In this world of crowd sourced ratings, where Russian bots can swing an election or bring ruin to a local business, the relative merits of rating pieces on a five-point scale was something that was weighed and contemplated very carefully. On the one hand, it is an effective way to convey a hierarchy of opinion, and informed opinion is very much the foundation of this website. On the other hand, like the world of college football, sometimes consensus 5-stars flame out and “Glaswegian” unranked walk-ons get drafted. With apologies for three football metaphors in one article, it is part of his legend that in the 2000 NFL Draft, Tom Brady was drafted 199th overall, the part of the draft when everyone had stopped watching and draft picks are swapped for patio sets and fruit baskets. He is now, arguably, the greatest of all time.

In the end, the star ranking plug-in was activated, in the context of the philosophy of MoMuRe, which is that that reviewers must have performed the pieces in question, and that they must like them. In that spirit, here is a guide to what the stars mean:

5 stars: exceptional, representative of a generation
4 stars: an excellent piece, a favourite
3 stars: a piece well worth playing, and deserving of a spot in the repertoire
2 stars: a good piece, with reservations
1 star: not a recommended piece

It should be noted that, as a general rule, most pieces that we like should land in the 3-star area. Unlike restaurant reviews (with the exception of the NY Times), a 3-star review is a work that has distinguished itself from the rest of the pack.