“I want you to meet someone, a new writer I intend to use, very good and knowledgeable. You two have some things in common: the Midwest, piano, graduate school in English. You read his Times piece.” Boston Globe critic Michael Steinberg was on the phone to me, talking about Richard Dyer, who died this morning at 82. I could tell from that later famous article alone, a wicked sharp takedown of the declining Renata Tebaldi, effortlessly erudite and tossed off stylishly, that any introduction between us would be more like the coach calling the JV player to come shake hands with a varsity starter. Even as Steinberg’s phone call was to assign me the 1973 opening of Tanglewood (medical emergency forced me to bail at the last minute, sigh), this other new freelance reviewer seemed already big-league.
Dyer was lead stringer under Steinberg for the next couple of years and did topshelf work across the range of repertory. We did meet, several times, kept sporadically in touch otherwise, and attended the Steinbergs’ famous dinner parties with celebrated musical personages. I discovered Dyer had been a serious, high-level piano student, a rarity among music critics. Steinberg was slowly growing unhappy at the Globe, having worked there since 1964, and presently took a leave of absence, with Dyer filling in pro tem. This meant Dyer had to stop freelancing for me, now an editor at the Boston Phoenix, covering supper club music, a beat he loved. “Mabel Mercer was the best of them; we had a nice lunch and then I drove her to her optometrist! I think I did Chris Connor, Anita O’Day, Teddi King, and a Sinatra concert, but the most fun was Dory Previn. I got her first and we had such a good time that she canceled all her other interviews and we spent the afternoon together.” I mention this side work also because one time (and only one time) I let a backup line editor flip a couple of paragraphs of his in one of those reviews, with my approval, but it caused a continuity problem in print. Dyer sent me a graciously hot, or heatedly gracious, letter which I still have that led off with something like “I am on my high horse and riding hard ….”
Richard Dyer was born in Texas and reared in Oklahoma and Ohio. In a private letter he recalled, “My Met experience goes back a bit further into the early ’50s, when my grandparents would take me to Oklahoma City annually for the Met tour: Boheme in English with Nadine Conner, Eugene Conley (from Lynn!), Regina Resnik as Musetta, etc.; Cavalleria and Tosca in different years with Milanov, which changed my life. My father got a new job in Cleveland in 1956, so we went to the Met tour there — the Met was there for a week but we seldom went more than once or twice — Aida with Stella, Cavalleria and Otello with Milanov again (in my memory that Otello with del Monaco and Warren too was the greatest vocal performance I ever attended), Boccanegra (Curtis-Verna and Guarrera), Lucia with Pons and Peerce (I was out of my mind with that, although the best singer was Bastianini), Butterfly with Dorothy Kirsten. who still lingers in my memory as a complete pro ….”
When Steinberg returned to the Globe months later, Dyer began reviewing movies for the Globe in addition, resulting in different stylish, witty, pointed work. Steinberg’s discontent at arts editorial management only increased, and within another year or so — he told me and others that he needed time to sort out what he really wanted to do, and where — he shocked the classical world by decamping to the BSO. Steinberg had decided on Dyer to be his replacement during and after his year off because he felt he had found someone he could trust. All editor Tom Winship (who would always brag that Steinberg was the best hire he had ever made) wanted to know was, “Does this guy know what he’s doing?” To which the answer was easy.
For the next three decades, Dyer went from strength to strength as a working music critic and reviewer. “A dean of the profession,” the New Yorker’s Alex Ross dubbed him. Dyer had his shortcomings, of course, like all of us. He could be musically provincial, favoring pet locals unduly, year after year. He would sometimes go rhapsodic over lower-tier artists, especially pianists, local and worldwide, and while it was exciting to see their careers flourish in consequence, by the fifth Boston appearance in three years with other critics weighing in on their keyboard and musical lacks, it could come to seem a bit much.
Dyer developed as well a concluding high elegiac mode, channeling the Romantic poets via Abraham Lincoln, i.e., “feelings that lie too deep for words, words that lie too deep for tears, … music that summons our better angels,” that sort of thing. (Steinberg admitted, “Well of course, he learned from the best!”) Dyer sometimes let modesty slip, privately: “When Michael was working at the Boston Symphony he read and mercilessly commented on everything I wrote, but he would not do so until after it was published, telling me I needed to learn from my mistakes — and needed not to repeat them. … Jorja [Fleezanis, Steinberg’s concertmaster wife] too was a great support for me back when I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
Toward the end of his daily journalism career, 20 years ago, Dyer wrote, “While I understood why Michael got tired of reviewing, I never got tired of music or even of writing, but I was thoroughly tired of the rest, finding parking places, skipping dinner, having no private life. And by the time I had had a few years at the end that were as bad as or worse than what Michael went through, arts editors from hell who were young, uninformed, rude and condescending knowitalls who knew nothing — the main one proclaiming that if he wasn’t interested in something himself, no reader could possibly be, and all he was interested in was popular music and bad movies — I couldn’t wait to get out of there and reconfigure my relationship to music. I didn’t want it to be about having an opinion, and I vowed never to write another review again, and I haven’t.
