Walter Meyer wrote:

>I've started listining to them in sequence, appropriately impressed as I
>listened, until I came upon his performance of Beethoven's Fourth (Carnegie
>Hall broadcast 1951).  All of a sudden the grandeur of that symphony, so
>often deemed overshadowed by the symphonies straddling it, hit me w/ the
>proverbial blinding flash, the way no previous performance has done.  This

The fourth is a great symphony but one, I think, that takes a while to
appreciate.  I remember the moment I first encountered it.  I was at work
and had it on my portable cd player.  I think the first thing I thought was
"this guy [Beethoven] was a nutcase!" or some such.  It's taken a while, a
lot of listenings and playing it several times in an orchestra to really
appreciate it.  But it is *wonderful*!  (Congrats, Walter, on your newest
musical love!)

-Lindsey Orcutt
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