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