Janos Gereben writes:

>There seems to be no middle ground in the `Moses & Aron' controversy (love
>it or hate it), but I am staking out an agnostic position.  I just don't
>know if it's `good' or `bad.'
>
>I know only that I doesn't speak to me, and that it's entirely possible
>that those who champion it (including those poor musicians) know something
>I don't know.

Moses und Aron has never been my cup of tea either, and I say this as, in
general, a Schoenberg admirer.  I think it a hokey cross between Philosophy
101, the Romantic lament of "nobody loves me because I'm so wonderful," and
a De Mille epic.  I don't find the music compelling at all.

Having said that, I must also admit that I've heard only two performances:
the film (so inept that the audience began laughing) and the first CBS
recording (dull).  I would be interested to know what so sharp a musician
as Gielen would make of it.  In general, I don't think Schoenberg a
dramatic composer, but rather a lyric one.  One really has very little
stake in the characters or the story.

Steve Schwartz