I can think of no other composer, save Wagner, whose chord-progressions are so full and opulent in colour.

His tonal web is always densely woven--he avoids "thinness" as he avoids the banal phrase and the futile decoration.

In addition to the plangency of his chord combinations, as such, his polyphonic skill is responsible for much of the solidity of his fabric.

His pages, particularly in the more recent works, are studded with examples of felicitous and dexterous counterpoint--poetically significant, and of the most elastic and untrammelled contrivance.

Even in passages of a merely episodic character, one is struck with the vitality and importance of his inner voices.