Another view  Here’s the comment I mentioned in my last post,
from Scott Spires, with whom I’ve been having a friendly e-mail
exchange. What he says is worth taking seriously:  This is in
response to your article decrying Levine’s programming of
“hardcore” modernist pieces with the Boston Symphony. In the
article you assert, I believe, that these hard modernists have
never really gained an audience beyond the typical academic new-
music crowd.  I’m a 39-year-old non-musician, just a listener,
and I can say that I regard such composers as Lutoslawski,
Ligeti, Messiaen, Schnittke, etc. as the natural successors to
the great composers of the past. Their music has certainly
inspired me, and people I know who are likewise non-specialists.
What’s more, a lot more of my listening is focused on these
composers nowadays than on the more popular composers. Evidence
that I’m not alone is that I’ve been to many concerts featuring
music of these composers, and have found that 1) the audience is
younger than the norm for “c