Three links, one site

Chicago Classical Music has posted three interesting and recent articles. The first is a transcript of a chat session with Wynne Delacoma, who recently gave up her post as Chicago Sun-Times classical music critic (I find it incomprehensible and even shameful that, to date, her vacant position has not been filled with another full-time classical music critic).

Wynne Delacoma reflects on the role of the critic, something she calls a “big, sometimes pretentious topic.” She pragmatically adds: “First of all, we would have no role at all if all the musicians out there weren’t performing, so we are reactive, not creators. The main role, I think, is to give readers a sense of what it was like to be at a particular performance. People talk a lot about critics as educators or advocates. I see them more as the most conscientious kind of reporter.”

Second, Jim Hirsch of the Chicago Sinfonietta writes about a commissioned piece by David Baker entitled Concertino for Cell Phone and Orchestra. I’m not sure what to think of it.

Last, Jim Palermo writes about applauding between movements, which reminded me of a CSO Afterwork Masterworks concert with conductor David Robertson in which he told the audience to applaud whenever they’d feel like. I think this issue is a very personal one and I can see both sides, although I tend to agree with Jim Palermo and David Robertson. The only thing I want banned from concerts is candy wrappers.