List of chief music critics
Western classical music has a substantial history of music criticism, and many individuals have established careers as music critics. However, concert reviews are not always credited in the daily and weekly newspapers, especially those in the early to mid-20th century. This selective list of chief music critics aims to make it easier to find the likely author of a review, or at least the influence of the chief music critic on what was covered and how.
Journalistic newspaper criticism of Western music did not properly emerge until the 1840s. Before then, in England, Joseph Addison had contributed essays on music to The Spectator in Handel's era: his famous attacks on the Italian Baroque opera were published in March and April of 1711.
Former opera impresario Willian Ayrton began writing occasional musical criticism for The Morning Chronicle and The Examiner and founded the monthly music journal The Harmonicon in 1823. Arts and literary magazines such as The Athenæum sometimes covered musical topics. Specialist music paper The Musical World began publication in 1836 and The Musical Times in 1844. In France, the composer Hector Berlioz wrote reviews and criticisms for the Paris press of the 1830s and 1840s, as did other French writers such as Gérard de Nerval and François-Joseph Fétis. In Germany, Robert Schumann began giving influential reviews for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in the 1830s. In Austria, Ludwig Rellstab established himself as "the first great music critic".
But The Morning Post in England was the first daily newspaper to regularly publish concert reports, while The Times is generally recognised as being the first to appoint a professionally competent music critic, J W Davidson, in 1846. It has been suggested that critic and librettist Joseph Bennett, writing for The Daily Telegraph from 1870, held back the progress of English music due to his antipathy to Wagner, leaving Bernard Shaw as the only modern critic in the UK in the late eighties and early nineties. Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s Eduard Hanslick became a leading figure in Austria, writing for the Neue Freie Presse.
The presence of music criticism continued to grow, and by the 20th century numerous major newspapers had joined The Morning Post and Times in establishing permanent music critic posts, including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer and The Sunday Times in Britain, and the Chicago Tribune, New York Herald Tribune and The New York Times in America. The late 19th and early 20th century saw the development of a uniquely American school of criticism, inaugurated by an informal group of New York-based, termed the 'Old Guard', which included Richard Aldrich, Henry Theophilus Finck, William James Henderson, James Huneker and Henry Edward Krehbiel. Other leading critics of this time included John Alexander Fuller Maitland, Samuel Langford and Ernest Newman in Britain, and Paul Bekker in Germany.
After World War II, leading critics included Eric Blom, Neville Cardus, Martin Cooper, Olin Downes, Harold C. Schonberg and Virgil Thomson. Influential music critics from the late 20th century include Martin Bernheimer, Robert Commanday, Richard Dyer, Michael Kennedy and Michael Steinberg. In the 21st century fewer newspapers have dedicated critics for classical music, but writers have still been active, such as Alex Ross at The New Yorker, Anthony Tommasini at The New York Times and both Tim Page and Anne Midgette at The Washington Post.
List by publication
Aftonbladet- Adolf Lindgren, 1874–1905.
- Edward Holmes, 1826–1838.
- Gustav Engel
- Heinrich Ehrlich
- Max Marschalk
- Leopold Schmidt
- Alfred Einstein
- Adolf Weissmans, 1920s
- Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, 1929-1934
- Stephen Stratton, 1877–1906.
- Ernest Newman, 1906–1919.
- A J Sheldon, 1920–1931
- Eric Blom, 1931–1946.
- John F Waterhouse, 1950s...?
- Kenneth Dommett, 1960s-1970s...?
- Christopher Morley, 1988-2024
- Louis C. Elson, music editor and critic
- Francis H. Jenks, music and dramatic editor
- Henry Taylor Parker
- Paul Secon
- Olin Downes
- Michael Steinberg, 1964–1976.
- Richard Dyer, 1976–2006.
- Jeremy Eichler, 2006-2024.
- Philip Hale, 1903–1934.
- Donal J Henahan
- Bernard Jacobson
- George Putnam Upton, 1861–1881.
- William Matthews, 1878–1886.
- Frederick Grant Gleason, 1884–1889.
- Ruth Scott Miller, 1920–1921.
- Albert Goldberg, 1943–1947.
- John von Rhein, 1978–2018.
Daily Express
- Francis Toye, leader writer, then music critic, 1922–1925.
- Arthur Jacobs, 1947–1952.
- Noël Goodwin, chief music and dance critic, 1965–1978.
- R. A. Streatfeild, 1898–1902.
- Rutland Boughton, from 1912.
- Spike Hughes, 1933-36.
- Stuart Fletcher, 1930s.
- Martin Cooper, 1946-50.
- Richard Capell, 1911–1933.
- Edwin Evans, 1933–1945.
- Ralph Hill, assistant music critic from 1933, chief music critic, 1945–1948.
- Percy Cater, 1953–1960s.
- George Hogarth, 1846–1866.
