Jos Janssen wrote:

>I do not trust any music critic, although I am prepared to find truth in
>what they say.

As one who has written some and read more music criticism, I find it easy
to trust almost any critic as long as I can find something in their writing
which suggests the origin of their perspective.  I look for something in
the review which can give me some indication of their background...do
they have a sense of the recorded history of a work often gives me some
perspective.  That alone can tell me a bit about their listening habits.
I like to have a record reviewer place a recording in the context of the
recorded history of the work.  If it is a new work, I want to know if the
reviewer is familiar with other works by the composer or has heard the
work previously in a broadcast performance.  Does the reviewer have enough
understanding of the compositional vocabulary of a modern work to offer
informed opinions.

What I do find worthless is a review of a new recording of something that
has been recorded many times and the critic has only heard recordings that
are currently in print.  Similarly, I find it pointless reading a review of
a new work that rejects the music based upon stylistic considerations
versus the questions of content.

Karl