Oppressive classical music appreciation

Everybody's probably heard of the Vox article which I won't link to which claims that "For a lot of people, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony doesn’t represent triumph and resilience, but elitism and exclusion."

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. Possibly the pair of authors are so hungry for publicity that they'll say anything, however insane, to get attention. Or possibly they became so devoted to their social theories that they forgot about reality. They may not be irredeemable: perhaps one could discuss gardening with them and slowly train them to think of things outside the prison of their ideology.

Somewhere my parents picked up a copy of a translation of Gheerbrant's, The Impossible Adventure: Journey to the Far Amazon. The story is worth reading.

The explorers brought along a wind-up phonograph and some records, and at one point, faced with somewhat dubious Indians, decided to play some records for them. Jazz (Louis Armstrong) had them dancing. Another (Star Spangled Banner?) had them laughing. Mozart (no.26 , K. 184) fascinated them. "At first hostile, they were tamed by this music. So much so that a sorcerer of these tribes came to tell the chief of the expedition: 'Since you too have sacred music, I then reveal secrets to you ... '". (I seem to recall that they weren't quite as excited by Beethoven, but my memory is slippery.)

I guess they had not been properly instructed in how oppressive this was all supposed to be.

I can't find a link to the book itself (probably still under copyright), but I remember reading it and being surprised at the musical effects. One web page that refers to it cites pages 90ff and 277ff if you happen to find the book yourself.