Roy Ellefsen wrote: >I am grateful to Andrew Carlan, and less so to Billy Kitson for finally >giving me the courage to admit that for years I have thought Beethoven's >Ninth Symphony too long, overblown, pompous, and boring, but, I'm ashamed >to say, I lacked the courage to say so. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I sympathise part way: I like the finale only in a few performances. Stokowski's London is one. But generally, I've found that movement a step down from what went before, which, sorry, I do like very much. >I further admit that those piano sonatas that every piano >teacher I had so worshiped (and which I seldom mastered) have some nice >passages--even some exciting passages, but on the whole they strike me as >merciless banging. Again, I can go halfway. I don't care for the piano concertos but do like the sonatas. >I like the symphonies (except for the third--there, I said it, and I'm >glad). Love the Third, don't care for the Seventh. Does that help? >I stood through a performance of Fideleo at the Vienna Opera. I was >dazzled by Leinsdorf's reading of the Leonora overature (he died shortly >thereafter, which made that performance a memorable one for me), but the >rest of the opera left me wishing I could sit down. A lot of opera lovers don't care for Fidelio. You could find some support here. I don't listen to it much. Consider the above my contribution. Roger Hecht