It was because the charismatic in music is genuinely awe-inspiring , and to watch the violist trek across Schnittke 's barbarous Russian landscape was like watching humanity and inhumanity in ferocious battle , waging every grand and noble struggle that we associate with the 19 th -century violin concertos , except without any of the reassuring triumphalism that , among 19 th -century composers , was indistinguishable from a finale .
Music is always awe-inspiring .