I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart’s _Requiem_. I did not
rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from _Parsifal_ which I
disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes. Yet next morning
in the _Times_ I saw this able, heartless failure, compact of gnosis as
much as any one pleases but without one spark of either true pathos or
true humour, called “the crowning achievement of dramatic music.” The
writer continues: “To the unintelligent, music of this order does not
appeal”; which only means “I am intelligent and you had better think as I
tell you.” I am glad that such people should call Handel a thieving
plagiarist.