Julia Werthimer wrote:

>Karl Miller wrote:
>
>>I am reminded of something one of my teachers once suggested.  Her idea was
>>to place a ban on the music of Beethoven for some unspecified time period.
>
>I personally think this would be an excellent idea.  Beethoven badly needs
>a rest, poor old fellow.  Wonderful as he is, he does have a bombastic
>side; and because he is performed so much he has to endure more than
>his share of perfunctory performances.

This is particulary ironic.  My copy of the current BBC Music Magazine
arrived two days ago, and I played the cover disc -- Beethoven 6 and 8 --
that night.  It reminded me just how perfectly LvB -- to paraphrase Ian
Crisp in a different context -- summed up the particular musical nature of
 [the nineteenth] century.  My morning music for the past month has been the
Beethoven quartets on Arte Nova.  Give Beethoven a rest? No way!

Mitch Friedfeld