Anthony Tommasini, classical critic for the Times, looks back ahead of retirement

Being a journalist can take you just about anywhere. For Anthony Tommasini, covering classical music for The New York Times has taken him from a perch at Carnegie Hall to grandstand seats at Yankee Stadium. He's traveled the globe to cover world premieres in places like London and Salzburg, and he's reported on labor disputes, scandals and musical trends here in the U.S.

Tommasini has been the chief classical music critic of the Times since 2000, but at the end of this year he will lay down his pen and retire from the paper. But that doesn't mean he won't keep writing about classical music, as he told NPR's Scott Simon in a collegial "exit interview," which you can listen to in the audio player above and read excerpts from below.

This interview