{"id":50013,"date":"2024-11-18T10:03:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T09:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3a4c2347-5215-4e9b-a66c-eb689c81f027"},"modified":"2024-11-18T11:09:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T10:09:22","slug":"what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What a giftless bastard!’: 15 juiciest composer insults"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Monday, 18 November 2024 at 09:03 AM<\/p>

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Take a brief browse at social media today, and you might believe we live in an unrivalled age for sharp tongues and poison pens. Think again. History is full of those who were masters of the withering put-down, not least the great composers. What\u2019s more, rather than hide behind a pen name as today\u2019s trolls do, they were only too happy to claim authorship.<\/p>

Take this little gem by Tchaikovsky<\/a><\/strong>: \u2018Brahms is just some chaotic and utterly empty wasteland.\u2019 How do you come back from that? Perhaps composers\u2019 enthusiasm for verbal blows flowed from the fact that they cared so much about music; enough to slug it out publicly, like boxers in a ring.<\/p>

<\/div> <\/figure> <p>And the abuse didn\u2019t stop at the occasional one-liner. It could go on for years, drawing in friends and associates so that both camps were soon dug in like armies facing each other across no-man\u2019s land. Here, then, are 15 fine examples of composers willingly indulging in a war of words…<\/p> <p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Strawinsky: Der Feuervogel \u2013 Ballettmusik (1910) \u2219 hr-Sinfonieorchester \u2219 Andr\u00e9s Orozco-Estrada\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LqMWsD5nQhU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/p> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-fiercest-composer-rivalries\"><strong>The fiercest composer rivalries<\/strong><\/h2> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-1-brahms-v-tchaikovsky\"><strong>1. Brahms v Tchaikovsky<\/strong><\/h3> <p>You\u2019ll have already gathered that Tchaikovsky didn\u2019t rate <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/johannes-brahms\">Brahms<\/a><\/strong>. After playing over the German\u2019s music, Tchaikovsky wrote in his diary, \u2018What a giftless bastard!\u2019 Strong stuff, but there was more: \u2018It angers me that this conceited mediocrity is regarded as a genius. I can\u2019t stand him.\u2019<\/p> <p>What had Brahms done to provoke such hostility? Well, he did fall asleep during a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky\u2019s Fifth Symphony and, musically, the pair were polar opposites. Strangely, on the few occasions they met, they got along famously, even if Brahms\u2019s beery Viennese ways were at odds with Tchaikovsky\u2019s more refined manners.<\/p> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2-brahms-v-liszt\"><strong>2. Brahms v Liszt<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Brahms and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/franz-liszt\">Liszt\u2019<\/a><\/strong>s names may be forever joined as the rhyming slang term for having had a beer or two too many but, in reality, these two giants of 19th-century music couldn\u2019t stand one another. Once again, Brahms let himself down by nodding off during a premiere, this time of Liszt\u2019s B minor Sonata \u2013 given the demonic energy of the piece, an act of deliberate sabotage, surely. But Liszt wasn\u2019t blameless. He once called Brahms\u2019s music \u2018hygienic but unexciting\u2019.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/who-invented-the-piano-recital\">How Liszt invented the piano recital and became a 19th-century pin-up<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Seong-jin Cho - Liszt : Piano Sonata in B Minor, S.178\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/36SDx8bue08?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <\/figure> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-3-beethoven-v-haydn\"><strong>3. Beethoven v Haydn<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Misunderstandings and imagined sleights, perhaps caused by a clash of egos, seem to have been the root of these two composers\u2019 undoing at various times. For example, in an effort to bolster <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/ludwig-van-beethoven\">Beethoven<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s credibility, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/joseph-haydn\">Haydn<\/a><\/strong> suggested adding the phrase, \u2018pupil of Haydn\u2019 to the young composer\u2019s Piano Trios Op. 1. Beethoven bristled at that, telling a friend he had \u2018never learned anything from Haydn\u2019.