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The Neutral Point of View policy has a section calledCharacterizing opinions of people's work, which says that the use of peacock terms is to be discouraged in WikiPedia. The views on Straus's temperament and ability seem to me to be in this category:

"His playing, whether of violin or viola, had very great qualities; he was perfect in ensemble, and his power of self-effacement was of a piece with his gentle disposition and with the pure love of art which distinguished him through life. A more lovable nature never existed, and his quiet influence on the art of his time was very great."

(Are we to take the 1911 encyclopaedia entry at its word, I wonder?) This is why I have put the 'Neutral Point of View' sticker on it.Brequinda19:18, 26 September 2005 (UTC)Reply

I agree with Brequinda.

I tried to clean up the language to make it more Neutral. How does it sound now Brequinda?wardenusa