“I’ve done lots of preconcert talks, notes, podcasts for the BSO, teaching, etc.; until covid I was about as busy as I ever had been at the Globe. Then it stopped. Still, [word-of-mouth] things come up: program notes for little orchestras, notes for New York piano recitals.” (Not to mention sitting on piano competition juries, as for FCPA.)
Eighty-two is the opposite of young, but my first reaction today to this sad news was that Dick Dyer is gone from us in the local musical world much too soon.
David Moran has been an occasional Boston-area music critic for 55 years, with special interest in the keyboard.
I loved sitting with him at concerts-he always had a comp ticket, and wanted company-but we NEVER spoke of the artist,music we were hearing. He would write review at concert, dash to Morrissey Blvd GLOBE headquarters, and review would magically appear next day- was wonderful… Tommassini was writing, Buell bashed everything, but Richard wanted to build and care for our musical community- he did have favorites, singers mainly, but on the whole his reviews were healthy.
Comment by Virginia Eskin — September 26, 2024 at 8:11 pm
I knew Marquard would come through:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/25/metro/richard-dyer-who-wrote-symphony-classical-music-reviews-globe-dies-82/
Comment by David Moran — September 25, 2024 at 7:29 pm
Many warm and fond, sharp and lively, and also downright rude comments at
https://slippedisc.com/2024/09/boston-music-critic-dies/ .
Comment by David Moran — September 25, 2024 at 1:46 pm
A nice brief writeup (at bottom) by a local musician:
https://artsfuse.org/298461/concert-review-and-commentary-music-worcesters-the-complete-bach-in-memoriam-richard-dyer/
Comment by David Moran — September 24, 2024 at 1:42 am
My dear Richard…Words cannot express my grief at learning you have passed out of this world. I will be forever grateful for your friendship, mentorship, support, and for your wonderful body of work. Thank you for always challenging me to strive and holding me to account that I should always live up to my potential. Thank you for your wonderful correspondence over the years and for access to your seemingly inexhaustible recording collection you so generously shared with me. You taught me so much and helped me cultivate my ear and my artistic vision. You will remain one of a kind and forever in my heart. Rest well.
B
Comment by Barbara Quintiliani — September 23, 2024 at 4:22 pm
Sad and surprising news. I saw him not all that long ago I thought, and he seemed in fine form.
Tim Page has added a tribute in the Washington Post, in addition to the wonderful tribute from David here.
That the newspaper that employed him has yet to acknowledge his passing, some three days later, proves the nonentity it has become.
Comment by Brian Bell — September 22, 2024 at 5:18 pm
A mentor, a colleague and a friend. I remember his essay on Tebaldi and thought this is the best music writing I have ever read. I was not wrong. He just knew everything, and had impeccable taste, both in music, writing, and all things sartorial. May his memory be a blessing
Comment by Susan Larson — September 22, 2024 at 2:47 pm
Thank you for this wonderful tribute!!
Richard Dyer was a critic without peers in my experience, and I loved reading his reviews. He was exceptionally good at what he did, and generally speaking, his reviews were on-target and honest. I’ve long missed his presence in the Boston Globe but was happy to see him from time to time at non-BSO concerts (maybe he went to BSO concerts on his own, but I never saw him once at the BSO after he retired).
I’ll never forget his review of Gerhard Oppitz’s performance of Brahms’ 2nd Piano Concerto with the BSO conducted by Marek Janowski in 1995 (I had to look it up to remember who was the conductor). It was BY FAR the worst performance of the 2nd PC I’ve ever heard because it was so devoid of emotion, passion, or even frankly involvement by the pianist–did Oppitz even care? And I remember Dyer’s review after the concert and was ANGRY at him for what he wrote. Paraphrasing, he said something like, how refreshing it is to hear Brahms’s 2nd Piano Concerto played with such emotional restraint, focusing on details that one never hears in most performances. [And by the way, I didn’t hear any such “details” myself that Dyer was praising.]
So years later when I actually met Richard, I brought up that review and said to him, you know your review made me angry at the time because I thought it was such an awful performance without any redeeming qualities–the worst I had ever heard and not by a small margin. And he responded, “I hated it too – and I also remember that performance because it was terrible. My review was entirely tongue-in-cheek. I figured that sarcasm was the best way to dismiss the whole thing.”
It was in retrospect a memorable lesson from a master.
Comment by Mogulmeister — September 22, 2024 at 12:04 pm
Richard was a true treasure to the art of music criticism. When I lived and produced events in Boston and represented several artists Richard loved, he was always incredibly supportive and interested in how they were doing. Early in 1980, he had heard rumors about the pending Boston Early Festival, which I co-founded. He called me from a meeting of the Music Critics Association to get details. As a result, the association had its national meeting during the first BEMF in 1981, which put the festival on the international map.
Comment by Jon Aaron — September 22, 2024 at 11:51 am
So sorry to read of Richard’s transition. When I lived and produced events in Boston and represented several artists Richard loved, he was always incredibly supportive and interested in how they were doing. Early in 1980, he had heard rumors about the pending Boston Early Festival, which I co-founded. He called me from a meeting of the Music Critics Association to get details. As a result, the association had its national meeting during the first BEMF in 1981, which put it on the festival on the international map. He was a true treasure to the art of music criticism.
