Jon Johanning:

>OK, I'll bite. Leaving aside Brahms, what's wrong with Beethoven's way of
>writing for strings?

Talk to a string player.  His parts get rewritten all the time.  One
first-rank virtuoso (whom I'll leave nameless) told me that Beethoven's
violin writing is simply the right hand of the pianist.  It makes sense to
me.  Neither Beethoven nor Brahms - as opposed to Dvorak - were string
players, but pianists.

William Bolcom was once asked what he felt to have been his greatest
achievement as a composer.  Bolcom, a pianist, replied that at long last he
had learned how to write idiomatically for strings, and he added that he
had worked like the devil to do it.

Steve Schwartz