Listening to the symphonies and concertos of Joseph Tal which are in abundance on YT.
At the risk of sounding too harsh, what I heard was mostly cacophony and a complete waste of time.
I could not endure listening to anything to its completion.
Am I missing something?
There is a very good (and lengthy) article on Tal on Wikipedia (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Tal) which includes a section on the composer's relationship with listeners.
Tal's attitude towards his music and his audience was inspired by the uncompromising approach[es] of Beethoven and Arnold Schönberg, two composers whom Tal particularly admired. He places high demands upon his listeners: his works are intense, dissonant and densely eventful, and cannot be fully comprehended in one hearing...
—Jehoash Hirshberg