Virgil Thompson

One of the best regular critics of any subject whatsoever who ever walked into any newspaper s city room. . . . It is more fun reading Virgil Thomson today on subjects of scant general interest than it is to read the vast majority of designated dullards and snark-slinging trivialists currently employed. . . . Thomson, like much of Mencken, remains riotously readable. <b><b>Jeff Simon, <i>The Buffalo News</i></b></b> The present volume is valuable, of course, as a chronicle of a particularly rich period of musical life in this country. All the big composers and performers are here at their height. It was a Golden Age. But I think the book is even more valuable as a record of one deeply musical man s listening experiences put into beautiful prose. It is a book that can teach us all how to be better listeners. <b><b>Timothy Mangan, <i>Orange County Register</i></b></b> Anyone with a passing interest in music and good writing needs to have this book. There s an enormous amount to learn in these 1,000 pages and your education will be painless, thorough and entertaining. <b><b>Christopher Purdy, WOSU Classical Music 101</b></b> [Thomson s] bracing attitude about the job of the music critic has never been more urgent than it is now, an era of unprecedented choice, a chaotic cultural marketplace, and scant curatorial guidance. <b><b>Peter Dobrin, <i>The Philadelphia Inquirer</i></b></b>