Last night I witnessed a spirited performance of Shostakovich's 15th and last completed symphony given by our local band, the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra, under their conductor, Jonathan Butcher. The only bit in it that passed my "Whistle Test" (see my recent post), was the quotation from Rossini's William Tell. That got me thinking that maybe Dmitri was getting past his "best before" date when he wrote this work. I shall stick my neck right now and say that IMHO Shostakovich was at his best as a symphonist in his middle period works.say in Nos. 5 to 10, and that thereafter, although probably still the greatest symphonist of his time, his inspiration diminished. If only he'd called a halt after, say, No 10, IMHO he would have gone out a high note(and, incidentally, it would have been cheaper to buy a complete set of CDs of his symphonies) Both Spohr (who withdrew his 10th symphony from performance*) and Sibelius (who destroyed his 8th symphony) apparently new when to stop. Brahms, after the success of his 4th symphony, wrote no more symphonies in the last 9 years of his life and, in own time, Malcolm Arnold retired after N0 9. On the other hand, Mozart Beethoven and Schubert Were lucky (or unlucky) enough to die while they were, IMHO, still at the height of their symphonic powers. What do other list members think on this subject, or have I just written a load of rubbish. *Premiered at the Carnegie Hall in March 1998 by the Bergen Community College Orchestra under Eugene Minor (Mr E Minor conducts symphony in E flat). John H White