558
PARTISAN REVIEW
Th omson:
I've never seen it. But my view is th a t Well es couldn 't to uch
the thea ter w ithout magic taking place. The same is true o f Jean
Cocteau . He o ften had sill y ideas, but the thea ter came to life the
minute he was there. So from the po int of view of the g ift, the talent,
the opera ti on , it was wonderful. And Orson could do it. He was still
in his teens when he sta rted, you know. He was done before he was
twenty-five. And he could do it on radio, and he could do it with
actors; he could do it w ith movi es. He knew how to handl e a camera;
he knew about ang les; he knew how to tell a story; he knew good
from corn y di alogue. Orson was an a ll-purpose thea trical genius
with the mos t beautiful bass speaking voice that ever has been on the
stage. He li ved his life in his career. And that las ted from nineteen to
twenty-fi ve.
Tr illing:
Would you say something about the ro le of the newspaper
criti cs and the magaz ine critics of music in the las t ten years: has it
ch anged ?
Th omson:
No.
Tr illing:
Just the same as it always was?
Thomson:
Hasn 't changed in fifty years.
Tr illing:
You don 't feel tha t there h as been a deteri ora tion o f stan–
dards?
Thomson:
I think the
T imes
has a better staff th an it's had in a very
long time.
Tr illing:
Are you kidding?
Thom son:
And if you read
The New York T im es
music reviews back in
the 1900s-they were very spo tty. Carl Van Vechten worked there for
a few years, but mos tl y they were stuffed shirts. My co ll eagues on the
T imes
were Olin Downes and Noel Strauss, bo th o f whom were
musicians and could write perfectl y well. Beyond these two they were
no t mu sicians for the mos t part. T oday I think they are all musi–
cians. The weak spo t is a t the top : Schonberg.
Tr illing:.
H e doesn 't know music?
Thomson:
Oh , he can read a score, and he writes books about perfor–
mance history. You know, hi s specialty is the histor y of piano
playing. But I think John Rockwell is their bes t writer. No, I don 't
think tha t the
T imes
has deteriora ted . I think the
T imes
since the
H erald Tr ibune
went out of existence h as improved . H aving a
monopol y, it has to kind o f keep things up. To my tas te the mos t
readable music rev iewer in New York is Al an Rich of
New York
magaz ll1 e.
