Albie Cabrera wrote: >Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote in response to me: > >>>If one possibly whats a more safe start however I would say that Beethoven >>>is indubitabely a much more safe start than Boulez. >> >>The point I have always made is that there is no such thing as a safe >>choice, that one person's Beethoven is another's Boulez and vice versa. > >I disagree that reactions could be the same either way... I can accept >that, on first encounter (and not only to his music, but as first encounter >with CM), someone may fall immediately in love with Boulez... however, I >can more easily imagine (as I count myself of this type), someone first >hearing it and thinking, "What the h***?!" Yes, the reactions can definitely be both ways. There are numerous examples of that. >With a Beethoven or Mozart symphony or concerto, a person may immediately >love, like, remain unmoved, or be bored to tears... but at least they'll >all *get* it... (although, given, some on not as lofty a level as others.) You're contradicting yourself. If a person is unmoved or bored by a piece by WAM or LvB or JSB at first, but later on gets to love it, it means, eo ipso, that s/he didn't get it at all at first. You just refuse to believe that for some people, modern music has always been more "natural" than the traditional, canonical repertory. -Margaret Mikulska