Music Tidbits (and Mishaps) #3

[Lance]

Composer Max Reger Sits in the Smallest Room
[This one never fails to make me smile!]

It was after the premiere performance of Reger's Sinfonietta, Op. 90 that the music critic of the Münchener Neueste Nachrichten, Rudolf Louis, deplored the modernity of the work in his review on February 7th, 1906. He suggested that Reger was attempting to make fools of the audience. Reger was understandably furious and wrote to Louis: "Sir, I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your notice before me. In a moment it will be behind me."

[maestrob]

Yes, I remember that one, but had forgotten it was Reger.

[jbuck919]

It is a very famous saying which I have had in memory in both languages since grad school. Of course, there is not an ounce of modernity in that work. Now, who allegedly said, though even my most brilliant colleagues have never been able to find it in his writings, "How will they ever understand my music on Alpha Centauri?"

[barney]

It is justly famous. It is one of the finest responses to criticism I have encountered. One might even say it is a fine (if emotional) piece of criticism itself.