Notes & Asides

Dear Mr. Buckley:

In “Dmitri Shostakovich, R I P” [NR, Aug. 29] we are informed: “His First Symphony … is quite possibly his best work. Better by far than the First Symphony of Mahler.” Better by far than Mahler’s First! We had better take this opportunity to instruct your tin-eared writer, via the exquisite insight of Bruno Walter, on Mahler’s brilliant Symphony. Maestro Walter says of the First: “Only a few voices had greeted it with enthusiasm and acknowledged it as a bold work of genius, as the conquest of a new land in the territory of music. . . . Without transition the muted kettledrums of the third movement begin to beat their relentless marching rhythm over which the spectral chant of the canon rises and falls, and we are led through an inferno which perhaps has not its equal in symphonic literature. . . . His First Symphony will— in its musical richness and originality—remain an historic milestone in music. . . .” So much for your writer’s musical judgment.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Dear Mr. Buckley:

In “Dmitri Shostakovich, R I P” [NR, Aug. 29] we are informed: “His First Symphony … is quite possibly his best work. Better by far than the First Symphony of Mahler.” Better by far than Mahler’s First! We had better take this opportunity to instruct your tin-eared writer, via the exquisite insight of Bruno Walter, on Mahler’s brilliant Symphony. Maestro Walter says of the First: “Only a few voices had greeted it with enthusiasm and acknowledged it as a bold work of genius, as the conquest of a new land in the territory of music. . . . Without transition the muted kettledrums of the third movement begin to beat their relentless marching rhythm over which the spectral chant of the canon rises and falls, and we are led through an inferno which perhaps has not its equal in symphonic literature. . . . His First Symphony will— in its musical richness and originality—remain an historic milestone in music. . . .” So much for your writer’s musical judgment.