Brian Blackwell:

>I would be interested in hearing some opinions from other list members
>about this (IMHO) wonderful piece...

I agree that it's A wonderful piece, especially the joyous conclusion to
the first movement.  The Kremer version was one of my early CD purchases
and I've wondered whether the first movement could be a touch faster.  I
prefer this to the cello concerto.

>I think calling it the most critically savaged orchestral work by a major
>19th-century composer.

is, so to speak, drawing a long bow.  Somewhere I have a book of C19
criticism by Eduard Hanslick, spectacularly humourless and reactionary,
seemed to have savaged just about every piece of music he ever heard.
Conceivably the original flamer.  But I think it's fair to say that the
concerto has acquired an unjustified bad reputation.

"Richard Pennycuick" <[log in to unmask]>