Grice on Mahler: "music better than it sounds" -- and "Remarks about the senses"

J reports about Twain that he made some

"funny cracks about Wagner: "it sounds better than it is"' or something".

Exactly. We should check the actual wording.

Surely

(i) x sounds better than it is.

is different from

(ii) x is better than it sounds.


I'm using "Mahler" for provocative intents, since we know Grice was a Mahlrer-fan.

On the face of it, there is something virtually stupid about (ii) -- on the strenght of all the being there is to 'x' is 'how x sounds'. But surely Twain is IMPLICATING something.