“All of us–the public, critics, and composers themselves–spend far too much time worrying about whether a work is a shattering masterpiece. Let us not be so self-conscious. Maybe in thirty years’ time very few works that are well known today will still be played, but does that matter so much? Surely out of the works that are written some good will come, even if it is not now; and these will lead on to people who are better than ourselves.”
Benjamin Britten, interviewed by Edmund Tracey (Sadler’s Wells Magazine, Autumn 1966)
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
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