Ray Bayles wrote:

>I think you must include the idea that 67 percent of the composers
>music can be listened to repeatedly over the years.  I can look forward
>to Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart, Bach, Shostakovich, Brahms, Bartok,
>Stravinsky, and a number of others without permanently tiring of them.
>However, I share the idea of many of the listeners of my radio show:
>Please, please, no more Tchaikovsky...  It seems the people I know and
>that enjoy my programming are permanently tired of his music...  great
>though it is.

I am forced to ask if you have exposed yourself to enough of his pieces:
the first three symphonies AND the "Manfred" Symphony; the Piano Trio;
"Souvenir de Florence" Sextet (I heard a rip-roaring performance of this
piece in Cambridge, Mass last fall); at least one opera other than "Eugene
Onegin"...for me its's been "Pique Dame"...I've been reading interesting
comments about "The Maid Of Orleans", and "Mazeppa" will be done at the
Met next season.  Don't sell the Bearded One short.  (Oh, BTW, since the
thread started with ruminations on the greatest composer ever...undoubtedly
Beethoven...how could SCHUBERT's name not be on the heretofore proferred
lists?)

Laurence Glavin
Methuen, MA