With the event on January 26th in the premises of the Deutsche Bank Unter den Linden the Friends and Sponsors started their new series »Critics under-fire«. The opening event hosted the Tagesspiegel editors Frederick Hanssen and Ulrich Amling. After a short introduction of both journalists by the executive director of the Friends and Sponsors Evelyn Fischer, the guests provided information about their particular, quite differing professional passes of becoming a music critic. Furthermore they told us about the everyday working methods of a critic and about the »eternal fight« for space for one´s own article. A big conversational topic, on which the audience entered the discussion, was the question which role the personal opinion of the critic in a review should play, as it seems as if the majority of the readers rather expect an accurate description of the opera or piece of music than an individual assessment given by the author. Further questions from the audience amongst other things applied to overly abstract phrasing, opposed reviews of different newspapers on one and the same performance, the personal bias of the critics as well as the ideal time to read a review.
After the end of the event the participants animatedly continued discussing about the topics of the evening while enjoying wine and pretzels. Following the fully successful opening event will be a second »Critics under-fire« round in autumn this year.
After the end of the event the participants animatedly continued discussing about the topics of the evening while enjoying wine and pretzels. Following the fully successful opening event will be a second »Critics under-fire« round in autumn this year.
