Music that doesn't move you

[ahinton]

Changing tastes tend in my case to go in the other direction, that is I go for years thinking the music of a particular composer, or of a particular genre (eg. Lieder), is not for me by any stretch, and then at a certain point there's a "click" and I plunge headlong into whatever it is. In other cases it's a slow process. In many cases it happens through a nudge in the right direction from someone else, who might not even now s/he is doing it. (That's one reason I hang around here!) As a result I've come to think that if there's something I don't like it may well be principally the result of lack of imagination on my part. It's perhaps a question somehow of finding a reflection of oneself in the music (or sonic art whatever the difference is), or finding a reflection of the music in oneself. So if I say I don't appreciate Sibelius or Tchaikovsky or wind quintets that may well mean they're waiting in the wings to become important to me at some future point. On the other hand if I say I don't appreciate Rachmaninov or romantic Italian opera or pretty much all British music between Purcell and Cardew with the exception of Tippett and some RVW, that future point may well be situated some way beyond whatever my lifespan ends up being!

Interesting! I'm reminded of Benjamin Britten in a conversation with me in which he could tell that I was having trouble following his enthusiasm for Schubert and got me to admit that I simply didn't "get" most of what I'd heard of his work. Instead of being indignant or perplexed he waxed enthusiastic; "how wonderful for you! - you have all that yet to come!". Sadly, it's taking a very long time, but I think that I might be starting to get there...

[Petrushka]

Interesting! I'm reminded of Benjamin Britten in a conversation with me....

Not a great fan of Britten, especially the operas whose subject matter I find questionable at best, but where is that envy emoticon when you really need it?

My blind spots are Delius, Liszt, opera in general apart from Wagner, lieder, chamber music in general and RVW Sea Symphony. I expect the chamber music one to change as I get older and possibly lieder as well. Can't believe some of the more startling admissions in this thread.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So Bach's Mass in B minor at baroque pitch is still OK? (apart from those horrible old instruments!)

1. I didn't say I didn't like B flat minor.
2. It's only early pianos I have an issue with, and they don't 'ave 'em in the B minor Mass.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Can't believe some of the more startling admissions in this thread.

Wot? Like "opera [and] chamber Music in general"?!

[Petrushka]

Wot? Like "opera [and] chamber Music in general"?!

Ah but the difference, my excuse anyway, is that they are blind spots and not necessarily the same as 'doesn't move me'. A lot of it is down to time and a preference for orchestral music which takes up the lion's share of my listening. With chamber music it's largely a question of where to start and what will move me as much as, say Bruckner and Mahler, Beethoven and Shostakovich do. I do have a very small number of chamber music CDs (including the complete DSCH quartets) but time is a limiting factor in getting to know them properly. I'm happy to live without most opera, though.

So, not really as startling an admission as a wholesale dismissal of composers as some on here.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So, not really as startling an admission as a wholesale dismissal of composers as some on here.

you do realize, I hope, that I was just having a teasing little "dig" - it is as startling an admission, to someone (like myself) for whom Chamber Music is the "real" stuff, as it is to read "I don't like insert name of favourite composer[s], s/he's so boring".

But I think that you've put your finger on why Threads like this one always sort-of fizzle out whenever they appear: people say the same things about the same pieces/composers/performances as they did all the times before, and offer the same "explanations" for their choices - explanations as wet as the semi-tautological "I don't like it because it's boring". Considering the quality of discussions that appear on the Forum, comments on Threads like these rarely rise above the "Mrs Trellis" stories R3 listeners tweet in to Essential Classics "explaining" why they like a piece of Music.

[David-G]

My blind spots are ... opera in general apart from Wagner, lieder, chamber music in general ... I expect the chamber music one to change as I get older and possibly lieder as well. Can't believe some of the more startling admissions in this thread.

I know that people are all different, but I find this very hard to understand, having been a devotee of opera since my schooldays, and of chamber music since university. I can understand that Lieder is harder for some people; but I can assure you that the intensity of a good chamber music or song recital can be hard to beat. I do feel that all these forms are best experienced live.

[Petrushka]

I know that people are all different, but I find this very hard to understand, having been a devotee of opera since my schooldays, and of chamber music since university. I can understand that Lieder is harder for some people; but I can assure you that the intensity of a good chamber music or song recital can be hard to beat. I do feel that all these forms are best experienced live.

I'm happy to take your word for this but it isn't, in my case, an instance od hearing, say, chamber music, and saying 'Don't like it'. It really is a question of time in getting there as I have done since I was 16, with the big orchestral works. I expect chamber music to come to me eventually. Opera is something I've tried often but it's always the orchestra I'm listening to and, in reality, only Wagner does the business there.

[Mary Chambers]

Not a great fan of Britten, especially the operas whose subject matter I find questionable at best, but where is that envy emoticon when you really need it?

It would be a sad day indeed if art couldn't take on 'questionable' subjects, which presumably are different for different people.

[vinteuil]

Not a great fan of Britten, especially the operas whose subject matter I find questionable at best,

My blind spots ... opera in general apart from Wagner

... nothing questionable about theft, betrayal, adultery, incest, murder ....

[gradus]

More a case of moved too early - the last movt of the Sibelius first sym, I just wish he'd found a way to end it with the big tune.

[Richard Barrett]

I didn't say I didn't like B flat minor

Fair enough! I agree that a lot of tedious music has been written in B flat, although for me Beethoven's op.130/133 makes up for it.

[Petrushka]

... nothing questionable about theft, betrayal, adultery, incest, murder ....

Nothing at all. Normal day in the office really, apart from incest.

[Barbirollians]

Steve Reich's music and in my experience of it Philip Glass - and of course Lachenmann

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Fair enough! I agree that a lot of tedious music has been written in B flat, although for me Beethoven's op.130/133 makes up for it.

For me, it's Brahms's 2nd piano concerto.