Jeff Dunn:

>When I was an undergraduate music major in 1969 at Grinnell College, I had
>the privelege of driving two famous music writers back 50 miles to the Des
>Moines airport.  Enthralled by my love for the War Requiem, I just had to
>ask their opinion of the merits.
>
>Both of them said the work was terribly overrated and would hardly last.
>
>Boy, were Irving Kolodin and Harold Schonberg wrong!

After Britten died, a summary article on his career (I forget by whom; might
have been Schonberg) appeared in the NY Times.  Its thesis was that Britten
was terribly overrated and would turn out to be our equivalent of
Saint-Saens.

I keep running into this notion, usually with writers of a certain age --
those who were musically formed by the Thirties and Forties.  At any rate,
so far Britten's reputation seems safe.

Steve Schwartz