In the world of music in which he elected to move Michael had two exceptionally useful advantages. One was his scrupulous fairness, a product of a conspicuous intelligence and a deeply reasonable nature; and the other was his tremendous gift for friendship. He delighted in people, but he especially delighted in people who shared his passion for music, and particularly for English music. In that way he became firm friends with Barbirolli, and was scarcely less of a champion of the Hallé than its great conductor had been. The musicians knew that Michael knew his stuff, and that he always sought to tell the truth about a work, or about a performance of it. He felt a genuine mission to educate his readers, but also to help steer performers to a better understanding of their talents and interpretations. He was respected and loved as few other critics are; something all the more remarkable given his lack of formal musical training. But it was that very lack that allowed him to communicate to the music-loving public, few of whom had, themselves, been through the College or the Academy.

It was a great thrill for me to meet him when I joined the staff of the Telegraph in 1986; a greater thrill still that we became good friends. He would telephone regularly and alert me to new recordings he thought I would like. He guided me early on as I found my way into the depths of Wagner. Though known best for his work on English composers, Michael was an authority on opera and had a wide and deep understanding of Wagner's oeuvre in particular. And he wrote a magnificent book on Richard Strauss, in his seventies, after a lifetime of reflecting upon him: Michael never rushed to judgment, because he knew his reputation stood or fell by the quality of them.

In the days when I had to endure a party conference at Blackpool each autumn he would drive up from Manchester and have dinner with me. He was passionately interested in politics too, and blessed with well-formed views on them; but when we had digested what the politicians were up to, and debated the composition of the England cricket team to tour Australia that winter, we would wallow in talk about music, and he always had something to teach me. In those days before Amazon, such a dinner would always result in my diving into a record shop the moment I was back in London.

Often people are enthusiastic, but rarely can they communicate that enthusiasm in a way that makes the message compelling. Michael could, and not just because of his sincerity but because one knew that he knew exactly what he was talking about. One's friends, when they die, are always irreplaceable, but he is especially so.