Music that doesn't move you

[Petrushka]

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

Have to agree with you that art should indeed take on questionable subjects but while I love the orchestral Britten, the War Requiem and Serenade the operas are not for me.

[ahinton]

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.

And look at other prime examples of such music that isn't! Beethoven's Hammerklavier and Fourth Symphony, Chausson's Symphony, Brahms' Second Piano Concerto, Szymanowski's Second Symphony, Brian Ferneyhough's Symphony (and no, I didn't make that last one up although, not having heard it or even set eyes on the score, I cannot tell where it might stand on the non-tedium scale)...

[teamsaint]

And Schumann 1, of course.

[Tetrachord]

The Missouri State University Chorale did not move me.

Nor me neither!!!

[Tetrachord]

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.

Completely with you there on the Britten. I've always found these impenetrable.

[Richard Barrett]

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".

But not quite always - there could always be some thought-provoking spinoffs among the variously-worded statements of "I know what I like and I like what I ruddy well know". Who would have thought, for example, that a discussion of the music of Eric Whitacre would spawn an exchange about the systematic permutation of intervals? - albeit as an example of "sins of one's youth" (maybe it's serialism that keeps me feeling so young!).

I've always found Schoenberg's piano concerto nasty and turgid, but this afternoon I listened to it (Brendel/Kubelík since you ask) and enjoyed it a lot, although at the same time it brought into sharp focus one of the things that irritates me about Schoenberg's music which is the way he uses repeated notes in his melodies.

[Beef Oven!]

I've always found Schoenberg's piano concerto nasty and turgid

You’ve said this before and I found it strange. I much prefer violin concertos to pcs, but Schoenberg’s pc is a great listen from beginning to end, IMV.

but this afternoon I listened to it (Brendel/Kubelík since you ask) and enjoyed it a lot, although at the same time it brought into sharp focus one of the things that irritates me about Schoenberg's music which is the way he uses repeated notes in his melodies.

Interesting. I find some welcome repetition of melody in his pc, but repeated notes hadn’t occurred to me, but then it wouldn’t!

I shall look out for that, next time I listen to it. I have the Brendel Kubelik, DG.

[Beef Oven!]

Music that doesn’t move me -

Most Delius, except the operas.

RVW Sea Symphony.

Some days Elgar 1&2, some days, not.

Most Philip Glass, especially the symphonies.

Most times Schubert 9, but sometimes I kinda get it.

But I think I pretty much like everything else ever written, by just about anyone.

EDIT: I hadn’t read any of the posts on here, except RB’s AS pc one, and just having glanced down this page alone, I must add Brahms’ piano concerti (prompted by EA’s view on #2)

I don’t see how anyone can’t like Schumann 1, and Different Trains is fabulous.

[Conchis]

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!

I'm arrogant enough to believe that if something is 'good', I'll get it one day. I"m not given to bragging but i know (and other people have told me, with envy) that I have superlative taste. I've also got the stamina to make an effort until it all drops into place and not just dismiss something I don't get as 'rubbish', in the lazy way that people (particularly in the English-speaking world) tend to.

That said, I am still waiting for the penny to drop, re: John Coltrane's 'sheets of sound' period. I'm confident it will, eventually, though.

Ditto: Trout Mask Replica.

[Tetrachord]

I'm arrogant enough to believe that if something is 'good', I'll get it one day. I"m not given to bragging but i know (and other people have told me, with envy) that I have superlative taste. I've also got the stamina to make an effort until it all drops into place and not just dismiss something I don't get as 'rubbish', in the lazy way that people (particularly in the English-speaking world) tend to.

That said, I am still waiting for the penny to drop, re: John Coltrane's 'sheets of sound' period. I'm confident it will, eventually, though.

Ditto: Trout Mask Replica.

I can only wish that the rest of us had your superlative taste and judgment.

[Richard Barrett]

I can only wish that the rest of us had your superlative taste and judgment.

So are you going to say something about the difference between music and "sonic art"?

[Petrushka]

I've also got the stamina to make an effort until it all drops into place.

This was very much my experience when I was in my late teens, early 20s when it often took half a dozen attempts before everything fell into place - and what a wonderful feeling when it does - but as I've got older I've found this more difficult to do possibly because my taste, for want of a better word, is formed. I can laugh now at how I struggled with the Elgar 2, Strauss' Tod und Verklarung, Brahms 2, Mozart Piano Concertos etc, etc.

[Barbirollians]

Sometimes just one recording can open the door . I am thinking for example of Hilary Hahn's stupendous recording of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto which opened my ears to the later Schoenberg.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But not quite always - there could always be some thought-provoking spinoffs among the variously-worded statements of "I know what I like and I like what I ruddy well know". Who would have thought, for example, that a discussion of the music of Eric Whitacre would spawn an exchange about the systematic permutation of intervals? - albeit as an example of "sins of one's youth" (maybe it's serialism that keeps me feeling so young!).

- Hexachordal Inversional Combinatoriality: stops all seven signs of aging - and keeps those complements coming! Yes, I deliberately put the bit about comments "rarely rising" above the Mrs Trellis level later in that post. I think what turned the EW Thread into something much better than a mere "I don't like it, it's rubbish" vs "I do like it, you're a snob" was a request for specific pieces from the enthusiasts that demonstrated what they found attractive. Discussions based on positive comment seem to engender more positive responses even/especially from people with completely opposite opinions - simple negative "lists" remain, at best, just that.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- although eleven pages and 103 replies on, it's lasting longer than the others, and is staying more civil!