Music Critic Attends Wrong Concert, Writes Glowing Review of Piece That Wasn't Performed

Music critic Reginald Clef of the Tribune-Herald published a 900-word review on Sunday praising the Metropolitan Orchestra's 'revelatory' performance of Sibelius's Second Symphony in D major — a work that was not on the program. The orchestra performed the Fifth Symphony in E-flat major, a completely different piece. 'The soaring string theme of the finale,' Clef wrote, 'built with Sibelius's characteristic glacial patience toward one of the great orchestral culminations in the repertoire.' This description applies to the Second Symphony's finale. The Fifth Symphony's finale is built on a swinging horn theme with a famously unconventional ending of six separated chords. 'He reviewed the wrong symphony,' said conductor Maestro Helena Podium, reading the review with her morning coffee. 'And he gave it a good review. So I'm torn between professional indignation and relief.' Clef, reached by phone, initially defended his review before being informed of the error. 'The Sibelius Second is a masterwork,' he began. 'We played the Fifth,' the reporter said. 'Right, of course,' Clef continued after a pause. 'The Fifth. Which is also a masterwork. And which I definitely attended. The one with the...' He trailed off. Investigation suggests Clef arrived late, missed the pre-concert announcement, and spent the performance in what a fellow critic described as 'a state of rapturous note-taking that appeared to involve no actual listening.' His review references specific passages from the Second Symphony's score, suggesting he may have been writing from a template prepared before the concert. 'He has a file of pre-written Sibelius paragraphs,' said a Tribune-Herald colleague who spoke anonymously. 'He mixes and matches. Usually it works because he checks which symphony was actually played. This time he apparently did not check.' The Tribune-Herald has published a correction noting that 'the Sibelius symphony reviewed last Sunday was incorrectly identified. We regret the error. The performance was excellent regardless of which symphony it was.' Clef has requested reassignment to the opera beat, 'where at least the title is in the program.'