Deryk Barker wrote on my dislike for the music of Liszt:

>In other words you don't like it.  Fair enough, but that's not the same
>as its being "pretentious pooh-pooh" (whatever that might mean).
>
>What feelings exactly do you get? I'm curious.

You're exactly right Deryk.  (May I call you Deryk?) [By both convention
and definition, anyone who subscribes to to the list agrees to casual
correspondence, and thus the use of their first name.  -Dave] "In other
words" I don't like it.  I just chose to express my actual level of dislike
rather than just, "I don't like it." I think calling Liszt the king of
pretentious pooh-pooh IS the same as saying I don't like it.  If someone
said Mozart is crappy I tend to think that means they don't like his music.
When I called Liszt the king of pretentious so and so I meant that I
consider his music to be the epitome of pretentious music.

His music strikes me (just me, not everyone) as being all show and no
heart.  Maybe I should say that he sells me the sizzle without the steak.
I don't feel this way about all composers of virtuoso music.  I think
Chopin wrote some very difficult piano music but his music seems to aim for
a higher goal than the music of Liszt.  When I hear Liszt's music I feel
like I'm listening to a man who plays piano with incredible skill, a man
who knows how to put on one hell of a show, and a man with nothing much to
offer musically.  This is just an opinion so don't take offense.  That's a
pretty fair description of how I feel about the music of Franz Liszt.

--Wes Crone