"Chopin’s Funeral March has had its day. Time to give this lugubrious, etiolated dirge, decried by Schumann as a “repulsive” piece of music, its final rest."

Yup.

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I certainly find it lugubrious, but not etiolated. Did Schumann say that ? Sweeping derogatory comments of musicians about other's works are funny, aren't they. Debussy despised Beethoven, Milhaud hated Wagner, Chopin detested Schubert, Delius was contemptuous of all the classical "immortals", Xenakis said that composers who wrote counterpoint were wasting their time, Clara Schumann said that Liszt's later pieces were embarrassing ....

Such remarks would probably make an interesting collection.

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Joke:

The difference between a british journalist and a parrot?
None, they both sound funny repeating the same stuff.
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There are lots of great stories of composers insulting eachother. The best one I read about was Beethovan mixing it up with a contemporary (I think it was Kalkbrenner) during a pianist parlor recital. Beethovan grabs Kalkbrenner's manuscript from one of the chamber musicians, goes to the piano, TURNS IT UPSIDE DOWN and plays it, then storms out of the room!

My teacher, a composer, used to insult me all the time. He'd suggest an idea for improvisation and after I'd been going five minutes he'd ask me when I was going to start. Once he stopped me during a piece and asked how much I'd had to drink before the lesson. Each session was liberally sprinkled with remarks such as "that's lousy" or "you wouldn't have a clue how to play that". Silly part is, after he died I found he'd been telling people how marvellous I was - it was news to me.

I think those possessing really deep artistic talent, as he did, are inclined to spout forth a lot of opinionated rubbish. It's in the nature of the beast and we just have to ignore it for the sake of the underlying beauty of their creations.

As one who lost someone very close, let me say that this Sonata works for me. I imagine it worked well for the Queen mother's immediate family too. One's relationship to the occasion can make all the difference in the world. Attending a funeral as a passive mourner and enduring "yet another" hearing of this sonata may make one wish for something new and goes to illustrate yet another facet of the subjectivity of music.