I've been reading Gramophone for nearly forty years and I have to agree
that it's a shadow of what it once was.  The British bias has worried
me for years, and I've tended to filter this from a review, although UK
listers may disagree.  I still buy it because, as Len Fehskens observed,
despite your best endeavours, you miss knowing of some releases.

Jane Erb thought that:

>...International Record Review, started by and composed of many people
>who left Gramophone when it became so slick, has followed along and
>also become slick.  Too bad.

I think IRR is a much better magazine that Gramophone.  It reviews and
lists more new releases from small labels, and I prefer its articles -
Martin Anderson's recent ones on Norwegian composers were alone worth
the price of the magazine.  It also uses writers from different parts
of the world, even (gasp!) from Australia.  Given some less than rapturous
comments from listers about the American Record Guide, I haven't bothered
investigating it.  Fanfare uses reviewers from other countries, including
the UK.  I can happily spend a week getting through a Fanfare - Gramophone
is a small snack by comparison.  Incidentally, I recently needed to look
up a review in a 1993 Fanfare.  It was a thick chunky volume of near
airport novel dimensions.  Its 2002 sylph-like descendant emphasised yet
again how much things have changed in recent years.

The other magazine I refer to frequently is Len Mullenger's excellent
Musicweb, http://www.musicweb.uk.net or linked from Classical Net, which
posts reviews every day.  Len will also send you a weekly digest of
reviews, and there is much else of interest at the site.  I had no
inducements to mention this - a good site deserves a free plug.

Richard Pennycuick
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