Loading...
hidden

View Mobile version

Meta navigation

Startseite – Hochschule Luzern

Language selection and important links

  • Contents
  • Contact
  • Login
  • De
  • En
Search

Main navigation

School navigation

  • Engineering and Architecture
  • Business
  • Computer Science
  • Social Work
  • Art and Design
  • Music

Sub-navigation

  • Degree Programmes
  • Continuing Education
  • Research
  • International
  • Campus
  • About us
  • News

Sub-navigation

Breadcrumbs

  1. Research Research
  2. Between Producers and Consumers: Music Critics' Role in the Classical Music Market Between Producers and Consumers: Music Critics' Role in the Classical Music Market

Between Producers and Consumers: Music Critics' Role in the Classical Music Market

This project investigates the role of professional music criticism in the classical recording market and its impact on consumers' attitudes and behaviours.

Brief information

School:

Music

Status:

Completed

Period:

18.01.2016 - 31.12.2019

Overview

This project will investigate the role of recorded performance criticism in the classical music market and its direct impact on the consumers of recordings. In particular, it will generate an understanding of how recorded performance critique influences the music market through the lenses of critics, music consumers, and critical products. It will shed new light on the way professional music criticism is viewed by critics and consumers, and examine what aspects of critical judgements directly influence consumers’ attitudes towards music performances.

Professional critics’ reviews of recorded performances are published regularly in both paper and digital formats. One of the main aims of such reviews is to guide consumers’ purchasing choices. However, in recent decades a key debate has questioned the nature and purpose of art criticism and its function as predictor or influencer of consumers’ choices. Research by the present grant authors (“Reviews Reviewed”, 13DPD6_130269) on hundreds of reviews of Beethoven piano sonata recordings showed how, in a burgeoning market, professional critics act as evaluators and filters of choice, polarizing their reviews around a small number of interpreters and products. Yet no research to date has investigated the extent to which this is intentional, nor its impact on consumer choices and the establishment of a canon of master performances. The present project directly addresses this debate investigating the two key arising questions:

(1) What is the role of recorded performance critique in the wider classical music market from the psychological perspective of its two key stakeholders; the critics and the consumers?

(2) What characteristics of recorded performance critique most influence consumer attitudes and behaviours? These questions will be answered through a series of in-depth interviews, a large-scale survey, qualitative text analyses, and controlled experiments.

The project outputs will amount to a comprehensive overview of the current role of recording critique in the classical music market. The project is submitted to the SNSF following the joint agreement with the AHRC Council in UK, as part of the Money Follows the Co-operation Line process. It pools the competences of the Music Performance Research Group at the Hochschule Luzern – Musik (historical, systematic and cultural musicology) and of the Music, Mind and Machine Research Centre at the Department of Music, University of Sheffield (music psychology, experimental design and statistical analysis).

hidden

Facts

Type of project

Forschung

Internal organisations involved
  • Forschungsschwerpunkt Performance
External project partner
  • The University of Sheffield
External project funder
  • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
Funding
  • SNF-HSLU als Hauptgesuchsteller/in
hidden

Links

  • SNF Projektdatenbank P3

hidden

Persons involved: internal

Project manager
  • Elena Alessandri
Project Co-Head
  • Antonio Baldassarre
Member of project team
  • Antonio Baldassarre
  • Victoria Jane Carreras Sandoval
  • Natalie Kirschstein
  • Dawn Rose
  • Olivier Senn
  • Katrin Szamatulski
hidden

Persons involved: external

External Project Co-Head
  • Victoria Jane Carreras Sandoval

Publications

  • Article, review; peer reviewed (4)

    • Alessandri, Elena & Williamson, Victoria Jane (2022). The critic’s voice: On the role and function of criticism of classical music recordings. Frontiers in Psychology, 13(925394), 1-14. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.925394

    • Alessandri, Elena; Dawn, Rose; Senn, Oliver; Szamatulski, Katrin; Baldassarre, Antonio & Williamson, Victoria Jane (2020). Consumers on Critique: A Survey of Classical Music Listeners’ Engagement with Professional Music Reviews. Music & Science, 3, 1-19. doi: 10.1177/2059204320931337

    • Alessandri, Elena; Carreras Sandoval, Victoria Jane; Eiholzer, Hubert & Williamon, Aaron (2016). A critical ear: Analysis of value judgements in reviews of Beethoven’s piano sonata recordings. Frontiers in Psychology / Performance Science, 7 (391), 1-17. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00391

    • Alessandri, Elena; Carreras Sandoval, Victoria Jane; Eiholzer, Hubert & Williamon, Aaron (2015). Beethoven recordings reviewed: A systematic method for mapping the content of music performance critique. Frontiers in Psychology, 6:57. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00057

  • Article, review; not peer reviewed (1)

    • Baldassarre, Antonio & Alessandri, Elena (2021). Noch lange nicht in die Jahre gekommen. Schweizer Musikzeitung SMZ = Revue Musicale Suisse RMS = Rivista Musicale Svizzera RMS, 24(5), 32-33.

