Albie Cabrera wrote:

>Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote in response to me:
>
>>>If one possibly whats a more safe start however I would say that Beethoven
>>>is indubitabely a much more safe start than Boulez.
>>
>>The point I have always made is that there is no such thing as a safe
>>choice, that one person's Beethoven is another's Boulez and vice versa.
>
>I disagree that reactions could be the same either way...  I can accept
>that, on first encounter (and not only to his music, but as first encounter
>with CM), someone may fall immediately in love with Boulez...  however, I
>can more easily imagine (as I count myself of this type), someone first
>hearing it and thinking, "What the h***?!"

Yes, the reactions can definitely be both ways.  There are numerous
examples of that.

>With a Beethoven or Mozart symphony or concerto, a person may immediately
>love, like, remain unmoved, or be bored to tears...  but at least they'll
>all *get* it...  (although, given, some on not as lofty a level as others.)

You're contradicting yourself.  If a person is unmoved or bored by a piece
by WAM or LvB or JSB at first, but later on gets to love it, it means, eo
ipso, that s/he didn't get it at all at first.  You just refuse to believe
that for some people, modern music has always been more "natural" than the
traditional, canonical repertory.

-Margaret Mikulska