Enigmatic Variations 1042 Tempting Fate by Samuel

Seven unclued entries, 18 with extra letters in the wordplay, one clued without definition and quite a convoluted preamble as to how the unclued entries are derived. Would I be tempting fate by saying its sounds straight forward?

The answer is, not at all. A relatively straight forward EV from Samuel with an educational twist, for me anyway.

Nothing overly tricky clue wise with the extra letters yielding THE CURSE OF THE NINTH – which was not something I was familiar with, but with a number of composers fitting into the unclued entries, I soon discovered that it “is the belief that a “ninth symphony” is destined to be a composer’s last; i.e. that he or she will be “fated” to die after writing it, or before completing a “tenth”.” Extracted from the sprinkler of all knowledge Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_ninth for those interested in more facts about the curse.

Schubert, Vaughan Williams (one member occupying 2 grid entries), Mahler, Bruckner, Dvorak and Beethoven being the 6 members.

The un defined clue proved to be (Alexander) Glazunov, who completed the first movement of his Ninth but worked on it no further for the 26 more years he lived – so he avoided TEMPTING FATE.

That left one further unclued entry to be entered cryptically TENTH SYMPHON (i.e an unfinished tenth symphony). Many thanks Samuel for a fun puzzle with a nice piece of education thrown in.

Key * Anagram, DD Double Definition, Rev. Reverseed, Underline (definition)