Jocelyn Wang wrote:

>1.) Beethoven did not write any atonal works,

You really should read the review.  The language used by the critic shows
he was offended by what he heard.  To us the 2nd symphony is not atonal.
To the reviewer it was as unpleasent to listen to as you feel atonal music
is.

>2.) his music never made concert-goers wary of anything else composed
>contemporaneously

Nor should an encounter with 20th century atonal music do that either.
There certainly is a lot of fine tonal music composed in the same time
period.  In B's time, you had Spohr and Hummell to turn to if you didn't
like B

Dave Harman
El Paso, TX