Between 1992 and 1996, I wrote about five hundred reviews and articles for the New York Times. I have no intention of putting all that old material on this site. Indeed, if there were a way to expunge a few of my neophyte efforts from the permanent record, I'd happily do so. My ill-considered attack on Bizet's Carmen, for example, did little to establish my credibility with the operagoing public. Some of the pieces, though, are worthy of preservation, not so much because they're electrifying in themselves but because reports of premieres and other happenings have archival value. In that spirit I put up my review of a marathon performance of Satie's Vexations. Here's another old Times piece: an essay on musical events surrounding the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II. I spent the summer of 1995 traveling across Europe, and this was my summary report. It turned out to be the jumping-off point for my forthcoming book. The wonderful headline — "In Music, Though, There Were No Victories" — was Jim Oestreich's invention.
