Okay, I'll play.

Richard A. Ujvary writes:

>We know those are great symphonies.  Just wondering if musicians in the
>post 1956 milieu would play them.  Would they want to play his music?

Probably not, because they wouldn't have gotten the chance to hear them,
and, if they had heard them, they would have said something like "Too
old-fashioned." Why would orchestra boards program these things? Mozart's
name all by itself wouldn't be a box-office draw.  Musicians wouldn't be
alone.  Most of the listening public would say exactly the same thing.
Most of us don't judge works on "intrinsic quality" alone, but on a
combination of criteria, many of which are non-aesthetic.  In case you're
wondering, I too would probably have denied Christ.

I think Fritz Kreisler recognized this when he began to ascribe his
short violin morceau to "ancient" composers.  You'd need some sort of
musicological hoax to interest somebody.

Steve Schwartz