If you’ve ever tried to read classical music criticism and felt like you were staring at a blueprint for a nuclear reactor, you aren't alone. Most of it is dense. It’s dry. It acts like you should already know what a "diminished seventh" is before you’re allowed to enjoy a symphony. Honestly, it’s a bit of a gatekeeping mess.
Then there is Alex Ross.
He has been the staff music critic at The New Yorker since 1996. That is a long time to hold one of the most prestigious pens in the business. But Ross doesn’t write like a man trapped in a velvet-lined museum. He writes like someone who knows that a Radiohead bassline and a Mahler symphony are actually cousins twice removed. He makes the "unlistenable" stuff sound like the most exciting thing on the planet.
Alex Ross Music Critic: Breaking the High-Art Fever
Most people assume classical music is a dying art. They think it’s for people who wear tuxedos to dinner. Ross basically spent his entire career proving that’s a lie. He doesn't just review concerts; he maps out how music—even the weird, dissonant, 20th-century kind—is actually the soundtrack to our political and social chaos.
His 2007 book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, did something almost impossible. It became a bestseller. A 600-plus page book about modern classical music? People actually bought it. They read it on subways. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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Why? Because he stopped treating composers like statues. He treated them like people. He wrote about Sibelius’s alcoholism and Strauss’s terrifying dance with the Nazi regime. He showed how the Cold War shaped the avant-garde. Basically, he turned music history into a thriller.
The Harvard Years and the "Underground" Influence
Ross wasn’t always a high-society critic. Born in D.C. in 1968, he ended up at Harvard, where he studied under composer Peter Lieberson. But here’s the kicker: he wasn’t just a classical nerd. He was a DJ at the college radio station, WHRB. He worked in both the classical and the underground rock departments.
That mix is his "secret sauce." You can hear it in his writing. He doesn’t see a wall between "high" and "low" culture. When he writes about Björk or Bob Dylan, he brings the same intellectual weight he gives to Brahms. He’s famously said he hates the term "classical music" because it makes the art feel like it belongs in the past. To him, it’s all just sound that hits you in the gut.
Beyond the Concert Hall: The Wagner Obsession
If The Rest Is Noise was his breakout hit, his 2020 book Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music was his "magnum opus." It’s an absolute beast of a book. It isn’t even really about Richard Wagner’s music—it’s about how Wagner’s ideas infected everything else.
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We’re talking about his influence on:
- Willa Cather and American literature.
- The Civil Rights movement (specifically W.E.B. Du Bois).
- Modern Cinema, from the "leitmotifs" in Star Wars to the helicopter scene in Apocalypse Now.
- The dark history of Nazism.
Ross doesn't shy away from the ugly stuff. He deals with Wagner’s virulent anti-Semitism head-on. He asks the hard question: Can we still love this music when we know who the man was? He doesn’t give you an easy "yes" or "no." He makes you sit with the discomfort. That’s what a real critic does.
Why His Voice Still Matters in 2026
In an era of TikTok clips and 10-second reviews, Ross is still writing long-form pieces that demand your attention. He’s still at The New Yorker. He’s still digging into obscure archives. Recently, he’s been seen reporting on things as varied as archaeological excavations in Scotland (the Ness of Brodgar) to the future of opera in a post-pandemic world.
He’s one of the few critics left who has the "MacArthur Genius" stamp of approval. But he doesn't write like a "genius." He writes like a fan who happened to read every book in the library.
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How to Read Alex Ross (and Why You Should)
If you want to get into his work, don't start with the biggest book on the shelf.
- Start with the blog. His website, The Rest Is Noise, is a goldmine of playlists and short thoughts. It’s where he lets his hair down.
- Read "Listen to This." This is his 2010 collection of essays. It features a fantastic piece on the history of a single bass line (the "Chaconne") that shows up in everything from 17th-century opera to Led Zeppelin.
- Follow the New Yorker archive. Look for his profiles of living composers. He has a way of making you want to go to Spotify and look up a name you can’t even pronounce.
Ross reminds us that music isn't just background noise for our lives. It’s a way of understanding how we got here. Whether he’s dissecting the politics of the Metropolitan Opera or explaining why a certain chord feels like heartbreak, he’s doing the work of a translator. He translates the "noise" into something we can finally understand.
To really appreciate what Alex Ross does, grab a copy of The Rest Is Noise and keep a streaming app open next to you. Listen to the pieces as he describes them. When he talks about the "shiver" of a certain violin note, and then you hear it exactly as he described, you'll realize why he's the most important music critic alive.
Next time you see a long-form Alex Ross piece in your feed, don't scroll past it. Give it twenty minutes. You’ll come out the other side hearing the world a little bit differently.
Actionable Insight: If you're new to classical music, use Ross's "The Rest Is Noise" website to find his curated playlists. Instead of searching for "Best Classical Music," listen to his "20th-century" primers to understand the specific historical context behind the sounds. This turns passive listening into an active, narrative experience.