Music you've still not grown to like

[LeMartinPecheur]

Oh - corny though it might be, I do still like "Hear my Prayer" - amazing piece.

The bit that most amazes me is where the treble soloist concludes his solo with 'O God incline thine ear' and as he sings 'EAR' the choir overlaps with 'HEAR my prayer...'. This I thought was quite terrible word-setting when I sang the piece as a bass in the school choir, and it still makes me wince. Pity, because I agree that overall it's a good piece.

[Black Swan]

As we all know, the love/appreciation of music is a very personal thing. I know I am in a huge minority but for me anything by Shostakovich. I have never been able to appreciate/enjoy the music of this composer. I leave it to those who do.

J

[Tony Halstead]

The bit that most amazes me is where the treble soloist concludes his solo with 'O God incline thine ear' and as he sings 'EAR' the choir overlaps with 'HEAR my prayer...'. This I thought was quite terrible word-setting when I sang the piece as a bass in the school choir, and it still makes me wince. Pity, because I agree that overall it's a good piece.

Mendelssohn was so damned clever that he obviously did it ON PURPOSE!

[EdgeleyRob]

String Quartet Op 60. Devastating.

I assume you mean the F Minor Op 80 and I agree,towering masterpiece.
Mendelssohn's chamber music is one of the wonders of 19th C music IMO.

[MrGongGong]

Mendelssohn's chamber music is one of the wonders of 19th C music IMO.

I'm sure it is, but I wouldn't be sad if I never heard another note of it.

[Dave2002]

I'm sure it is, but I wouldn't be sad if I never heard another note of it.

So what would you be sad not to hear? Maybe you don't know.

Tha's sometimes how I feel about Mahler. I can save time by not listening.

[MrGongGong]

So what would you be sad not to hear? Maybe you don't know.

Tha's sometimes how I feel about Mahler. I can save time by not listening.

I've heard hours of it
There's nothing wrong with it
and there are some great pieces I"m sure i've missed

[Dave2002]

I've heard hours of it
There's nothing wrong with it
and there are some great pieces I"m sure i've missed

I didn't write that there was anything wrong with it (I assume you mean Mahler's music) - but I can imagine enough of it each time I think about it to mentally decide not to spend the next hour or so listening to it. I might also decide not to go to a concert with Mahler's music in for that reason. OTOH, sometimes I might decide to go, if I'm in the mood, and I think there might be a really good performance.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Against my name put down most of the acreages of baroque concerti grossi, trio sonatas and operas, particularly if Italian

[Barbirollians]

The overture to a Midsummer's Night Dream surely who cannot like that ?

[cloughie]

Verdi !!! Saints above fhgl - poor you . One of my favourite composers . Just put the Callas recording on and you should get Il Trovatore . Don Carlos and La Traviata also masterpieces as well as Aida, Falstaff etc .

I have to admit , however, that the Reqieum does not do it for me at all - and I have Abbado, Giulini and Pappano's recordings .

Callas

[cloughie]

Mendelssohn,

Just can't find a piece of Mendelssohn that I like.

Jonny Mac!!!!

[cloughie]

I'm sure it is, but I wouldn't be sad if I never heard another note of it.

It takes all sorts GG. Not like tunes then?

[EdgeleyRob]

Mendelssohn,

Just can't find a piece of Mendelssohn that I like.

Mendelssohn.

Just can't find a piece of Mendelssohn that I don't like.
Yes,including the 2nd Symphony and Elijah.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Callas

I have absolutely no idea why I adore Callas - her vibrato breaks rules that would instantly curdle my milk of humankindness in any other singer - but I do.

And I have tried with Verdi - did Trovatore for "A"-Level (with Callas' recording - and the C Osbourne) book and Wriggle-a-lotto as part of my degree course (also with Callas) and heard Don Carlos at that time, too. I cannot explain (or describe politely) why it leaves me not merely cold but positively hostile - especially when there are works of his to which I do respond so enthusiastically (including the First Act of Traviata - and I've often used the Prelude to that opera as an example of great writing to my own students: the aching melody of the heroine's inner life against the oom-cha public facade - but not the rest.

Simon Boccanegra, however, I don't know: I saw the Domingo production from five years or so ago, and was so put off by his bad singing (which was so enthusiastically received on the old BBC Messageboards) that I couldn't really concentrate on the Music. I shall, when the mood next takes me, give that my full attention - but not just yet: I'm still catching up with Rachmaninoff (when I'm not revelling in Monteverdi and other acres of Baroque opera, mostly in Italian, or Bruckner's Symphonies, or Mendelssohn, or Birtwistle, or Rubbra, or Arnold, or Brahms, or Sibelius or ... )