Original Question

["Bob & Judy Williams" <prospero@netins.net>]

I'll digress immediately so that I have a chance of getting on track 
and perhaps staying there to the end.

The comments on Schoenberg have been interesting. I was particularly 
struck by the mention in two posts of Stravinsky. Stravinsky was on 
my mind when I wrote my first most and not in any particularly 
favorable way. Neither list member ventured a qualitative opinion but 
seemed to see Stravinsky as a kind of litmus paper for radicalism. 
Interesting and quite the opposite of what I had in mind.

None of the above was what I had in mind to say when I spoke about 
digressions. The expert IMO is whoever likes a particular composer. 
Those who don't like a composer disqualify themselves from judging 
the composer unless there is something egregiously wrong that anyone 
with normal acumen can discern.

What I did start out to say was that there have been no responses to 
the question of whether Steve Reich deserved the extravagant praise 
in the review that was quoted a day or two ago.

It seems to me that GG may have been somewhat backward-looking when 
it came to contemporary music for the piano. Both Takemitsu and 
Messiaen wrote much music for the piano and I'm sure that one could 
assemble a substantial list of exciting contemporary composers whom 
he did NOT perform. Can the more experienced listers fill me in on 
this? Are there unreleased recordings of contemporary music that we 
need to take into consideration? Did GG express his thoughts about 
living, breathing composers and their music?

Thanks

Bob