Comment by Jon Aaron — September 22, 2024 at 11:49 am
So sorry to read of Richard’s transition. When I lived and produced events in Boston, and represented several artists Richard loved, he was always incredibly supportive and interested in how they were doing. At one point early on, in 1980, he had heard rumors about The Boston Early which I co-founded. He called me from a meeting of the Music Critics Association to get details. As a result, the association had its national meeting during the first BEMF in 1981, which put it on the international map. He was always completely honest! His reviews brought certain musicians to my attention who otherwise, I would likely not have worked with. He was a true treasure to the art of music criticism.
Comment by Jon Aaron — September 22, 2024 at 11:46 am
The comments above this one say it all about Richard Dyer. As someone who performed in many, many concerts he would review, I think his batting average was pretty high in terms of what his ears told him and he would write accordingly.
I would say he will be missed, but we’ve all already been missing him for some time via his reviews and articles.
Comment by Tony Beadle — September 22, 2024 at 10:58 am
Since engaging Richard on the jury of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001 I wanted him to be a permanent jury member for all subsequent competitions as well as part of the team of jurors who traveled around the world with us for the screening auditions. With his encyclopedic knowledge and superb musicianship he was a model of what all jury members should be like. And he was a delight to be with – charming, brilliant and with a great sense of humor. He was a true friend that I will miss him very much.
Comment by Richard Rodzinski — September 22, 2024 at 10:29 am
Goodbye dear friend. The power of what you have done for us is immeasurable. I so hope you know that and will rest well.
Comment by Sharon Daniels — September 22, 2024 at 8:04 am
This is heartbreaking news. Richard was so important to so many of us. He truly put Opera Boston on the map and was so very supportive of my leadership. I will always been grateful to him and he will be sadly missed.
Comment by Carole Charnow — September 21, 2024 at 10:13 pm
Richard Dyer was a model music critic and, particularly for someone who often wrote on deadline, an exceedingly effective writer. More importantly, he was a model citizen of the Boston classical music community, someone committed to finding and supporting the newly interesting, the promising, the thoughtful, and the probing. And he was sophisticated enough to tell the difference, usually able to discern what in the music interested and engaged the performers. On the other hand, music-making that was merely surface-beautiful, or seemed lazy, increasingly annoyed him, and he was unafraid to show impatience with it in his writing—though without being dismissive or sarcastic (mostly). Richard’s wide-ranging care and attention were, of course, supported—at the time—by the newspaper for which he wrote, such that his reviews and feature articles appeared with enough frequency that readers easily knew that high-level classical music in Boston reached well beyond Symphony Hall. In short, Richard was the best friend the music profession—and music lovers—could want.
Comment by David Hoose — September 21, 2024 at 9:57 pm
I first met Richard at the funerals of my early music teachers, Stephen and Beatrice Erdely. He was a kind man, and I went on to have wonderful interactions and conversations with him over the years – but especially on the 2012 and 2013 YPO and BPYO tours that he graciously and generously joined at Zander’s request.
His contributions to the Boston scene and beyond were immeasurable. He will be missed.
Comment by Thomas Lee Cooper — September 21, 2024 at 4:47 pm
Mr. Moran, this is a fitting tribute to a truly accomplished music journalist and critic. Mr. Dyer’s work was rightly recognized with two Deems Taylor/ASCAP awards. RIP.
Comment by Bill Blake — September 21, 2024 at 3:43 pm
Richard was such an unbelievable friend and supporter of countless musicians and musical organizations. He filled our lives with articulate, sensitive, eloquent words for decades. He was bursting with enthusiasm out loud and in print after several of us gave birth in 1978 to Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and he never stopped talking about us. I was always personally grateful for his support of my life as a flutist, whether reviewing new music concerts of Dinosaur Annex, or covering recitals of my duo with pianist David Witten, who connected deeply with Richard over their mutual devotion to master teacher Dorothy Taubman. But I will never forget the weekend I spent with Richard at his house in the Berkshires. He invited me to come stay after my husband composer Ivan Tcherepnin died, and it was a truly profound healing time. He adored Ivan, and we spent 3 days reminiscing, and talking about our families and all things musical. I still have the t-shirt he bought me from his favorite Berkshire country store. Such a brilliant, sensitive, generous human being. Our musical world has suffered a huge loss, but we are ever honored and blessed by his gifts to us.
Comment by Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin — September 21, 2024 at 10:24 am
This is sad news. I loved reading about his experience dealing with the nonentities at The Globe. I’m old enough to remember when that was a great paper.
Comment by Rich Carle — September 21, 2024 at 8:37 am
Richard and I interacted a fair amount over the years. He wrote a feature article in the Globe about me, and was encouraging when the Intelligencer got going. Beyond the 8500 words in his emails to me, he wrote a couple of interesting articles for us:
https://www.classical-scene.com/2023/07/06/eaglen-isolde/
https://www.classical-scene.com/2019/10/01/delavan-bpo/
Comment by Lee Eiseman — September 20, 2024 at 10:54 pm