Comments

i always liked zubin's musical ideas Bravo Buri. Haydn string quartets are some of the most brilliant and virtuosic in the repertoire, yet they too often (in my experience at least) given mainly to students as sort of a "Here, this is a nice light easy piece, a good introduction to playing chamber music." Grrr. I agree with you completely about Haydn. Haydn was Mozart's teacher. Beethoven have learned from him (although Mozart was Beethoven's first choice). He gave birth to string quartet. He wrote my favourite piano sonata in C. Who else wrote over 100 symphonies other than Haydn? He is certainly at the top of my list of favourite composers. Not sure he wrote much for the violin though... which is why sometimes I forget about him because I'm so dround in practising the violin at the moment. I like Haydn a lot. It has been suggested to me that the problem with Haydn is that he isn't absolutely the best in any one particular form, as Mozart in opera, Beethoven in string quartets, Schubert in songs, etc. By not being on the top of any one list, he misses out by being great at everything, just not quite as great as Mozart in opera, etc.

In a way, I feel the same happens to Richard Strauss.