Richard Pennycuick brainstormed: >This gave me an idea for a thread, i.e. for compositions we would like to >have been written but which, for whatever reason, weren't. My first choice would be Brahms' Symphony #00 and Brahms' Symphony #0. For then if Brahms had tackled the problem of writing a symphony early on, his actual Symphony #1 would not be the pretentious effort we now have, and the classic example of a major composer trying to write music greater than he felt. Second choice would be Shostakovich's Symphony #5 if his Symphony #4 had been hailed as a masterpiece (although I'll take THE #5 without prejudice). Third, Mahler's Symphonies 5 through 10 (plus Das Lied) if he had not married Alma Maria Schindler (from the Fifth's opening parody of Mendelssohn's Wedding March, you knew he was in for it). John Dalmas [log in to unmask]