Steve Schwartz says that he

>...  tended to like only bits and pieces of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
>Schubert, Schumann, Verdi, and Brahms.  I simply didn't care for the
>idiom.  I found it bland and predictable at first.

Well, there are times when bland and predictable are just what is
needed. When I come home from a hard day's work there is nothing I
like more than to relax while listening to the Grosse Fugue, or maybe
the Hammerklavier.

Bernard Chasan