You never know who to expect on Tuesday ………
…. but we do expect a theme. We guessed it could be SYMPHONIES having noticed UNFINISHED and PASTORAL in the completed grid. We searched for the rest and were surprised by how many were hidden within the grid. We smiled as we searched some words as we never expected to find a link but there was Symphony of AGONY by Mekong Delta and Symphony of HYSTERIA by Red Alfa. Given that a symphony is defined as a large-scale orchestral work intended to be played in a concert hall these maybe not quite what one would expect but then we never expected to find a link in the first place.
SURPRISE – Hadyn
LENINGRAD – Shostakovich
HEROIC – Beethoven Thanks to Copmus for pointing out our error
TITAN – Mahler
PASTORAL – Beethoven
FANTASTIC (Fantastique) – Berlioz
PATHETIC (Pathétique) – Tchaikovsky
ITALIAN – Mendelssohn
UNFINISHED – Schubert
JUPITER – Mozart
Thanks Atrica for the enlightenment and entertainment
Cryptic defintion
An anagram of CHEAP TIT – anagrind is ‘lousy’
R (Republican) pANTING (short of breath) missing ‘p’ (first letter or ‘leader’ of party)
A clue as definition – I and an anagram of A LATIN – anagrind is ‘could be’
Double definition
A double definition although the second definition is a play on the fact that the second definition is missing quite a few letters or is ‘unfinished’
Double definition
RING (band) OFF (elsewhere)
ADMIRe (respect) missing last letter or ‘almost’ A L (learner or trainee)
KID (fool) YEN (money) reversed or ‘coming back’
EX (one-time) TRACTION (purchase)
D (first letter or ‘head’ of ‘dunder’ – you need to lift and separate) AFT (back – nautical term or ‘on board’)
OUT (dismissed) LIER (‘sounds’ like LYRE – instrument)
Double definition
GAL (female) round or ‘carrying’ E (drug) in or ‘hidden by’ CONS (inmates)
GOT (followed) CHAp (fellow) missing last letter or ‘short’
Sounds like or ‘in the auditorium’ SIR (teacher) PRIZE (award )
An anagram of INLAND REGion (only half) – anagrind is ‘built’
A reversal of SIRI – a digital assistant which neither of us have ever used!
An anagram of AmBITION I missing ‘m’ (married) – anagrind is ‘abandoned’
AID (help) after HEARING (audition)
H (husband) inside or ‘entering’ TIGHt (drunk) missing last letter or ‘scratching bottom’
Hidden or ‘discovered’ in MohiCAN A DAkotan
GO (depart) in ANY (some)
Double definition – we had to the check the second grammatical definition
Double definition
An anagram of ALSO PART – anagrind is ‘crazy’
Clue as definition with an anagram of tHIS (losing first letter or ‘head’) and TEARY – anagrind is ‘unravelling’
Middle letters only or ‘without limits’ in tHEy gROw rICh
First letters or ‘western’ ends in Kalahari Organise Pleasant Jaunt Exploring
Sounds like (‘when speaking’) TIGHTEN (tense)
O (nothing) after cutting odd letters in oUtPuT
Top notch. Enjoyed this from start to finish with plentiful head-scratching along the way. Would never have seen the theme though – not my area of expertise.
Lots of favourites including: EXTRACTION, DAFT, THIGH & AGONY.
Thanks to Atrica and Bertandjoyce.
I hope setters dont make a habit of having HEROIC for EROICA.(I’ve seen it before)
Otherwise OK
Copmus – our apologies. It is us who are wrong. In completing the blog, we checked the symphonies but like Hovis, classical music is not one of our areas of expertise.
Having checked quickly there is a book called Heroic Symphony!
B&J@3 I actually think the clue is good for HEROIC but the grid fill is so good otherwise that it sort of spoils a clean sheet of themesters.
“Have you got Beethoven’s Buccolic Symphony?”
Nice to see Mahler in there.
Thank you for the blog, B&J. Another pleasing puzzle from the Indy, in which the cad for HYSTERIA and the funny surface for THIGH were standouts for me.
