Donald Rosenberg, a music critic who writes for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and arguably one of the half dozen or so best such critics in the country, was removed from his regular beat, covering the Cleveland Orchestra, earlier this week.

Daniel Wakin’s report on the story published in Wednesday’s New York Times provided a great deal of information on the matter and suggests a great deal more, all but concluding that Rosenberg was laterally reassigned as the result of his often negative reviews of Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst. Tim Mangan connects a few of the dots at The Arts Blog.  Zachary Lewis’s profile of Welser-Möst from the Thursday edition of the Plain Dealer, including some passing mention of his – well, shall we say “unusual” family situation – is also well worth a read, especially given that it was perfectly timed to deflect attention from the uproar over the Rosenberg matter.

Based on my own observations of the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst at Carnegie Hall (the words “uneven,” “uninspired,” and “lackluster” spring immediately to mind), it seems to me that Rosenberg may have been cutting the conductor a good deal of slack over the long term. And were an enterprising journalist or two to scrutinize the story of how this particular maestro got to his present position, not to mention his prior high-profile directorship of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, I’d be willing to bet that the resulting facts would cause more than a little distress for a couple of orchestral boards of directors, an artist manager or two, and the Plain Dealer.