Boring...

[Frances_iom]

Then there's Lennox Berkele and son Michael.

Y ?


seriously Lennox B's music esp some of church music is quite attractive - I enjoy some of MB's but so far not found any I'm partial to.

[Dave2002]

Many would find La Monte Youngs music boring in the extreme but give me that over Brahms any day
Maybe I need to work harder on Brahms ?

That sounds like a good idea. Even Benjamin Britten suggested that the clarinet quintet was worth hearing.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I like Faure's chamber music. But sorry the Requiem does bore me, I don't think I've ever liked it. We cant all be the same of course. Another bore to add is Allan Pettersson, I've actually fallen asleep more than once listening to his symphonies, even though I feel I should like his music.

[Serial_Apologist]

There should be no should.

[StephenO]

I of course agree with Mr Hewett over Mahler 8, and I would add nos 2, 3, 5 & 7 too . I would also add Cosi Fan Tutte, Parsifal & Owen Wingrave in the Opera list, would agree with Vivaldi's Gloria which is as boring to sing as to listen to and I'd add Faure's Requiem as well.

How could you?! Mahler couldn't have written a boring note if he'd tried. I agree about the Vivaldi but as for the rest...

I'd add the Bach cantatas to the boring list, plus the Goldberg Variations and Handel's entire operatic output, with the possible exception of Acis and Galatea. Actually I'd include almost all Baroque opera. And, of course, Gilbert and Sullivan.

[pilamenon]

I'd add the Bach cantatas to the boring list, plus the Goldberg Variations and Handel's entire operatic output, with the possible exception of Acis and Galatea. Actually I'd include almost all Baroque opera.

I'll add another vote for the Poem of Ecstasy, along with all Scriabin's symphonies/symphonic poems, and I was bored rigid after listening to Bruckner 8 the other day. I can't imagine any performance convincing me that it doesn't go on far too long and predictably.

[Suffolkcoastal]

It shows how different we all are stephen, I think Mahler wrote far too many boring notes, the 1st movt of Sym 3 is the pinnacle of tedium for me I'm afraid. On the contrary I've never found J S Bach or any of his son's music boring. There is music I just dislike but don't find boring like Das Lied von der Erde and Gerontius, music I find boring but don't dislike, like Parsifal & The Rape of Lucretia and music I both dislike and find boring like Mahler 3 & 8, Faure's Requiem and Owen Wingrave, but to be honest there's not much music in the latter category or the other two either considering the huge range of classical music.

[Roslynmuse]

I just don't get this 'boring music/ boring composers' idea. If I'm not receptive to a particular piece or style at a particular time I'll put it down to my mood. If I consistently find myself unreceptive then it's a matter of temperament. But being bored? I'm inclined to try to analyse what it is that I'm reacting against. That staves off the boredom.

Irritation is another matter - and phobias and narcolepsy also. I once had an overwhelming feeling of being trapped, within the first few notes of a performance of Bruckner 7 I attended. I have been driven mad by the cadences in Figaro recit. I have drifted almost into sleep in hot theatres and concert halls after a long hard day's work. But I'm not bored. 'Boring' is a lazy word, like 'nice' - and I'm sure everyone on here was told at least once never to use that particular word.

PS I am struck by the number of slow, quiet works listed here (OK, Mahler 8...), or the texturally unvaried. Some pieces do require more listening than others, and perhaps it's the point where we think time spent v. personal return or gain is unbalanced that we decide we're 'bored.'

As for M. Dutilleux - how can such imaginative chiaroscuro EVER (!) be thought dull!!!

[Hitch]

I like Faure's chamber music. But sorry the Requiem does bore me, I don't think I've ever liked it. We cant all be the same of course. Another bore to add is Allan Pettersson, I've actually fallen asleep more than once listening to his symphonies, even though I feel I should like his music.

No need to apologise. Each to his own, and so on. Handel's music is an uncrossable swamp.

[Richard Tarleton]

This thread makes amazing reading. Bruckner 7,8 Goldberg Variations - works I could not be without, and have multiple versions of. Go to live performances whenever I can.

Has anyone mentioned Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano concerto yet?

[Petrushka]

If I find a piece boring I don't give it the chance of boring me a second time!

The last time this happened was at last year's Proms when Gergiev and the LSO preceded a quite wonderful Stravinsky Firebird with the Scriabin 1st Symphony which was beyond belief boring. The performance was only enlivened by one of the lights at the back of the stage bursting into flames.

[Rupert P Matley]

Personally, with all these 'lists' they keep coming up with, I'm finding that BBC Music Magazine is far more boring than any of the aforementioned composers/works

[3rd Viennese School]

Perhaps the critics are talking about Performance on 3 of late which has been mostly boring or awful. I have the Radio at home now tuned to Classic FM.

Weve had more German song cycles, Wagner Operas, Baroque depressing singing, the usual Wigmore Hall stuff...
Ugh!

3VS

P.S. At least we actually get a symphony tonight!

[BBMmk2]

I find a lot of Mozart boring!!

[Alf-Prufrock]

The mention of Lennox Berkeley in this thread was so surprising to me that I was driven back to my CD collection, where I found I had at least forty works of his. I then listened to the Serenade for Strings, the Poems of Saint Teresa of Avila, and the Piano Concerto and am flummoxed that can anyone can think his music boring. It is never prolix, for a start. It has melodies, deft harmonization and orchestration, and can plumb the depths.

One can never under-estimate the ability of human beings to be different from one another!