Blind Spots

There are three famous artists whose works I do not appreciate. One is Harold Pinter. I have seen many of his plays over the years but, apart from "The Caretaker" which is a good play with striking characters, I do not see anything worthwhile my spending my time trying to fathom. I read today that "The Birthday Party" was panned so badly by the London critics when it was performed in the fifties that Pinter almost gave up writing for the stage. He would not have been missed by me but, of course, there are thousands of people who do appreciate his plays and so who am I to deny that their judgement is good? I think "The Birthday Party" is a thoroughly unattractive, deeply morbid, basely frightening play, and "The Homecoming" a dreadful piece of near pornography.
Harrison Birtwhistle leaves me cold. Yet here he is with another opera in London being given great reviews by music critics. I have yet to hear a tune, let alone a hummable one, in his music. Maybe it works dramatically, on stage, the music being one of the many effects used in the dramatic piece.
Mahler, I have to say, is not quite a closed book but I have never understood the adulation his symphonies induce. His fifth of course has a beautiful second movement but the rest of it is so heavy with dissonance. And there is so little joy in any of his works. To me they're hard going.
I have to compare my responses with those of the art critic Ivor Newton who disliked Rembrandt.
Even the greatest of critics have their blind spots.