An efficiency expert attended a performance of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and issued the following critique: (1) For most of the performance, the four oboe players had nothing to do. They should be eliminated and their work spread out over the entire orchestra; (2) Forty violins were playing identical notes. This seemed unnecessary, and this section should be drastically cut. If more sound is required, then add more electronic amplifiers; (3) The horns repeated the passages already played by the strings. If this duplication was eliminated, the concert could be reduced by twenty minutes.
The point
An efficiency expert proposes cutting orchestra sections and duplication, missing the beauty and purpose of orchestral composition—a lesson that technical expertise doesn't always recognize beauty or purpose.