In reviews of chamber and symphonic music, the Gazette's policy of supporting evolution rather than revolution is even more apparent than in reviews of piano music, partly because of the greater emphasis on aesthetic, as opposed to commercial, concerns, in the reception of a repertoire which contained fewer works of crucial importance to the publishing house's fortunes. Freed from the need to present perceived weaknesses as early signs of future strength (as in their reviews of Heller and Prudent), the journal's critics could concentrate on specifically musical debates. Early championing of Berlioz did not indicate a general openness to avant-garde instrumental music; on the contrary, particularly after 1846, Berlioz was an exception to all the tenets regularly espoused by the Gazette's critics. That a composer who died in 1869 and who was fundamentally opposed to the then most adventurous trends in music should be the avant-garde exception to the journal's prevailing aesthetic is significant, and represents part of a general trend towards conservatism in the Brandus Gazette. With the possible exception of Maurice Bourges, at no time after Berlioz's resignation as concerts reviewer did the Gazette employ a regular reporter with avant-garde leanings. The principal common factor among the journal's main reviewers – Monnais, Blanchard, Botte and Bannelier – is their indebtedness to Fétis, who provided a theoretical framework for judgements on the representational potential of music, harmonic, metrical and rhythmic schemes, clarity of structure, and, above all, the proper path for contemporary music.