- Edward A Baughan, circa 1904–1910.
- Alfred Kalisch, 1912–1933?
- Campbell Clarke, 1855?–1870.
- Joseph Bennett, 1870–1906.
- Robin Legge, 1906–1931.
- Herbert Hughes, 1911–1932.
- Ferruccio Bonavia, 1920–1950.
- Richard Capell, 1933–1954.
- Martin Cooper, music critic from 1950, chief music critic, 1954–1976.
- Peter Stadlen, music critic from 1959, chief music critic, 1976–85.
- Colin Mason, music critic from 1964
- Anthony Payne, 1965-1987.
- Gerald Abraham, 1967–68.
- Michael Kennedy, staff music critic from 1950, joint chief music critic, 1986–2005.
- Geoffrey Norris, music critic from 1983, chief music critic from 1995 to 2009.
- Ivan Hewett, music critic from 2002, chief music critic from 2009.
- William McNaught, 1933-1939.
- Mosco Carner, concert music critic, 1957–1961.
- Leslie Ayre, music and opera
- Henry Frost, 1888–1901.
- Percy Scholes, 1913–1920.
- Herbert Antcliffe
- Arthur Jacobs, 1956–1958.
- Rick Jones, 1992–2002.
- Barry Millington, 2002–2020s.
- Andrew Porter, 1953–1972.
- Ronald Crichton, 1972–1978.
- Max Loppert, 1980–94.
- Andrew Clark, from the late 1990s.
- Engelbert Humperdick, 1890–1895
- Paul Bekker, 1911–1923.
- Malcolm Rayment, until 1983.
- Michael Turnelty, 1983–2011.
- George Fremantle, 1867–1895.
- Arthur Johnstone, 1896–1904.
- Ferruccio Bonavia, 1902–1912
- Ernest Newman, 1905–1906.
- Samuel Langford, 1906–1927.
- Neville Cardus, 1927–1940.
- Philip Hope-Wallace, music and theatre critic, 1946-1979.
- Colin Mason, 1950–1964.
- Edward Greenfield, record critic from 1955, music critic from 1964, chief music critic, 1977–1993.
- Gerald Larner, assistant music critic, 1962-5, chief Northern music critic, 1965-1993.
- Hugo Cole, music critic 1965-1995
- Andrew Clements, chief music critic 1993-2025.
- Tom Service, from 1999 to 2003?
- Bayan Northcott, 1986–2009.
- Anthony Payne, 1987–1997.
- Edward Seckerson, chief classical music and opera critic, circa 2009–2012.
- Richard Ginell, 1978–1990.
- Albert Goldberg, 1947–1965.
- Martin Bernheimer, chief music and dance critic, 1965–1996.
- Mark Swed, classical music critic since 1996.
- William Ayrton. Honorary musical and literary critic, 1816–26.
- George Hogarth, 1834–1844.
- Charles Lewis Gruneisen, circa 1845–1853.
- John Ella, reviewer 1826-1842.
- Howard Glover, 1849–1865.
- Henry Sutherland Edwards, 1865–1869.
- William Alexander Barrett, 1869–1891.
- Arthur Hervey, 1892–1908.
- Francis Toye, 1925–1937.
- Scott Goddard, 1928.
- Robin Hull, assistant music critic, 1934-1937.
- Heinrich Porges, 1880–1900.
- Rudolf Louis, 1900–1914.
- Eduard Hanslick, 1864–1904.
- Richard Heuberger, 1896-1901.
- Julius Korngold, 1904–1934.
- Joseph Reitler, 1906-1938
- Hermann Ullrich, music writer, 1926-1938.
- Richard Heuberger, 1881-1889.
- Max Kalbeck, 1886-1921.
- Ernst Décsey, 1920–1938.
- Joseph Marx, 1931-1938.
- Scott Goddard, 1938–1955.
- George Dannatt, 1944–1956.
- W. J. Turner, 1915–1940.
- Desmond Shawe-Taylor, 1945–1958.
- David Drew, 1959–1967.
- Robert A. Simon, 1925–1948.
- Winthrop Sargeant, 1949–1972.
- Andrew Porter, 1972–1992.
- Paul Griffiths, 1992–1996.
- Alex Ross, 1996–present.
- William Zakariasen, 1976–1993.
New York Herald Tribune
- Richard Storrs Willis, circa 1840s–1850s.
- Henry C Watson, 1863–1867?.
- Gustav Kobbé, circa 1860s–1880s.
- Myron Cooney, 1865–1884.
- John Rose Green Hassard, 1866–1883.
- Henry E Krehbiel, circa 1880–1923.
- Lawrence Gilman, 1896–1898, 1923–1939.
- Virgil Thomson, 1940–1954.
- Herbert Kupferberg, music staff writer, 1942–1966.
