the arrogance of the critic who views himself as a maker or
breaker of reputations under the guise of fostering artistic truth.  There
is no greater threat to the very things art stands for than this type of
self-serving, and ultimately lazy and ignorant, behavior.

Chris Bonds