Donal Henahan

“In the final stages of ennui, we may not even be disappointed to hear jarringly wrong notes or wayward interpretations at recitals, because the more disastrous the mishaps the simpler the reviewing task.”

“The sad truth is that the human brain can soften as a result of incessant listening to music with an intent to commit prose.”

“It might be argued that genuine spontaneity is not really possible or desirable so long as printed scores of great works exist. True. All modern musicians are, for better or worse, prisoners of Gutenberg.”

“Christina Petrowska ... has fingers that work like chrome‐plated pistons, and her highseated position, with elbows well above the keyboard level, let her bring pulverizing power to bear.”

“Bartók's vision of a modern music "rejuvenated under the influence of a kind of peasant music that has remained untouched by the musical creations of the last centuries" appears now as an idea whose time came and went while the recording machines were running. ... In this country, at any rate, real folk music long ago went to Nashville to die and left no known survivors.”

“Next to the writer of real estate advertisements, the autobiographer is the most suspect of prose artists.”

“On the subject of wild mushrooms it is easy to tell who is an expert and who is not: The expert is the one who is still alive.”

“We all invent ourselves as we go along, and a great man's myths about himself merely tend to stick better than most.”