What music can you not stick ?

[Barbirollians]

OK - an obvious one to start - Carmina Burana - dreadful rubbish .

2 Minimalism- especially Steve Reich - dreary as hell

3 German post war atonal music - Rihm , and Stockhausen worst of all - the latter the musical equivalent of the " Emperor's New Clothes "

[Roehre]

OK - an obvious one to start - Carmina Burana - dreadful rubbish .

2 Minimalism- especially Steve Reich - dreary as hell

3 German post war atonal music - Rihm , and Stockhausen worst of all - the latter the musical equivalent of the " Emperor's New Clothes "

All so-called "classical" music composed before 1945. Total rubbish, no rhythm, no thump-thump-thump, long overdrawn melodies, large oversized orchestras or ditto choirs, who needs 20 or so musicians to play Bach let alone some hundreds as in that b***y oversized Mahler-guy if you can do that all with one synthesizer or electronic equipment. Bah, humbug.

[Nick Armstrong]

All so-called "classical" music composed before 1945. Total rubbish

[Barbirollians]

Most interesting Roehre- surely Bach having composed and died before 1945 - is intolerable no matter how many musicians are involved?

[Uncle Monty]

Hey, I like Carmina Burana! In the right hands, very moving.

Tchaikovsky is the one I can't stick. All of it. I'd be happy if I never had to hear or play another note

[maestro267]

Yawn. Another thread for the anti-'populism' crowd to put down pieces that have been embraced by non-classical music lovers.

Carmina Burana is one of the defining choral works of the 20th century, and Tchaikovsky is one of the best composers, full stop.

[Barbirollians]

No - maestro it is intended to be about your personal response to music . I cannot abide Carmina Burana but I love Tchaikovsky.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Although not wishing to be a party-pooper, is there any real point in this kind of thread? We all have our likes and dislikes, but shouting dislikes through a megaphone doesn't really help. Hearing about a work someone recommends, on the other hand, often prompts me to investigate.

[Uncle Monty]

Although not wishing to be a party-pooper, is there any real point in this kind of thread? We all have our likes and dislikes, but shouting dislikes through a megaphone doesn't really help. Hearing about a work someone recommends, on the other hand, often prompts me to investigate.

Well, yes, but I'm sure we have room for both sorts of thread!

There probably isn't any point in talking to anyone about anything much when it really comes down to it -- but it's sort-of nice, isn't it? :cool2:

I like to think I can be as populist as the next yobbo if required. I enjoy some real rubbish, while some highbrow works leave me cold. And then there's Tchaikovsky I'm quite willing to bore everyone to death with the reasons why his music is so dire, but I don't somehow think that was really the intention behind the thread

[MrGongGong]

OK - an obvious one to start - Carmina Burana - dreadful rubbish .

2 Minimalism- especially Steve Reich - dreary as hell

3 German post war atonal music - Rihm , and Stockhausen worst of all - the latter the musical equivalent of the " Emperor's New Clothes "

BINGO

(whats my prize ?)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And then there's Tchaikovsky I'm quite willing to bore everyone to death with the reasons why his music is so dire, but I don't somehow think that was really the intention behind the thread

Go on! You really want to. Personally, I think he's one of the two greatest 19th century composers, the other being Wagner.

[Uncle Monty]

Go on! You really want to. Personally, I think he's one of the two greatest 19th century composers, the other being Wagner.

Well, OK, as in business, where you never use your own money if you can use someone else's, here are some pertinent quotes:

"Pierre Boulez, high priest of postwar musical modernism, has never conducted a single note of Tchaikovsky, and describes the composer's life's work as "abominable"; he has even opined that every Tchaikovsky-lover at a Tchaikovsky concert is celebrating the cult of himself. Ouch. The composer is, for many arbiters of musical taste, a disposable and even dangerous sentimentalist, as relevant to the modern world as the tsarist decadence of a Fabergé egg." -- Tom Service

"Tchaikovsky's violin concerto brings us for the first time to the horrid idea that there may be music that stinks to the ear." -- Sarah Chang

"Tchaikovsky sucks. No, srsly, he's a horrible composer." -- American teenager.


I rest my case :cool2:

[rauschwerk]

Those quotations, Monty, say absolutely nothing at all about the quality of Tchaikovsky's music, do they? The second was actually penned by Eduard Hanslick! And "srsly" is a typo for what?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And "srsly" is a typo for what?

As it was an American teenager, it would be textspeak. I'm quite impressed he had heard of Tchaikovsky. When I mentioned Boulez's pompous attitude on the BBC Messageboards, someone replied that (s)he was going to get rid of his/her CDs with Boulez conducting. I wouldn't go that far, as Boulez is a fine conductor - misguided, but still good.

[Uncle Monty]

Those quotations, Monty, say absolutely nothing at all about the quality of Tchaikovsky's music, do they? The second was actually penned by Eduard Hanslick! And "srsly" is a typo for what?

No, of course they don't! I'm not sure what would, ultimately. I know only that as a rank & file orchestral player I always dread Tchaikovsky, invariably a horrible experience. It's the relentless, predictable and deeply tedious chromatic runs, swirling sickeningly and often, it seems, pointlessly. On a personal level, I'm not "turned on" by melody as much as by harmony and texture, so even if there's something possibly attractive soaring away at the top, what's underneath had better be good, and I'm afraid Tchaikovsky's textures are just so much sludge.

'Course, that's only one man's opinion

I think the "srsly" is txtspk for "seriously". One despairs. . .