In my opinion, Rattalino is not a good critic for the simple fact that he allows himself to be heavily influenced by personal tastes, which I partially share—his passion for Vladimir Horowitz, for example; however, I do not share at all the total downgrading of Georges Cziffra, but as a critic, he should be objective. But leaving that aside, I, who am not a critic, can decree if I want modern pianism for my own philosophical reasons; if I were on a commission, my evaluative criteria would be completely different. In plain words, this is somewhat what happens, which is why it is not well-regarded in academia.
@Chopin, I respond that in my opinion criticism is well done when it is objective and competent, and performed by people who simultaneously have a good ear in the case of music. Rattalino has not dedicated his life to playing the piano, but despite this, his knowledge allows him to know deeply the technical, philological, and historical aspects of performances; he has listened to a great deal, the problem is that he uses it solely to elevate those he prefers. That is not doing criticism, but expressing one's own tastes.
If I take a person gifted with a good musical ear but who has never taken an interest in playing an instrument, and I have them compare a blatantly poor performance with one worthy of praise, they will tell me which is the best; however, lacking knowledge and having never listened to anything, they will instead have difficulty determining which between two nearly equal performances is award-worthy. That is where the technical and philological aspects we are talking about come into consideration.
I doubt that Piero Rattalino has a bad ear, but he probably never had the nervous and physiological qualities to become an established concert artist, which is something completely different from being musical or not, assuming that in his youth it was his main ambition. I know very gifted people who chose to do something else in life. Before being able to speak, we should hear something well-recorded, perhaps from the period of greatest activity. Let us not forget that at a certain age muscles stiffen, reflexes diminish, let alone for someone who touches the keyboard only occasionally.
