Time International July 12, 1993 [antikvár]

FROM THE PUBLISHER F ^ or his colleagues, the sight of michael walsh ' striding down the corridors of Time's New York City oilices can mean one of two things. Either there's a major new production imminent at the MetropoUtan Opera. Or it's deaimaking time in his baseball Rôtisserie league, an imaginary team of real major-league players created by sports enthusiasts. Walsh, Time's classical-music critic and author of this week's story on the reign of German conductors over American orchestras, has been based in Munich, Germany, since 1989. But he keeps alive an impressive array of cross-cultural interests. Besides traveling the Continent to cover cultural matters for Time International, Michael is finishing a book on the Nazi era; writing his first novel; and, during the baseball season, checking his computer daily for the American League box scores, all for the statistics league he has been part of since 1982. Michael spends nearly a third of his time on this side of the Atlantic as well, keeping abreast of the U.S. musical scene. He finds the dual citizenship stimulating. "What I want to do is bring to our musical coverage the European perspective that culture is a part oflit'e, not just something one buys a ticket to." Walsh checks in at New York City's Lincoln Center Living in Europe has made Walsh more appreciative of the high standards of music perfomiance in the U.S. This week's story reflects his opinion that American orchestras are the best in the world, even if they do turn too often to German conductors and their classic repertory preferences. "There is nothing wrong with U.S. orchestras that a few managers with vision and a few conductors with innovative repertories couldn't fbc," he says. Born on the U.S. Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Michael did not discover classical music until age 15. He taught himself orchestration and attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Walsh was classical-music critic for the San Francisco Examiner before joining Time in 1981. His passionate, reasoned reviews have been informed by his eclectic musical tastes, which range from '60s rock to Broadway melodist Andrew Lloyd Webber, about whom he wrote a 1988 Time cover story as well as a book, Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life cC- Works (Abrams). "Classical music suffers from an image of snobbism," says Walsh. "I've always tried to make it approachable—to present it to the reader, not as a rarefied art form but as something everybody can participate in."