Virginia Knight <[log in to unmask]> wrote of the Penguin Guide:

>But the guide also makes judgements about the worth of composers and
>works, and here the bias of one or more of the authors can show up in
>sneering comments about music they dislike, or simple lack of coverage.

As kids will be kids, even so critics will be critics.  Those among the
latter who regularly make it into print soon develop a sense of their own
invincibility of judgement.

Every new Penguin Guide, tends to sell like hot cakes - it is a simple
fact of life that most collectors would prefer to be spoon fed the "right"
information to ensure that the content of their collections do not differ
too radically from a prescribed "orthodoxy".  Who prescribes that
"orthodoxy"? Personally, I wouldn't have a clue - I'm not an economist,
but in some strange convoluted sort of way, it probably has something to
do with the international stock exchange or perhaps even the Y2K bug (new
doomsdays have been set, after all).  Consumerism at any level does tend
to promote the habits & mind set required for & consistant with living a
perpetual teenagehood.  Even those who might consider themselves immune
are slowly being assimilated into the Consumer Collective!  Thus, because
their sales quotas are easily met, the authors of particularly successful
collectors guides eventually acquire the sort of arrogance that would be
better placed, more justified & understandable if seen in performing
musicians and/or composers who know their own true worth, irrespective
of what outside critics might think of them.

OTOH I might simply be overreacting:-)

Geoffrey Gaskell [log in to unmask]