The recently published retrospective of the symphonist's career bifurcates the contemporary response to his oeuvre: it examines his legacy not through the lens of his professional contemporaries, who were notoriously _________ , but rather via the appraisals of the lay audience, who were, by way of antithesis, remarkably encomiastic.

The words "bifurcates" and "antithesis", apart from the idiom "not...but", makes it clear that there were two opposing views of the symphonist's career. We know the view of the lay audience was encomiastic - which means eulogistic or "full of praise". Clearly, the views of his professional contemporaries has to be the opposite of this. Clearly, the word is contemptuous.

Even if you did not know the meaning of encomiastic, the presence of the adjective "notoriously" before the blank, tells us the noun that follows should be something negative. And given the contrast setting words "bifurcates" and "antithesis", it has to be a strongly negative word, and not weak words like benighted or neutral words like inquisitive and sapient.

The correct answer is contemptuous.