Donald Satz writes:

>When I listen to Liszt's music, I generally get the feeling that he's
>promoting himself - Liszt for Liszt's sake.

I thought what separated the Romanticist from the Classicist is that former
artist is his own person, while the later is a mere ornament of the church
or of the court.  (Grout/History of Western Music)

>It's music that goes off in overheated directions just to overheat.

Some of the pre-occupations of the Romantics: Darkness, Hallucination,
Madness, Eroticism, Fear of Death....(Jean Clay/Romanticism)

>It's the worst excess of what Romantic-era music has to offer.  That's my
>subjective opinion.

"Excess"....I would say you unwittingly described most of the hallmarks of
Romanticism.

Can you really fault Liszt for just being a Romantic? Complaining about
excess, egotism, overheating...and faulting a Romantic composer for
this...wouldn't that be the same thing as faulting Homer, (author of the
"Illiad" or the "Odyssey"), because the gods always come down and make
everything right again, so there's no suspense?

And like Wes' remarks, yours sound more like vague recollections of
critical assessments one would find in outmoded textbooks or periodicals--a
few sentences concerning the late works, maybe something about the Sonata
in B minor, and outright damnation of everything else.  I'm glad I've never
made that mistake ;)

John Smyth