Guardian Genius 77 / Pasquale

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Four symphonies with nicknames provide the theme for this puzzle: the undefined anagrams lead to the composer (with a missing letter) and the nickname. The “clue of sorts” given by the missing letter is that its position is the number of the symphony: for example, the Eroica is Beethoven’s 3rd, so the 3rd letter of BEETHOVEN is omitted (of course it’s hard to tell in that example!) Perhaps surprisingly, the four symphonies involve only two numbers: two thirds and two fourths. The normal clues were mostly straightforward (in contrast to the ferociously hard Araucaria puzzle last month), with just a couple of obscure answers causing some difficulties, though even they were guessable thanks to Pasquale’s usual sound clueing.

 
Across
8,18. BE[E]THOVEN / EROICA
9. VENICE E in V NICE
10. HOT AIR OT in HAIR
11,27. BRU[C]KNER / ROMANTIC
15. SLEIGHT OF HAND (THEN A GOLDFISH)* – this was very easy to get from the definition and enumeration
20,12. SC[H]UMANN / RHENISH
23,14. SCH[U]BERT / TRAGIC
25. STUBBY S + TUBBY
26. STATER STATE + R. An ancient Greek coin,
 
Down
1. MEMOIR MO in (Golda) MEIR
2. THRACE RAC in THE
3. AVERTING AVER + TIN + G
4. SNOB S + NO B
5. AVAUNT A + VAUNT
6. ONONDAGA ON ON + D(elhi) + AGA. The Onondaga are a native American tribe.
7. SCURRIED S + CURRIED
13. HATES E in HATS
15. SARASOTA SA + O in RASTA. It’s a city in Florida.
16. EPIPHYTE EP + PITHY* + E. An epiphytre is “a plant that grows upon another plant (such as a tree) non-parasitically”.
17. FOURSOME (FROM ‘OUSE)*
19. AMEERS E’ER in A MS
21. ALUMNI A + LUM + IN<
22. NUBBIN (NIB + BUN)<
23. TARO Hidden in poT A ROtten

12 comments on “Guardian Genius 77 / Pasquale”

  1. Thanks, Andrew. In contrast to last month’s Araucaria, which completely stumped me, I finished this on the day it came out without much trouble. They do vary a bit, these puzzles, don’t they? I can’t believe it’s just down to a particular setter’s style, as I have completed Araucaria Genius ones before. As you say, the non-theme clues were mostly pretty straightforward and all of it was fair and well-clued.

  2. The same experience for me. It took me the whole month (on and off) to complete the previous Genius, but I finished this one at a single sitting, having spotted the theme fairly quickly.

    At least getting the themed answers didn’t fill in too much of the grid, so there was still some work to do. A good and enjoyable puzzle, I thought.

  3. Thanks Andrew but I have a slight disagreement about 6d. If you click on the puzzle from the Guardian website, the answer is given as MNMNMAYA which is what I put.

  4. The answer I provided was ONONDAGA — (ON x 2 + D + AGA, as analysed above). I’m not sure how anyone gets the alternative. Maybe someone else could sort this out with The Guardian! I can’t track down the answer page and there’s no report from the editor yet. Night all!

  9. Andrew, it may be worth mentioning that Genius 78 is now available with special instructions. If, like me, you downloaded it on Monday you may have been surprised to see that there were no special instructions. Without them, it’s impossible to solve. Even with them, it’s going to be tough!

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