Two “About Last Night” readers wrote to let me know that Tim Page, the classical music critic of the Washington Post and an old friend of mine, mentioned me in a Post online chat
earlier today. I’m vain enough to want to pass on what Tim said:
The book that’s dazzled me lately is by another friend, Terry Teachout. A Terry Teachout Reader (Yale) covers all the arts — film, dance, music (of all kinds), literature, and any variety of crossroads. Even when I find myself in disagreement with Terry, the fact remains that this is a book one vividly enjoys disagreeing with — one test of truly stimulating criticism. (How many of us found ourselves in this field in order to “win” arguments with critics of the past — Haggin, Thomson, Schonberg…!) A strong personality — and spectacularly unpredictable.
The part I like is the last two words.