KOPJE was unambiguously clued, I guess because it’s an obscurity. Our bloggers not being massive footie fans has probably prevented them from pointing out that many will have come across a variant of the term as the stand in the ground of the team that are already Premier League champions 2019/20. Liverpool’s Kop End is named after Spion Kop, a steep bank which featured in the Battle of Spion Kop in 1900 during the Boer War. The -je suffix in Dutch is used as a diminutive, hence Atrica clueing it as ‘small bank’.
I missed the theme, naturally enough.
Thank you to the setter too.
Actually he didn’t clue it as ‘small bank’, but that’s what it means.
As a classical music fan, I’m annoyed with myself for not spotting the theme. My excuse is that I had to rush out as soon as I’d completed the grid. Heroic works for me; it is sometimes called that, though some may not like it. I would never have seen Agony and Hysteria anyway. Excellent puzzle, so thanks Atrica and B&J.
I liked the theme which also helped with a few such as UNFINISHED. Some other good clues too, including the economical ITALIAN and the entertaining story in the surface for THIGH.
The mention of the ‘digital assistant’ – and I use the term loosely – was perhaps a bit less welcome!
Thanks to Atrica and B&J
This was a game of two halves for me – ground away slowly, then on returning a few hours later, it started to fly. Spotted the theme but absolutely livid with myself for then not spotting PASTORAL (I had the anagram; just didn’t see it). Quite smug however to have got KOPJE (having the J in was the awakening).
Similarly to B&J I was unaware of INDICATIVE in that sense, plus I can take HEROIC for Eroica on the chin.
More broadly, greetings from this neophyte. I’ve been trying to get better at cryptics and find I get very rusty very quickly. Being on furlough allows me to at least have a crack on most days and so they are now beginning to flow for me. Particular thanks to this site and to you all for the pointers along the way and helping me out of befuddled despair! Almost never does a crossword goes by without me needing help.
Thanks to Atrica and Bertandjoyce – with particular applause for looking up AGONY and HYSTERIA for the theme.
DNF from me. I didn’t know the latin at 5dn and couldn’t figure the wordplay, probably because I wouldn’t ever think of “abandoned” as in any way meaning mixed up. I definitely didn’t spot the theme, even though the same one was used recently somewhere if I recall rightly.
Thanks as always to setter and blogger. And also the Indy for providing great free entertainment.
EggCustard – Welcome to the site. Always a pleasure to welcome another commenter.
As to the praise for finding the thematic entries – knowing very little about classical music and only recognising the two we mentioned, Joyce started searching SYMPHONY and just about all the other answers in the grid. HEARING AID and THIGH were two that didn’t make the list though!
Thank you to Atrica for the entertainment and to B&J for the blog.
We’re quite happy with ‘Heroic’ for Beethoven’s third symphony. ‘Eroica’ is Italian anyway, the published title (after Bethoven had scratched out the original dedication to Napoleon) was in Italian as ‘Sinfonia eroica …’ which translates simply as ‘Heroic symphony’. And in French it’s known as ‘Symphonie héroïque …’
So leave HEROIC as Beethoven’s contribution and Vaughan Williams can have the PASTORAL slot with his third symphony.
I spotted a theme! And it even helped me get a couple of clues. At the end, I had to cheat a bit. Just couldn’t see 1ac, which gave me 3dn. My mind blanked on names of digital assistants.
There are at least two SPRING symphonies, one by Schumann and one by Britten. There isn’t an ADMIRAL symphony that I know of but Haydn did write a Nelson Mass.
A quite bizarre experience today. Never have I raced through a (right) half of a crossword in such short time, and then come unstuck so completely on the other (left) – CONGEALS, ADMIRAL and PASTORAL and that was my lot. I’m afraid I failed to understand some parsings – can any kind soul please explain how GOT = FOLLOWED and RANK = COMPLETE? Thanks in advance.
THIGH and UNFINISHED were my favourites, most appreciated Atrica and bertandjoyce .
@El_Gwero: I’m a rank/complete beginner, but after consulting Chambers I got/understood the parsing.
Wonderful, much appreciated Alliacol