Critics, critics, critics...

Critics are often held in very bad regard by musicians.

Often, quite justifiably.

But what happens when the critic is also a prominent musician?

And what happens when the critic is a prominent musician and heavily criticizes another prominent musician?

This is exactly what happened in a terrible (almost comic in my opinion) remark:

Maurice Ravel wrote a marvelous string quartet in 1903, when he was 28 years old. He lovingly dedicated it “to my dear master, Gabriel Fauré.”

After its premiere, Fauré had not a single kind word for it. These were his remarks:

“Stunted, badly balanced, and in a nutshell, a failure.”

Why would he ever say something like this?

The generational gap might have something to do, Ravel was adopting new sonorities that were not usual at all at the time. And this was disruptive, as it usually is when an artist introduces a new language or a new way of doing things. Even for connoisseurs, like Fauré.

If you´re interested, you can listen to Ravel´s string quartet here and judge for yourself if Fauré had too harsh words for it, or if you think he was right.

Have a great day,

Claudio.