As a flea-bitten Christian walking warily in doctrinal Jewish company ... I once put the question of 10 Commandments tablet incision to a
much respected colleague Ruby Shapiro ... what was the inside story on the cutting process ... divine or man?

Ruby, who at this moment might well be bobbing a black hat in front of the sacred Wailing Wall had a most bizarre response ... a case of
“ask a silly question” ... he said that the actual cutting process had not been positively documented ... however it was Jewish tradition ... that Moses had made a big profit out of selling the resultant marble chips.

By the way ... sorry Hamus ... but although being in possession of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis for nigh on 50 years ... the religious work continues to pass me by ... perhaps not enough abasement.

Please don’t shoot the messenger!

Brahms: The German Requiem.
Bach: Chromatic Fantasy for harpsichord.
Beethoven: Fidelio.
Beethoven: 6th Symphony.
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas.

Well, that's how I remember it... I'm only a messenger's messenger. My personal list is a couple of miles upstream. Lacking "Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)", as the inscription read, perhaps we may continue our discourse in the Unpleasant Place.

Taneyev is wonderful (although that op. 1 didn't do too much for me). There's a great prelude and fugue of his for solo piano that all advanced pianists should be familiar with. His chamber music is very fine, with a particularly impressive piano quintet. Unfortunately, he didn't write much solo piano music, even though he was apparently an exceptional pianist and played the Russian premiere of Tchaikovsky's 1st concerto, and I think was the dedicatee of the 2nd, and completed the 3rd after Tchaikovsky died.

Nicholas Rubinstein was the dedicatee of the 2nd.

And yes, I quite fancy the Taneyev P&F... his 4th symphony is also quite worthy, though with due respect, hardly required listening.