Juozas Rimas wrote:

>All I managed to snatch before falling ill with bachomania was Vivaldi's
>Seasons, Chopin waltzes and preludes, Rachmaninov's "Musical moment", 1st
>movement of Brahms 1st symphony,

And so here we are, back in de gustibus territory!  I like Brahms'
symphonies.  I prefer his concertos, the German Requiem and his chamber
music but I like his symphonies too.  However of all the sixteen movements
in his four symphonies, I like the first movement of his first symphony
the least.  Its opening passage sounds to me like an attempt to recover
and reassemble something that has inadvertently been thrown out and, when
we finally settle down on a theme, it sounds to me less than inspired and
almost obsessively repetitive.  When I first heard it after having cut my
teeth on Beethoven symphonies, I couldn't believe that people called this
"The Tenth".  (For me, Schubert's Great C major symphony is much more
deserving of that designation.) To be sure, Brahms' First Symphony improves
in successive movements, as, IMO, do his symphonies generally through his
Fourth.

>Now I'm trying to recover and somehow continue building MY classical music
>collection.  I've been trying to listen to Beethoven's late quartets lately
>(boy, that was a hard nut to crack and I'm still working!).

They're worth the effort, but why not take a break and try some of LvB's
earlier quartets.  I started w/ his three Opus 59 quartets.  Also the slow
second movements of his First Quartet (Op. 18, No. 1) is sublime and,
again IMO, can hold its own w/ his later quartets.

Enjoy.

Walter Meyer