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-beethoven-recordings\">The best Beethoven recordings of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-4-beethoven-v-hummel\"><strong>4. Beethoven v Hummel<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Is anything more likely to get your goat than a customer criticising your work within earshot of a rival who finds the whole thing hilarious? That\u2019s what happened to Beethoven when Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy collared him after a performance of his Mass in C. As Hummel, the Prince\u2019s music master, looked on, his boss made a cutting remark to Beethoven about the performance, causing the obsequious Hummel to laugh out loud. Beethoven stormed off, and his grudge would grow with the passing years.<\/p> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-5-beethoven-v-italy\"><strong>5. Beethoven v Italy<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Given his willingness to lob insults at all and sundry, it\u2019s no great surprise to see Beethoven make a third appearance on our list. One of his most damning shots was directed specifically at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/gioachino-rossini\">Rossini<\/a><\/strong> but, for good measure, took in an entire nationality within its scope. \u2018Opera is ill-suited to the Italians,\u2019 he said. \u2018You do not know how to deal with real drama.\u2019<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/best-italian-composers-of-all-time\">The greatest Italian composers<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-more-composer-rivalries-who-called-berlioz-s-most-famous-work-utterly-loathsome\"><strong>More composer rivalries:<\/strong> <strong>who called Berlioz’s most famous work ‘utterly loathsome’?<\/strong><\/h2> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-6-mozart-v-clementi\"><strong>6. Mozart v Clementi<\/strong><\/h3> <p>\u2018I do not make acquaintances among other composers,\u2019 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/mozart\">Mozart<\/a><\/strong> once wrote sniffily to his father. \u2018I know my job and they know theirs, and that\u2019s good enough.\u2019 However, that didn\u2019t mean he was averse to sticking the knife in. In another letter he wrote, \u2018Everyone who plays or hears [Clementi\u2019s] compositions will sense their insignificance. Clementi is a charlatan, like all Italians. He has nothing to offer.\u2019<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/10-mozart-myths\">Ten Mozart myths debunked<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-7-mendelssohn-v-berlioz\"><strong>7. Mendelssohn v Berlioz<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Affable in person, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/felix-mendelssohn\">Mendelssohn<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s letters and diaries reveal that he also possessed a poison pen overflowing with ink, with some scathing remarks directed at audiences in Munich, Rome and Paris. He saved his most toxic text for <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/hector-berlioz\">Berlioz<\/a><\/strong>, however, writing that \u2018with all his efforts to go stark mad he never once succeeds\u2019. Here, meanwhile, is his vivid description of Berlioz’s <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/love-story-behind-berliozs-symphonie-fantastique\">Symphonie fantastique<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.<\/p> <p>‘How utterly loathsome this is to me, I don\u2019t have to tell you. To see one\u2019s most cherished ideas debased and expressed in perverted caricatures would enrage anyone. And yet this is only the program. The execution is still more miserable: nowhere a spark, no warmth, utter foolishness, contrived passion represented through every possible exaggerated orchestral means (….) all these means used to express nothing but indifferent drivel, mere grunting, shouting, screaming back and forth.\u201d<\/p> <p>Yeah, but what did you really think, Felix?<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Berlioz : Symphonie Fantastique (Philharmonique de Radio France \/ Myung-Whun Chung)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5HgqPpjIH5c?start=2&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <\/figure> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-8-clara-schumann-v-liszt\"><strong>8. Clara Schumann v Liszt<\/strong><\/h3> <p>As Lisztomania swept Europe in the mid-19th century, it left a few damaged egos in its wake, among them those of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/robert-schumann\">Robert Schumann<\/a><\/strong> and his composer wife, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/clara-schumann\">Clara<\/a><\/strong>. Concerned for her husband\u2019s legacy, she recruited Brahms and the violinist Joseph Joachim to keep Robert\u2019s flame alive. As they went to war in the salons and concert halls of Europe, Clara would launch the occasional rocket in Liszt\u2019s direction, such as this: \u2018[His music] is just meaningless noise. Not a single healthy idea anymore. Everything is confused. A clear harmonic progression is not to be found here any longer.