Kevin Sutton replies to me:

>Meaning no criticism of Steve, whose opinions and conclusions (snipped)
>about Liberace are valid and well thought out, isn't it interesting to
>compare his evaluation of the man to mine.  I am much more sympathetic to
>him than Steve and I give him more credit for his musicianship than does
>my esteemed colleague.  ...

It also may be a legitimate difference of opinion of the music-making
itself.  I found Liberace's Chopin, for example, as stiff as sheet rock.
I also admit that his stage antics to me were far more brilliant than the
music he produced.

>Here is a more legitimate example.  I adore the music of Benjamin Britten.
>He is my hero and I forgive him many of his faults (and he had a few)
>because he was one of the first successful openly gay musicians.  My
>initial attraction to him is that we had our orientation in common and
>he was a role model for me in many ways.

I was hooked on Britten's music way before I knew of his sexual orientation
and even before I knew there was such a thing as a homosexual.  Up through
college, I knew very little of his private life, and of that nothing of his
faults.  What I knew was that he was a pacifist who risked jail in wartime
Britain because of it, that he was loyal and even generous to his friends
(although he dropped people for reasons unknown to them - see Culshaw),
that his house had signs on the front gate in various languages all saying
what amounted to "Scram," and that he was extraordinarily helpful to other
composers - eg, Moeran, Imogen Holst, and so on.  I still have very little
idea of his faults.  I think I have also confessed that at one time, well
into adulthood, I thought Barber and Copland were straight.  That's how
much gay/straight sexual orientation matters to me.

>It would make for interesting discussion to see how personalities of our
>favorite music figures influence our like or dislike of their music!

This may well be the case with me and the music of Joseph Holbrooke, a
(straight, as far as I know) composer whose music I heartily detest.  I
found his personality so unlovely that it may well have led me to dismiss
his music.  Pfitzner is a similar case for me.  On the other hand, as much
as Wagner's character repels me, I love his music.

On the third hand, I truly dislike attempts to label this or that composer
"gay" or even heterosexually kinky without solid proof.  It's probably that
I find most discussions of someone's sex life, particularly someone not
around to defend themselves, none of my damn business and in poor taste,
besides.  In the case of Percy Grainger, there is solid proof, since he
made no bones about his s&m practices when he was alive.  On the other
hand, the charges Charles Schwartz (no relation, thank goodness) brings
against Gershwin incense me.  I know I'm offended by the usual air of "this
is all settled now" when in fact nothing of the sort has been settled.
The not-so-recent articles on Schubert, the insinuations about Ravel
(about whose sex life we know *nothing*; in fact, his contemporaries knew
*nothing*) actually make me angry, probably mostly at the b.s.  that passes
for scholarship these days.  Whatever happened to documents and at least
three independent confirmations?

Steve Schwartz