Ed Zubrow wrote:

>Karl might want to look into a book called "Understanding Toscanini" by
>Joseph Horowitz.  He talks extensively about the way "masterpieces" got
>defined (at least in the US) by market forces as well as esthetic
>considerations.

So called "masterpieces" get defined by repetition.  The music gets played
over and over again until regular listeners become so familiar with the
music they think it's a 'masterpiece'.  The reverse happens to those whose
music hardly ever gets performed.  Concertgoers, who resent having to work
at listening by hearing something relatively unfamiliar, assume that the
less a piece is performed, the less of a masterpiece it is.  Everyone on
this list knows composers whose music they admire and enjoy but who are
almost unknown to the general concert-going public.

And symphony orchestra management knows what music is the "masterpieces"
Hence, every concert I've gone to I have to sit through the umteenth
performance of a "masterpiece" in order to hear the music I came to the
concert to hear origionally.

Dave Harman
El Paso, Tx