\u2019<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/schumann-suicide-attempt\">Schumann’s suicide attempt: how mental illness and money woes pushed a great composer close to the edge<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-9-verdi-v-puccini\"><strong>9. Verdi v Puccini<\/strong><\/h3> <p>For composers at war, faint praise is akin to a pistol fitted with a silencer. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/giuseppe-verdi\">Verdi<\/a><\/strong> deployed it to damning effect when he wrote, \u2018I have heard the composer <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/giacomo-puccini\">Puccini<\/a><\/strong> well spoken of. He follows the new tendencies, which is only natural, but he keeps strictly to melody, and that is neither new nor old. He is predominantly a symphonist; no harm in that.\u2019<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/puccini-car-crash\">How Puccini’s need for speed nearly killed him<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-10-debussy-v-ravel\"><strong>10. Debussy v Ravel<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Like all the fiercest enemies, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/maurice-ravel\">Ravel<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/claude-debussy\">Debussy<\/a><\/strong> had once been friends, of a sort. \u2018For Debussy, the musician and the man, I have had profound admiration,\u2019 said Ravel. \u2018Have had\u2019 \u2013 note the tense. At<br\/> some point in the early 1900s, the two fell out, at first over Ravel choosing to follow <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/gabriel-faure\">Faur\u00e9<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s advice over Debussy\u2019s with regards to changes to his String Quartet. Things escalated when Ravel helped to support Debussy\u2019s estranged wife, Lilly. \u2018It\u2019s probably better for us to be on frigid terms for illogical reasons,\u2019 concluded Ravel.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-of-debussy-2\">Best of Debussy: nine inspirational works<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-four-more-composer-rivalries-and-one-famous-rivalry-that-really-wasn-t\"><strong>Four more composer rivalries (and one famous ‘rivalry’ that really wasn’t)<\/strong><\/h2> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-11-prokofiev-v-stravinsky\"><strong>11. Prokofiev v Stravinsky<\/strong><\/h3> <p>These two Russians first hit a rocky patch when <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/sergey-prokofiev\">Prokofiev<\/a><\/strong> told <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/igor-stravinsky\">Stravinsky<\/a><\/strong> that there was \u2018no music\u2019 in the latter’s ballet <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/stravinskys-firebird\">The Firebird<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Harsh, but things really kicked off over Prokofiev\u2019s new opera <em>The Love for Three<\/em> <em>Oranges<\/em>. There had been no love lost at its world premiere when one wag wrote, \u2018It pokes fun at those who paid money for it.\u2019<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Strawinsky: Der Feuervogel \u2013 Ballettmusik (1910) \u2219 hr-Sinfonieorchester \u2219 Andr\u00e9s Orozco-Estrada\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LqMWsD5nQhU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <\/figure> <p>But if, after playing the score to Stravinsky, Prokofiev was expecting some words of support, he was to be disappointed. \u2018You\u2019re wasting time composing operas,\u2019 Stravinsky told him. \u2018You\u2019re not immune to error yourself,\u2019 replied Prokofiev. Stravinsky blew his top. \u2018Our relations became strained and for several years Stravinsky\u2019s attitude towards me was critical,\u2019 said Prokofiev.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/stravinskys-ballets-a-guide-to-all-his-masterpieces\">All 12 Stravinsky ballets, ranked<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-12-vaughan-williams-v-himself\"><strong>12. Vaughan Williams v himself<\/strong><\/h3> <p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/ralph-vaughan-williams\">Vaughan Williams<\/a><\/strong> detested what he saw as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/gustav-mahler\">Mahler<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s tortured outpourings, describing the Austrian as a \u2018very tolerable imitation of a composer\u2019. However, he was equally harsh on his own abilities, describing his music as \u2018lumpy and stodgy\u2019 in 1907. Many years later, he was still down on himself. ‘I have struggled all my life to conquer amateurish technique,\u2019 he wrote in 1948, \u2018and now that perhaps I have mastered it, it seems too late to use it.