Jeff Dunn wrote: >One element in the relative neglect of Rochberg seem to me to be >political--some will never forgive him for turning tail on atonality. >Also, some who have heard his masterpiece Piano Quintet (1976) cannot >forgive him writing one modernist movement along with one exactly in the >style of Schumann (and just as good as Schumann, I may add!). Even better is the slow movement of the Third Quartet which could have been taken from a Beethoven late quartet, I guess the one the Beethoven didn't write. Some saw this as a party trick, but for me this movement is the emotional center of the quartet, extremely moving, magnificent music qua music. One other thing: I heard Isaac Stern play the violin concerto with the St. Louis Symphony, not long after he'd premiered it, and the composer was there. I spoke with him afterwards and found him to be a charming, gracious, serious-minded man who took the time to chat with me about some of the structural elements of the concerto. Our tete-a-tete was broken up when Stern came up and told a racy joke! Scott Morrison