Bob Draper: >Liszt may have been flashy. But I would prefer to call it more of a rough >edge much akin to what one finds in Beethoven. Hence I am surprised that >someone could like the latter and not the former. I wish it was that simple, but I still think you got a point. Liszt admired the 9th symphony (especially the last movement) and also Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy and used them as basis for his own structural models. >Both composers made mistakes. I have heard that there is a supposed >miscalculation by Liszt in Les Preludes. This is about two thirds way >through where there is a sudden re-entry of brass. The supposition is >that this is out of place. According to who? Don't you mean the re-entry at the very end? Do you think it's out of place? I recommend Kenneth Hamilton's "B Minor Sonata" (Cambridge University Press), which is the only decent book about the Symphonic Poems I've come across. Mikael [log in to unmask]