\u2019<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/nine-unusual-facts-about-ralph-vaughan-williams\">Vaughan Williams: nine unusual facts<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/which-is-the-best-vaughan-williams-symphony\">Ranked: the Vaughan Williams symphonies<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-13-lutyens-et-al-v-vaughan-williams\"><strong>13. Lutyens et al v Vaughan Williams<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Vaughan Williams was also on the receiving end of insults from others, most famously when his music was labelled the \u2018cow pat school\u2019 by Elizabeth Lutyens. The description in fact owes its origins to Peter Warlock likening Vaughan Williams\u2019s <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-vaughan-williamss-symphony-no-3-pastoral-symphony\">A Pastoral Symphony <\/a><\/strong><\/em>to a cow staring over a fence.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-pastoral-music-5-works-inspired-by-the-countryside\">Best pastoral music: five great works inspired by the countryside<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/aaron-copland\">Aaron Copland<\/a><\/strong> borrowed it to describe listening to RVW\u2019s Symphony No. 5 as ‘like staring at a cow for 45 minutes’. Not such sweet moo-sic.<\/p> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-14-britten-v-everyone\"><strong>14. Britten v everyone<\/strong><\/h3> <p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/benjamin-britten-composer\">Benjamin Britten<\/a><\/strong> noted in his diary that he could listen to two minutes of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/edward-elgar\">Elgar<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Second Symphony \u2018but could stand no more\u2019. He laid into conductors, too, dismissing Adrian Boult as \u2018terrible, execrable\u2019. One of his tutors at the Royal College of Music was Vaughan Williams (again), whose conducting made Britten \u2018depressed for English music\u2019 and he once spent a happy afternoon laughing over the older composer\u2019s music in the company of Lennox Berkeley.<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra | WDR Sinfonieorchester\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4vbvhU22uAM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <\/figure> <p>Britten also said that listening to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/richard-strauss\">Richard Strauss<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em>Der Rosenkavalier <\/em>\u2018makes me almost physically sick\u2019. Woe betide anyone who replied in like style, however \u2013 they quickly joined the ranks of \u2018Ben\u2019s corpses\u2019: former friends and colleagues now cold-shouldered for life.<\/p> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-15-salieri-v-mozart\"><strong>15. Salieri v Mozart<\/strong><\/h3> <p>Let\u2019s end with a feud that was nothing of the sort. Thanks to <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/amadeus-film\">Amadeus<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, the play by Peter Shaffer which sees <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/antonio-salieri\">Salieri<\/a><\/strong> confessing to poisoning the composer, and Pushkin\u2019s <em>Mozart and Salieri<\/em>, a short drama about envy, the two have become lumbered with the most misrepresented musical relationship of all time.<\/p> <p>The truth is that early in his career Mozart complained that Salieri had gained teaching positions over him, and that he and a group of Italians were obstructing his career. But later on, a mutual respect developed between them that saw Salieri teaching one of Mozart\u2019s children, and the pair collaborating on a cantata and attending operas together.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Monday, 18 November 2024 at 09:03 AM Take a brief browse at social media today, and you might believe we live in an unrivalled age for sharp tongues and poison pens. Think again. History is full of those who were masters of the withering put-down, not least the great composers. What\u2019s more, rather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50014,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"8"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/11\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/11\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/11\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/11\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/11\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/11\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/11\/what-a-giftless-bastard-15-juiciest-composer-insults.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Monday, 18 November 2024 at 09:03 AM Take a brief browse at social media today, and you might believe we live in an unrivalled age for sharp tongues and poison pens. Think again. History is full of those who were masters of the withering put-down, not least the great composers. 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