Puzzling ... how can the first Brahms String Quartet have such an immediate effect & the 4th Symphony (yes, the ever so famous Fourth, conducted no less by my hero Carlos Kleiber, a performance that everyone agrees is unsurpassed) leave me so utterly ... cold ... indifferent ... bored even?

Hackneyed melodies ... bombast ... staggering rhythms.

(& yes, I know this must sound as utter philistinism).

My rule of thumb on Brahms: the fewer instruments the better.