Regarding Brahms, the Jan Swafford Biography will make the Brahms
debate much clearer with regard to both sides of his music.  Either he
was a Hamburgian bourgeois or a minor genius who knew he couldn't surpass
those who came before him such as the Italian Baroque composers along
with Bach, Beethoven and Schubert.  He was caught between a rock and a
hard place, based more on his zeitgeist than his rather retro sensibilities
as a composer.  The influence of Liszt and Wagner, which typified the
New German Music, probably undid his value even to this day.

His fixations on Robert and Clara Schumann didn't help his music's
developments for the most part.  Sentimentality entered his compositions
all too frequently, including his unabated love of Hungarian gypsy music
and folk songs.

I agree that the conductors' interpretations of Brahms's music is key
to feeling a congeniality with his works.  I mistakenly purchased the 4
Symphonies conducted by Solti and was left cold, compared to the conductors
known for their more 'Romantic' interpretations such as Walter, Barbirolli
and Barenboim.

Rosemary