I'll gingerly insert myself here, just to make sure that the thread is wrenched throughly off course. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
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Beethoven, who is well known for having sweated through every composition he ever created, is considered the greatest composer who ever lived.
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But it's so hard to make statements like this. It is such a matter of personal opinion. (My personal opinion is that it's hard not to believe that Beethoven was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, composer in Western musical tradition. But still that's personal opinion.)
Since Mozart was mentioned, who knows what else he could have accomplished if he had lived. Although I grant that Beethoven spanned two musical eras (Classical and Romantic) and thus displayed greater versatility in his work. But, then again I prefer Classical music so I'm biased. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
I don't know if the number of revisions of a work is necessarily an indicator of greatness either. I do agree with you that things are better for more work after the main writing, composing, whatever is done. But that may be my personal experience talking. There are no doubt people out there somewhere who could crank out great works of art with little "effort."
Is there a distinction between the physical work that an artist puts into their art (i.e. revising drafts, or making changes to a painting), and the mental work that is perhaps done beforehand that nobody but the artist would know about? An artist could have done a great deal of work in his/her head before they produce anything that one could read or see.