Contemplating a condescending Hummel review, Donald Satz writes:

>This particular review also got me thinking about musical expectations
>when one listens to a particular composer and composition.

By anyone's standards, the Hummel should be very gratifying.  When reading
reviews as petty as the one you read you have to wonder where the reviewer
is coming from.  Is he taking this stand bacause "that's what the *cool*
reviewers would do?"  Is he distancing himself from one of the *lesser*
composers because he believes it will enhance  his authority regarding the
great ones?

It's hard for me to believe, (and I know it's not the case with you, Don),
that there are people out there that don't use CM for anything more than
assessorizing.

Quick story:  Tom Davey and I went to the SFO to see Strauss' "Elecktra"
and before things got started we went up to the orchestra pit to drool
over Stauss' vast orchestra.  (Actually, to make sure opera company wasn't
skimping).  Two gentleman, sitting in seats A1 and A2 made no secret of
their displeasure that we were invading their space.

It wasn't as though there wasn't enough room up front and that our rear
ends were right in their faces, (although Tom's is a little big.....) (it's
not), anyway, to make a long story longer, if these guys really liked opera
they would have understood our excitement.  They just wanted to be seen.
Sounds like your reviewer is cut from the same cloth.

John Smyth