Dave Lampson wrote:

>If this mythical Beethoven reincarnate cannot communicate with his
>audience - something the original Beethoven had very little problem with -
>then how can this composer be another Beethoven? Beethoven's music was
>wildly popular with music aficionados when he lived - even the difficult
>works such as the late quartets were being performed all over Europe with
>a decade or two of their composition.  Where's the analog to this today?
>Oh, how I wish there was one...

I suspect Beethoven is a poor analogy, although I think Dave grossly
exaggerates the degree to which his late quartets (and late piano sonatas)
were well received.  In fact for many years after his death many late works
of Beethoven were regarded in many quarters as being quite strange, and
were really poorly understood.  Indeed if Beethoven really had no trouble
communicating with his audience why did they react to his Grosse Fuge as
they did? Also, was Mahler well received in his age? A better analogy
still is J.S. Bach whose music really was not at all well receive in
his age, yet many of us (just like Schoenberg) regard him as the master
of all masters.  The sort of comments that one reads about him from his
contemporaries often sounds like just the sort of thing you can read about
Boulez today.  History repeats.

Now that I have mentioned Boulez by name, I am happy to say that he is the
best French composer I have ever heard.  Similarly Birtwistle is the best
English composer since the days of Bryd and Dowland.  Nono and Berio are
the best Italian composers since the Renaissance.  In fact much of the 20th
century represents a musical Renaissance to me.  It is an age where some of
the best music of all time was written.

Unfortunately the 20th century was also the age of the triumph of mass
produced commercial popular music, which to my mind is what really helped
establish the triumph amongst the masses of tonal music over pantonality.

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
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