Instruments you struggle with

[visualnickmos]

[QUOTE=Barbirollians;630102]

Not Dennis Brain ?

Well - I only have his Mozarts - and to be honest, something about his playing doesn't quite do it for me..... maybe just a bit too perfect, that it loses something? I'm not really qualified to talk about how 'good' or otherwise players are! Just what I hear I suppose.... another debate, this one....

[Richard Barrett]

Instruments I struggle with? No, there aren't any. I find it a very odd concept. If music is written for some particular instrument and you don't like it how it sounds played on that instrument then you don't like that music. Music consists (principally) of sounds, and those sounds are made (principally) by instruments. Take the harpsichord for example. Bach liked the sound of it very much indeed, I think it can be assumed, and therefore if someone "doesn't like the sound of it" there's something about Bach and his music they're always going to miss out on, which seems a shame.

[Rolmill]

Astonished that we've got this far without any mention of bagpipes. Especially as the OP doesn't restrict the scope to musical instruments...

[pastoralguy]

Astonished that we've got this far without any mention of bagpipes. Especially as the OP doesn't restrict the scope to musical instruments...

The problem with bagpipes is that there are many mediocre players. If they are played extremely well they can be very moving although I do feel they are Instruments best heard outside.

[jayne lee wilson]

I have come to the conclusion that I really do not warm to the sound of a harpsichord . I have Rousset's excellent recording of the Goldberg Variations and I admire it but I don't love it unlike the piano recordings I have .

As a continuo instrument even in Fifth Brandenburg fine - but as a solo instrument no .

Any instrument that you dislike the sound of - and I don't mean things like a washboard .

And any recommendations of great harpsichord discs that might convert a sceptic ?

What about Aimée van der Wiele's big Pleyel number in the 1958 Paris/Dervaux version of the Poulenc Concert Champêtre...?
Or the crazy fun which is the Gorecki Concerto, perhaps after a few drinks...?

[MickyD]

I'm afraid I found myself thinking how good that might sound on the piano. Sorry, MickyD, I really am beyond all hope of redemption.

Never mind...in fact I agree, it DOES sound fantastic on the piano as well - here it is in what I think is a splendid rendition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQqfrnEvCRQ&index=5&list=FLBc5HbFSu_TDvzxC8-xga4Q

[verismissimo]

Should we consider renaming this thread? Bigots Corner?

[Bryn]

Should we consider renaming this thread? Bigots Corner?

No. After all, mp3 has a problem with harpsichords too. I have a bit of a problem with Steinways (too even in timbre for music written for what, by convention, we now call fortepianos).

[MrGongGong]

Not Dennis Brain ?

Arkady Shilkloper or Pip Eastop ?

[cloughie]

I don't think I totally dislike harpsichords but maybe but whether its my concentration span or perhaps just the length of time my ears can take the battering. Probably about 20 - 30 minutes of solo harpsichord is the max, the bagpipes slightly less, banjo similarly, particularly in a trad jazz context, and a samba band 10 seconds is excessive!

[Barbirollians]

I don't dislike the fortepiano just some performances on it . For example when David Owen Norris did K482 on BAL I thought the Brautigam was much better than the winner ( Bilson ) .

[cloughie]

Instruments I struggle with? No, there aren't any. I find it a very odd concept. If music is written for some particular instrument and you don't like it how it sounds played on that instrument then you don't like that music. Music consists (principally) of sounds, and those sounds are made (principally) by instruments. Take the harpsichord for example. Bach liked the sound of it very much indeed, I think it can be assumed, and therefore if someone "doesn't like the sound of it" there's something about Bach and his music they're always going to miss out on, which seems a shame.

That is a very personal view and I cannot agree. I love Bach's music and it is versatile enough to be adapted to many arrangements, instruments and interpretations and I suspect from many comments below that the dislike of the harpsichord does not in anyway detract from their appreciation of his music. After all I got to know many baroque works on modern instruments and with larger forces before the HIPP interpretations became the preferred sound of many listeners. Just because I was not wowed by the new 'original' sound does not mean I do not appreciate Bach as a composer more that my ears prefer a 'smoother' sound and yes I do find modern string sound better than the often emaciated sound of original instruments.

[Richard Tarleton]

The problem with bagpipes is that there are many mediocre players. If they are played extremely well they can be very moving although I do feel they are Instruments best heard outside.

Indeed. The sound of the highland bagpipes can be stirring, moving, inspiring, according to what's being played and where. To stir the blood in war, as an accompaniment to marching or dancing, moving laments, the pipes can do them all. Here's an interview with Bill Millin, Lord Lovat's personal piper who played on the beach at D Day and subsequently on the Commandos' march to relieve the Paras at Pegasus Bridge, a modest hero. General Havelock's Highlanders, relieving Lucknow....Dinna ye hear them, etc... En masse, lone pipers - I love the bagpipes. I wonder if there's a gene for it (Highland ancestry on one side of the family).

That was a sketch that might have suited the Goodies, or Monty Python - Lord Lovat's personal harpsichordist....

[Hornspieler]

That is a very personal view and I cannot agree. I love Bach's music and it is versatile enough to be adapted to many arrangements, instruments and interpretations and I suspect from many comments below that the dislike of the harpsichord does not in anyway detract from their appreciation of his music. After all I got to know many baroque works on modern instruments and with larger forces before the HIPP interpretations became the preferred sound of many listeners. Just because I was not wowed by the new 'original' sound does not mean I do not appreciate Bach as a composer more that my ears prefer a 'smoother' sound and yes I do find modern string sound better than the often emaciated sound of original instruments.

Shawms, Rackets, Crumhorns, Viols, Bagpipes and Harmonicas

All candidates for Room 101 (in my admittedly prejudiced view)

HS

[Richard Tarleton]

Bagpipes
All candidates for Room 101 (in my admittedly prejudiced view)

No Scottish DNA then, HS?