[ConorMacNessa]

Good evening, Maestro!

I am totally found out after your excoriation last night of the 4th Movement of the "Organ" Symphony! I agree intellectually with your critique of that movement, but I have to admit that I have delighted in it for many years. I have always recognized that it is a flawed work, and I have wondered what Ludwig would have done with that material.

I daresay he would have gotten it right.

But for all of its faults, I still get goosebumps during the initial exposition of the theme in that movement.

And on another note, my children were exposed to classical music through it. When they were much younger, they would shriek "PIG!!" every time they heard it.

Thanks very much for your work on Saint-Saens.



"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

[Publius]

Ludwig would have understood that the theme was too short for either sonata development or counterpoint, be it canon or fugue. He would have lengthened it, reshaped it and come up with a countersubject.

[Publius]

Let me add one point. The initial statement of the theme with the two pianos works quite well. He just didn't know what to do with the theme after that.

George Miller understood that when he worked with the theme in "Babe". He knew how to make a short theme like that work for itself.