"He is forever building pedestal upon pedestal,
but the statue is never forthcoming."
The comments were in a letter to PIT's patroness, Nadezhda
Filaretovna.
Russ
Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck, actually.
Intregingly both composers admired and supported Dvorak.
Jon Teske, violinist
I recall reading a bio of Tchaikovsky where he said that Brahms lacked
the ability to write a good melody and Brahms returned the compliment,
saying Tchaikovsky would have made a very good GERMAN [my emphasis]
composer.
In the quote Tchaikowsky is referring specifically to the Brahms violin
concerto (first movement I assume)
See it here:
http://www.tchaikovsky-research.net/en/people/brahms_johannes.html
middle of the page, letter 1427 or search for 'pedestal'