I just don't like the noise it makes.... (those 'blind spot' pieces)

[Roehre]

I would have to say that there's still a 'blind spot piece' for me from 2 of my favourite composers, Ravel and Shostakovich:

...
And I just can't get any pleasure out of Ravel's "L'Heure Espagnole" though its 'doubles partner' "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges" always brings me to my knees.

That makes two of us. I cannot get grip on L'Heure espagnole and L'Enfant et les sortilèges is one of my candidates for that desert island....

[ahinton]

DSCH's Fourth still totally eludes me despite regularish attempts and many passionate advocates here (I have to admit I've still never heard his 2nd & 3rd all the way through ... but I think No 4 is in rather a different category...)

Whilst I can empathise with your lack of engagement with 2 & 3, 4 is indeed in such a different category that I have to feel sorry for you for what you're missing! What is it about the work that eludes you and why, do you suppose?

[cloughie]

Whilst I can empathise with your lack of engagement with 2 & 3, 4 is indeed in such a different category that I have to feel sorry for you for what you're missing! What is it about the work that eludes you and why, do you suppose?

No problems for me with No4 but 13 & 14 I have still not really got.

[richardfinegold]

No problems for me with No4 but 13 & 14 I have still not really got.

They are both dark and pessimistic pieces that demand to be listened to with concentration. One needs to be in the right frame of mind. 13 resonates with me more for personal reasons, as my parents both had extended families of Ukranian Jews that perished in WW II, but I admire the sparse Orchestration of 14, as I think he achieved 'more with less'.

[ahinton]

No problems for me with No4 but 13 & 14 I have still not really got.

13 is near the top of my personal list of the Shostakovich symphonies; a deeply moving, albeit (as richardfinegold writes) dark and pessimistic work but undoubtedly one of his best, I think. I share you problems with 14, much as I admire it, but I've come to the concluson that this is largely because I've been thinking of it as one of his late symphonies whereas in reality it's a song-cycle; it, too, is mainly tenebrous and brooding but I don't perceive as much evidence of it hanging together as an integrated symphonic whole as I do in the others.

[rauschwerk]

... I've come to the concluson that this is largely because I've been thinking of it as one of his late symphonies whereas in reality it's a song-cycle; it, too, is mainly tenebrous and brooding but I don't perceive as much evidence of it hanging together as an integrated symphonic whole as I do in the others.

"Yesterday I finished the piano score of my new work. I am not going to call it an oratorio ... an oratorio calls for a choir. (...) One probably shouldn't call it a symphony either. For the first time in my life, I remain perplexed as to what name to give a composition of mine." (Letter of 1969 to Isaak Glikman)

[ahinton]

"Yesterday I finished the piano score of my new work. I am not going to call it an oratorio ... an oratorio calls for a choir. (...) One probably shouldn't call it a symphony either. For the first time in my life, I remain perplexed as to what name to give a composition of mine." (Letter of 1969 to Isaak Glikman)

Many thanks for posting this. DDS confided in Glikman quite a lot; I seem to reccall that they sat together at the world première of the Fourth Symphony and the composer exclaimed afterwards tht he though it one of his best works, or something like that. But he did ultimately decide to include this work in his symphonic canon and I'm not sure what persuaded him to do so following such doubts as to what to call it. At least he didn't call it a symphony of sorrowful songs...

Britten was delighted with it and seemed to have no problems with it at all.

[Nick Armstrong]

4 is indeed in such a different category that I have to feel sorry for you for what you're missing! What is it about the work that eludes you and why, do you suppose?

I find that in contrast to his later symphonies (and No 1 for that matter), the melodic and harmonic language and logic of the piece just seem incoherent, it doesn't say anything to me (like quite a bit of Prokofiev's symphonic writing, in fact), just sequences and patterns and piles of notes for the sake of it.

Actually, I'd have to list No 13 among my blind spots as well (but then I have a general problem with sung Russian; No 14 appeals to me much more, especially the Haitink recording where the poems are sung in their original languages! )

[ahinton]

I find that in contrast to his later symphonies (and No 1 for that matter), the melodic and harmonic language and logic of the piece just seem incoherent, it doesn't say anything to me (like quite a bit of Prokofiev's symphonic writing, in fact), just sequences and patterns and piles of notes for the sake of it.

Actually, I'd have to list No 13 among my blind spots as well (but then I have a general problem with sung Russian; No 14 appeals to me much more, especially the Haitink recording where the poems are sung in their original languages! )

Ah, well - each to his/her own, an' all that...

[Ferretfancy]

what about "blind spot" performers? i.e. people whom many others regard as being at the top of their profession but who just do nothing for me?
Top of my list would be Ian Bostridge.

Mine would be Emma Kirkby

[Don Petter]

Mine would be Emma Kirkby

Seconded, and raise you Kathleen Ferrier.

[MrGongGong]

Seconded, and raise you Kathleen Ferrier.

Raise you a Joan Sutherland singing Sea Pictures

[Beef Oven!]

Raise you a Joan Sutherland singing Sea Pictures

Raise you Bob Dylan singing, playing the guitar, harmonica, composing etc.

[MrGongGong]

Raise you Bob Dylan singing, playing the guitar, harmonica, composing etc.

You win

[Beef Oven!]

You win