Someone’s listening

Make a film about Beethoven and music writers naturally get picky about the soundtrack. “The people who plan these films do extensive research on costumes and furniture but don’t trouble to find out even the most basic things about how music in the eras they depict was actually performed,” Greg Sandow wrote of the recently released “Copying Beethoven.”

Alex Ross, the New Yorker music critic, quotes Sandow on his blog The Rest Is Noise (therestisnoise.com) and picks up the theme:

“The idea that the Ninth Symphony scene in this film consists of people in period costumes miming Bernard Haitink’s 1996 recording -- on modern instruments, and in modern style -- is reason enough to give it a miss.”

But then, what do music bloggers know, anyway? English music critic Norman Lebrecht, who is both beloved and notorious for his often curmudgeonly opinions on musical and cultural matters, posts an assessment of the blog world packed with praise as well as accusation. He ends with this gauntlet thrower available at latimes.com/lebrecht:

“Classical blogs are spreading but their nutritional value is lower than a bag of crisps. Unlike financial blogs, which yield powerful and profitable secrets, classical web-chat is opinion-rich and info-poor. Until bloggers deliver hard facts and estate agents turn into credible critics, paid-for newspapers will continue to set the standard as [the] only show in town.”

-- Scott Timberg