Roy Ellefsen wrote:

>I am grateful to Andrew Carlan, and less so to Billy Kitson for finally
>giving me the courage to admit that for years I have thought Beethoven's
>Ninth Symphony too long, overblown, pompous, and boring, but, I'm ashamed
>to say, I lacked the courage to say so.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I sympathise part way:  I like
the finale only in a few performances.  Stokowski's London is one.  But
generally, I've found that movement a step down from what went before,
which, sorry, I do like very much.

>I further admit that those piano sonatas that every piano
>teacher I had so worshiped (and which I seldom mastered) have some nice
>passages--even some exciting passages, but on the whole they strike me as
>merciless banging.

Again, I can go halfway. I don't care for the piano concertos but do like
the sonatas.

>I like the symphonies (except for the third--there, I said it, and I'm
>glad).

Love the Third, don't care for the Seventh. Does that help?

>I stood through a performance of Fideleo at the Vienna Opera.  I was
>dazzled by Leinsdorf's reading of the Leonora overature (he died shortly
>thereafter, which made that performance a memorable one for me), but the
>rest of the opera left me wishing I could sit down.

A lot of opera lovers don't care for Fidelio. You could find some support
here. I don't listen to it much.

Consider the above my contribution.

Roger Hecht