Steve wrote:

>I suppose what bothers me more is the notion that great composers write
>without flaw and we should bow three times to each of the compass points.
>It's not a question of tearing down something wonderful, but of loving
>something with clear understanding of its nature.  Both the love and the
>understanding are important.  Sometimes, as in Isaak Dineson's story, it's
>the flaws that give life and soul to the work.

In other words, even old Ludwig was human, too!  The way I look at his
career is that he took some very bold risks, not all of which succeeded.
When he did succeed (and we in later generations have had the job of
discriminating his hits from his misses), he was brilliant, but when he
goofed (and the finale of the Ninth is one of my favorite examples of this,
too), we can only shrug and mumble that "even Homer nods." But my personal
preference is for artists who take risks of this magnitude over the safe
ones who never stray far from what their contemporaries consider right and
proper art.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]