13 Quotes by Donal Henahan

When her name is mentioned in the opera history books we will recall that vibrant, soaring tone-that and the blinding, high-beam-headlight smile that she flashed on her fans at each curtain call.

The more disastrous the mishaps the simpler the reviewing task.

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. All modern musicians are, for better or worse, prisoners of Gutenberg.

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

Miss Petrowska,an excellent pianist, held the audience transfixed with Chou Wen-chung’s work. Miss Petrowska was coolness itself in getting the hardware into the piano and out again…in Messiaen, a feeling for the music’s reverent sobriety combined to produce an absorbing performance.

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can pick up their heads from the keyboard long enough to claim it.

Real folk music long ago went to Nashville and left no known survivors.

[Rubinstein was] a fountain from which music spouted, not a recitalist.