  • Chapter/legal commentary/lexicon article (2)

    • Alessandri, Elena & Baldassarre, Antonio (2021). Musik in Zeiten der Digitalisierung. In Peter Overbeck (Hrsg.), Musikjournalismus: Radio – Fernsehen – Print – Online (S. 35-41). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    • Alessandri, Elena; Williamson, Victoria Jane; Eiholzer, Hubert & Williamon, Aaron (2016). Evaluating Recorded Performance: An analysis of critics’ judgements of Beethoven piano sonata recordings. In Theodor Zanto; Ed Large (Hrsg.), Proceeding of the 14th International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (S. 19-24). San Francisco (CA): ICMPC.

  • Theses (Bachelor/Master/Dissertation/Habilitation) (1)

    • Alessandri, Elena (2014). Evaluating recorded performance: An investigation of music criticism through Gramophone reviews of Beethoven piano sonata recordings. Dissertation, Royal College of Music, London, UK.

  • Other publication formats (6)

    • Alessandri, Elena & Baldassarre, Antonio (04.03.2019). Welche Rolle spielen Rezensionen für Klassik-Hörer? [Radiosendung]. https://www.swr.de/swr2/musik-klassik/Welche-Rolle-spielen-Rezensionen-fuer-Klassik-Hoerer,aexavarticle-swr-59956.html

    • Alessandri, Elena (01.02.2019). Klassik Aktuell [Radiosendung]. https://www.br-klassik.de/audio/gespraech-mit-elena-alessandri-100.html

    • Alessandri, Elena (31.01.2019). Musikzeitschriften haben es schwer [Radiosendung].

    • Alessandri, Elena (07.01.2019). Musikkritiker sind keine aussterbende Spezies [Radiosendung].

    • Alessandri, Elena (27.08.2018). Shéhérazade, Radiointerview über die Natur und Rolle der Musikkritik [Radiosendung].

    • Alessandri, Elena (22.05.2016). Was machen eigentlich Musikkritiker, wenn sie Musik kritisieren. SRF Kultur, Kultur Kompakt [Radiosendung].

  • Presentation (conference/report/lectures) (6)

    • Baldassarre, Antonio (11.11.2019). Changing Times: The Evolution of the Persona of the Classical Music Critic. Music Performance Theory International Summit, Shanghai.

    • Alessandri, Elena; Rose, Dawn; Baldassarre, Antonio; Senn, Olivier; Szamatulski, Katrin & Williamson, Victoria Jane (06.09.2019). Is music criticism a dying art? Society for German Music Psychology Conference on Cognitive Music Psychology, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany.

    • Alessandri, Elena; Baldassarre, Antonio; Williamson, Victoria Jane; Senn, Olivier & Szamatulski, Katrin (05.08.2019). A new perspective on classical music listeners: Consumers’ Habits and the Influence of Professional Music Review. 2019 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, New York.

    • Alessandri, Elena; Baldassarre, Antonio; Williamson, Victoria Jane & Szamatulski, Katrin (07.07.2019). Work in progress: Developing a model of criticism of classical music recordings. Intercongressional Symposium of the International Musicological Society, Luzern.

    • Alessandri, Elena; Baldassarre, Antonio & Williamson, Victoria Jane (23.07.2018). How do you listen? Music listeners' habits and purchasing strategies. ICMPC15/ESCOM10, Graz.

    • Alessandri, Elena (09.03.2017). An Empirical Perspective on Music Criticism. 1° Jornadas do NEMI, Lissabon, Portugal.

Brief information

School:

Music

Status:

Completed

Period:

01/18/2016 - 12/31/2019

Project Head

Prof. Dr. Elena Alessandri

Head of CC Music Performance Research

+41 41 249 26 42

Show email

Project Co-Head

Prof. Dr. Antonio Baldassarre

Head of Research and Development

+41 41 249 26 31

Show email

Footer(s)

FH Zentralschweiz

Social media links

  •  Facebook
  •  Instagram
  •  Twitter
  •  LinkedIn
  •  YouTube
  •  Flickr

Contact

Logo Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts


Werftestrasse 4
- 6002 Luzern

+41 41 228 42 42

info@hslu.ch

Direct entry

  • A bachelor's degree –
  • A master's degree –
  • Prospective Students (Continuing & Executive Programmes)
  • Unternehmen & Institutionen
  • Media Relations
  • For Students
  • For Members of Staff

Quick link

  • People Finder
  • University Buildings & Campus Locations
  • News
  • Libraries
  • Events
  • Jobs & Karriere
  • Home
  • Hiring Rooms

Static links

  • Newsletter
  • Data protection notice
  • Publishing Acknowledgements
Logo Swissuniversities

QrCode

QrCode
We use cookies on this site to give you the best browsing experience. By continuing to navigate this site or closing this banner you accept this use of cookies. For more information please visit our privacy policy.
OK