Donal Henahan, former New York Times music critic, dies ...

Donal Henahan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic who wrote sometimes curmudgeonly reviews for The New York Times for almost 25 years, died Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 91. The Times' obituary recalls his first review for the paper, in 1967:

Mr. Henahan?s first review in The Times, on Sept. 14, 1967, captured the spirit of an era. It began: ?The American subculture of buttons and beards, poster art and pot, sandals and oddly shaped spectacles met the rather more ancient culture of India last evening at Philharmonic Hall. The occasion was the first of six concerts there this season by Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso, whose instrument traces back about 700 years and whose chosen art form, the raga, is said to be 2,000 years old.?

He wasn't always grumpy, as this review of pianist Vladimir Horowitz shows:

Vladimir Horowitz ?should not be missed in the course of any richly lived lifetime,? Mr. Henahan wrote in reviewing a 1985 Carnegie Hall concert by the pianist. ?Mr. Horowitz, who is 82 years old, no longer produces the Niagara of sound that once characterized his performances, but the famously fluent stream can still be turned on when the mood of the man and the music coincide.?

-- David Stabler

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2012/08/donal_henahan_former_new_york.html

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