> Supposedly said by someone about Wagner, but if this were
> a "Jeopardy"-type quiz, and answers were to be quotes rather
> than questions, I'd quote Cole Porter out of context: "You're
> a symphony by Strauss".
>
> I was warning my bipolar neighbor, having symphony
> tickets for a program featuring Elgar's cell concerto
> followed by Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony",
> what to expect in the second half. It's been a while
> since I heard either this or the "Domestica", and then,
> flipping through THIRD EAR, I find that Strauss wrote
> two other symphonies that are apparently deservedly
> neglected as these are not. The critic writes, "They are,
> in a word, boring."
>
> The Alpine Symphony is surely not "the top"
> either. If only the program had a better second
> half, I'd go for the Elgar (and there's still a chance
> my neighbor won't be in the mood to go and I'll ...

> A. Brain wrote:

>> I was warning my bipolar neighbor, having symphony
>> tickets for a program featuring Elgar's cell concerto
>> followed by Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony",
>> what to expect in the second half. It's been a while
>> since I heard either this or the "Domestica", and then,
>> flipping through THIRD EAR, I find that Strauss wrote
>> two other symphonies that are apparently deservedly
>> neglected as these are not. The critic writes, "They are,
>> in a word, boring."

>

>> A. Brain wrote:

>

>>> I was warning my bipolar neighbor, having symphony
>>> tickets for a program featuring Elgar's cell concerto
>>> followed by Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony",
>>> what to expect in the second half. It's been a while
>>> since I heard either this or the "Domestica", and then,
>>> flipping through THIRD EAR, I find that Strauss wrote
>>> two other symphonies that are apparently deservedly
>>> neglected as these are not. The critic writes, "They are,
>>> in a word, boring."

>
> There are D minor and F minor symphonies that are both very pleasant,
> not boring at all to this listener.
>
> And what about the lovely violin concerto, which is an amazingly
> neglected work? ...

> DOWNWITHSPAMiprimus.com.au> wrote in
> message news:13ojjdmrn0k61e9@corp.supernews.com...

>>> A. Brain wrote:

>>>> I was warning my bipolar neighbor, having symphony
>>>> tickets for a program featuring Elgar's cell concerto
>>>> followed by Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony",
>>>> what to expect in the second half. It's been a while
>>>> since I heard either this or the "Domestica", and then,
>>>> flipping through THIRD EAR, I find that Strauss wrote
>>>> two other symphonies that are apparently deservedly
>>>> neglected as these are not. The critic writes, "They are,
>>>> in a word, boring."

>> There are D minor and F minor symphonies that are both very pleasant,
>> not boring at all to this listener.
>>
>> And what about the lovely violin concerto, which is an amazingly
>> neglected work?

>
> Never heard it. I confess to having something of ...

> Never heard it. I confess to having something of a
> prejudice against Strauss. For a variety of reasons,
> but mostly because I just do not like the music.

> I can't resist adding that the NYT had a piece a few
> weeks back about a guy who traveled to Santa Fe
> with his mom last summer. He confessed to liking
> broadway musicals more than classical music (ugh!).
> But they decided to take in the opera while there.
> And they could have seen Cosi, Boheme, or the hit
> of the season, Rameau's "Platee". Instead, they saw
> "Daphne". (Santa Fe has an unfortunate tradition of doing
> a Strauss opera almost every year.)

> I saw "Die Fliegendie Hollandermaus" there almost 20 years ago.

> by jumping off a cliff, rather than stabbing herself. Good performance,
> though.

> directional in favor of an amorphous conversational continuum, and the
> post-Debussyan language that makes this possible is pretty
> interesting, too:  oddly enough, Fanciulla is almost Puccini's
> Pélléas.  

>> It's interesting the way he renounces the strongly
>> directional in favor of an amorphous conversational continuum, and the
>> post-Debussyan language that makes this possible is pretty
>> interesting, too: oddly enough, Fanciulla is almost Puccini's
>> Pélléas.

> Did Puccini recognize he was doing thus ?

> I wrote:

>>> It's interesting the way he renounces the strongly directional in
>>> favor of an amorphous conversational continuum, and the post-Debussyan
>>> language that makes this possible is pretty interesting, too: oddly
>>> enough, Fanciulla is almost Puccini's P

> Although there's no escaping that Scarpia is a bewigged blackguard.

> May I suggest it's possible to interpret "Fanciulla" with Rance as a
> thwarted anti-hero (perhaps the best kind thereof)?