- Paul Lang, 1954–1963.
- Alan Rich, 1963–68.
- Henry T Finck, 1881–1924.
- Olga Samaroff, 1926–1928.
- Oscar Thompson, 1928-1934.
- Harriett Johnson, 1943–1971.
- Speight Jenkins, 1973–1981.
- James Huneker, 1890s–1902.
- William James Henderson, 1902–1920s.
- Oscar Thompson, 1937-1945.
- Charles Bailey Seymour, 1849–1865.
- Frederick A. Schwab, 1875–1887.
- William James Henderson, 1887–1902.
- Richard Aldrich, 1902–1923.
- Olin Downes, 1924–1955.
- Howard Taubman, staff writer from 1930, music editor from 1935, chief music critic 1955–1960.
- Harold C. Schonberg, staff writer from 1950, chief music critic, 1960–1980.
- Donal Henahan, staff writer from 1967, then chief music critic 1980–1991.
- Edward Rothstein, 1991–1995, then critic at large until 2014.
- Bernard Holland, staff writer from 1980, chief music critic from 1995 to 2000, then national music critic until 2008.
- Anthony Tommasini, staff writer from 1996, chief music critic from 2000 to December 2021.
- Zachary Woolfe, from April 2022.
The Observer
- Edgar Frederick Jacques, from 1894.
- Ernest Newman, 1919.
- Percy Scholes, 1920–1925.
- A. H. Fox Strangways, 1925–1939.
- William Glock, music critic from 1934, chief music critic, 1939–45.
- Eric Blom, 1949–1953.
- Peter Heyworth, 1955–1987.
- Nicholas Kenyon, 1986–1992.
- Andrew Porter, 1992–1996.
- Fiona Maddocks. 1997–2002.
- Anthony Holden, 2002–2008.
- Fiona Maddocks, 2010–present.
- Daniel Webster, 1963-1999.
- David Patrick Stearns, from 2000.
- James Hotchkiss Rogers, 1915–1932.
- Herbert Elwell, 1932–1964.
- Robert Finn, 1964–1992.
- Donald Resenberg, 1992–2008.
- Zachary Lewis, 2008–2020.
- Alfred Frankenstein, 1934–1964.
- Robert Commanday, 1964–1993.
- Joshua Kosman, music critic from 1988, chief music critic from 1993, retired April 2024.
- Michael Walsh, 1977–1981.
- William Barclay Squire, 1888–1894.
- John F Runciman, 1894–1916.
- Conrad Wilson, 1963–1991.
- Mary Miller, 1992–1998.
- Stephen Johnson, 1998–1999.
- Herbert Antcliffe
- George MacCaffrey
- George Linstead
- Bernard Lee
- Andrea Della Corte, 1919–1967.
- Ernest Bax, 1888
- George Bernard Shaw, 1888–1890.
- A W Symons, 1892-????
- Ralph Hill, 1940s.
- John Warrack, 1961–1972.
- Malcolm Hayes, 1986–1989.
- Michael Kennedy, 1989–2005.
- Joseph Bennett, 1865–1870.
- Hermann Klein, music critic, 1881–1901.
- Ernest Newman, 1920–1959.
- Felix Aprahamian, deputy music critic
- Desmond Shawe-Taylor, 1958–1983.
- David Cairns, 1983–1992.
- Roger Covell, 1960 – late 1990s.
- Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, 1947–?.
- Albrecht Dümling, 1978–1998.
- Johannès Weber, 1861–1895.
- Pierre Lalo, 1898–1914.
- Florent Schmitt, 1929–1939.
- Thomas Alsager, 1817-1845.
- James William Davison, 1846–1879.
- Francis Hueffer, 1879–1889.
- J A Fuller Maitland, 1889–1911.
- H. C. Colles, assistant music critic, then chief music critic, 1911–1943.
- A. H. Fox Strangways, deputised for Colles during WW1.
- Frank Howes, staff writer from 1925, chief music critic, 1943–1960.
- William Mann, assistant music critic from 1948, chief music critic, 1960–1982.
- Stanley Sadie, music critic, 1964-1981.
- Paul Griffiths, 1982–1992.
- Richard Morrison, music critic from 1984, chief music critic from 1992.
- John Terauds, 2005–2012.
- William Littler.
- Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab, music critic, c 1800-1813
- Ludwig Rellstab, music critic, from 1826
- Max Marschalk, music critic, 1894-1933
- Paul Hume, music editor, 1946–1982.
- Joseph McLellan, mid-1970s–1995.
- Tim Page, 1995–1999, 2001–2008.
- Philip Kennicott, 1999–2001.
- Anne Midgette, 2008–2019.
- Michael Andor Brodeur, from 2020.
The Yorkshire Post
- Cyril Dunn
- Ernest Bradbury, 1947–1984.
- David Denton, 2000s–2020s.