March 23, 2001

Listen to Music, Don't Just Read About It

To the Editor:

Thank you for Christopher H. Gibbs's "Looking Beyond the Sentimental Schubert" (The Review, February 9). It is refreshing to read that so much writing about music and composers is unhelpful, if not downright obfuscatory. ...

One can gain insight into Schubert by listening to and reading his scores. The written word is only of minor assistance when exploring a score such as Schubert's String Quintet in C Major (my favorite Schubert work -- drop everything now and