Tom Pearson and Richard Pennycuick agree that the Beethoven Triple Concerto
hardly deserves the low esteem in which it is generally held.  I agree
completely.  Some critic once described the solo instruments as sounding
like a trio playing in a hotel lobby during tea time.  On the contrary,
the music sounds like real chamber music in the context of an orchestral
background.

Members of this group are confident enough to come to their own conclusions
whatever the consensus says.  In this spirit I bring up Strauss' Alpine
Symphony, almost universally discounted as empty and overblown.  I think
that this is wrong, and that the orchestral textures are of remarkable
beauty and power.  De gustibus ..........

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University