Was He a Genius?

Extract

In introducing the work of the unfortunate Russian composer Stanchinsky, knowledge of whom has hitherto been confined, in this country, to a brief mention of him in my Contemporary Russian Composers (1917), I am assuming that as he died close on forty years ago we who now examine his output for the first time may consider ourselves, in relation to the composer and his work, as posterity and as, during his brief period of creative activity, he was regarded by some distinguished contemporaries as undoubtedly deserving the description of genius it seems important that we should assume that particular function in the exercise of which posterity is reckoned to be more-or-less expert.