To answer Paul's complaint from 10 years ago about Classic FM, their music sounds so tiresomely loud and in-your-face because they use crude compression. At times it's hardly listenable-to at all. You even hear digital clipping due to overmodulation. When I hear a symphony I don't want the solo flute to sound louder than the whole flippin' orchestra. Radio 3 is far from perfect at times but at least they use far less compression. I understand that some of their broadcasts are at near-CD quality with regard to compression and bit rates and all that other stuff I don't understand. And, after all the hype and all this time, DAB sound quality is a disgrace. We live in the era of mass MP3!

I see I posted about nine years ago to this thread. I've changed my mind about Stravinsky, who I admire, and I've also come to admire Sibelius. But those late Beethoven piano and string quartet works remain the pinnacle for me. I can live with absolutely everything that Mozart ever composed too. I sometimes think that The Magic Flute is a most perfect work of art.