Desmond Shawe-Taylor (music critic)
Desmond Christopher Shawe-Taylor, (29 May 1907 – 1 November 1995),[1] was a British writer, co-writer of The Record Guide, music critic of the New Statesman, The New Yorker and The Sunday Times and a regular and long-standing contributor to The Gramophone.
Biography
Shawe-Taylor was born in Dublin, the elder of two sons of
During World War II Shawe-Taylor served in the Royal Artillery. After the war he returned to The New Statesman, taking on the post of music critic. In 1958 he was invited to succeed Ernest Newman as chief music critic of The Sunday Times. This, as The Times observed, was not an easy task. Newman, who retired just before his 90th birthday, had been the paper's music critic since 1920, and was a legendary figure.[3] Shawe-Taylor was a success as Newman's replacement, and he remained at The Sunday Times until his own semi-retirement in 1983. His years on the paper were broken only by a season as guest critic of The New Yorker from 1973 to 1974.[3]
In 1948 Shawe-Taylor wrote a short historical work Covent Garden about opera audiences and changing operatic styles.[3] It was the only book for which he was solely responsible, but in 1951 he collaborated with Edward Sackville-West to research and write The Record Guide, a pioneering reference work discussing and grading currently available classical records.[4] This was followed by a series of updates and an enlarged new edition between 1952 and 1956.
The long-established music magazine
Together with his partner Edward Sackville-West and another close friend, the painter, collector and art dealer
Shawe-Taylor died suddenly at Long Crichel House on 1 November 1995, aged 88, after a country walk.[2]
References
- ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
- ^ a b c d e f Warrack, John, "Taylor, Desmond Christopher Shawe- (1907–1995)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, May 2009, retrieved 30 May 2010 (requires subscription)
- ^ a b c d e f g "Desmond Shawe-Taylor – Obituary", The Times, 3 November 1995
- ^ a b The Gramophone, obituary notice January 1996, p. 14
- ^ Cairns, David, "Wit and wisdom of a maestro of criticism – Desmond Shawe-Taylor", The Sunday Times, 5 November 1995
- ^ Machin, Julian (14 October 2009) "Mattei Radev: Mainstay of the Bloomsbury artistic society, who had a tortured relationship with E.M. Forster" [Obituary]. In The Independent. Retrieved 13 November 2020
- ^ News. InSight No. XVI Archived 4 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine in Piano Nobile, 1 June 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020