Composers
From “Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy”:
“[Composers] who lose their youthful rebelliousness are in grave danger of losing their talent as well. Such was the destiny of Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens. After a youth brimming in confidence and daring, Mendelssohn essentially worked himself to death in academic life, all the while becoming more and more conservative in his outlook and more and more detail-oriented in his composing — a perfectionism he described late in life as his 'dread disease.' Saint-Saens suffered a worse fate, becoming so reactionary late in life that he schemed to quash the careers of youthful free spirits like Debussy. He once wrote in regret, 'I ran after the chimera of purity of style and perfection of form.' The innovative Berlioz, who knew Saint-Saens as a glittering prodigy, was less charitable: 'He knows everything but lacks inexperience.'”
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