More Holland

If I were leading a writing workshop for critics, I'd bring plenty of Bernard Holland to pass around.  Here's a recent review he wrote of a Dmitri Hvorostovsky recital (FWIW, I interviewed him yesterday).  This is the last graf, despite being a very positive review: 

The rest of the songs sounded stateless, their flaccidity offering a sort of Europop for grandmothers. The situation was not helped by the easy-listening arrangements. Napoleon and Hitler never managed to conquer this part of the world; Michel Legrand and Henry Mancini seem to have done better.