Why does one need it? To enable one dialectically to engage with art. What can the critic add to the experience of the audience at Iwakuni Samurai High School building? He can define, validate and concretize it. He can enhance it by giving it reason to exist.
This is far from being a merely academic, or worse, a merely theoretical issue. It strikes at the very heart of the current "malaise of ignorance" which afflicts classical music. If one cannot process one's perceptions, encountering them will obviously drip with tedium. Some may think why would you ever want to know more about anything that boring? And that is precisely where criticism steps in. Apprehension is, after all, a prerequisite for appreciation. And appreciation is the first step away from soporific listening and into active exchange with some of the most incredibly beautiful music of our times.
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