Five Pieces you would be happy to never hear again

[Barbirollians]

Reading Alan Bennett's most recent volume of diaries on one day he mentions ( and I think they may have turned up on his Private Passions ) that he would be happy to never hear again .

They were

Schubert Symphony No 5
Beethoven Symphony No 6
Rimsky Korsakov Scheherazade
Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
Mozart Symphony No 40

He added it's not that I have heard them too often I just don't care for them .

Though when on Private Passions he did suggest he may have heard the Pastoral too often and said he loved Schubert but found the Fifth Symphony too saccharine .

I suspect for most of us not getting on with a piece of music is just that they don't trigger an emotional response in you rather than by musicological analysis finding faults of construction in a piece .

I was prompted to think we're there five pieces of central repertoire that I just don't care for despite trying . I came up with

Bruckner 5 - unlike just about everything else he wrote well maybe not the study symphony it just does nothing for me and seems to go on for ever even in the Jochum Tahra account

Wagner Das Rheingold I would rather just read the synopsis and get on to Die Walkure

Bartok's String Quartets - I have tried and have two complete sets both seem excellent but they just are hard work

Orff Carmina Burana - I cannot abide it end of story even without knowing about the unpleasant composer

Until I heard the Horenstein I would have added Mahler 8 as even Solti's hands it just didn't hang together .

So my fifth choice would be Stravinsky's Les Noces - in fact I don't really like any of his vocal works .

What are yours ? Can you identify why you don't care for them - with the exception of Pictures I would be very sorry not to hear any of Mr Bennett's list again .

[Stanfordian]

Amusing the first time heard:
a) Rossini ‘Cat Duet’ – Meoow, meoow
b) Leopold Mozart ‘Toy Symphony’ – Cuckoo, cuckoo
c) Peter Maxwell Davies ‘An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise’ – The overused drunken wedding device and that bloody awful piper.
d) Beethoven ‘Wellington’s Victory’ – Too much bombast!
Over familiarity:
e) Berlioz's spectacular ‘Symphonie fantastique’ – I respect the work but I have attended far too many performances.

[pastoralguy]

Amusing the first time heard:
a) Rossini ‘Cat Duet’ – Meoow, meoow
b) Leopold Mozart ‘Toy Symphony’ – Cuckoo, cuckoo
c) Peter Maxwell Davies ‘An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise’ – The overused drunken wedding device and that bloody awful piper.
d) Beethoven ‘Wellington’s Victory’ – Too much bombast!
Over familiarity:
e) Berlioz's spectacular ‘Symphonie fantastique’ – I respect the work but I have attended far too many performances.

I'm with you on the first three, Stan but would substitute...

d. Gluck's Melodie. Just so mawkish.

e. Bruckner's Eighth Symphony. Yes, I know it's one of the crowning glories of Western Civilisation but it bores me to stone! And I've heard some top class performances from Wand and Abbado but it leaves me cold. My loss, I suppose.

[Ferretfancy]

Almost anything by Khachaturyan , a worthless composer IMHP, but especially Spartacus because I worked on the Onedin Line series and had to hear the bloody piece over and over again.

Vivaldi The Seasons, especially when on hold.

Mozart Piano Concerto K467 slow movement 'Elvira Madigan ' again especially when on hold.

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition. This must have been the first Proms season when it didn't get played

Finally , Mahler symphonies 6, 7, 8 & 9 plus the unfinished No. 10. Concentrated neurosis, too tiresome to bother with.

PS I've just noticed that Ilan Volkov conducted Pictures with the BBC SO on 26th July - he should have known better.

[pastoralguy]

Oddly enough Ff, Vivaldi's most popular work would have been on my list until about a year ago. I used to play them ad-nauseam when I played in a small string group that used to tour them every year. After it disbanded I couldn't bear to hear them but I've come back to them recently and enjoy their descriptive properties.

[makropulos]

Tough to do but a bit of fun. Here are five of my possible contenders:
Berlioz: Harold in Italy
Beethoven: Mass in C
Busoni: Doktor Faust
Berg: Chamber Concerto
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez

[Pulcinella]

Only five?
There's loads of stuff I'd be happy never to hear again: most Proms commissions for starters.
Mind you, most of them may well never get a second performance anyway, so maybe I need not worry.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Mahler: Symphony No 3
Mahler: Symphony No 8
Shapero: Symphony for Classical Orchestra
Britten: The Golden Vanity
Faure: Apres un reve

[Bryn]

Blumine when mistakenly placed out of context in Mahler's 1896 1st Symphony.
What Orff did with/to Carmina Burana.
The Adagio of Mahler's 10th in its Krenek-Schalk/Zemlinsky version.
Most of Philip Glass's music composed after 1984.
The trinity of big choral works by Elgar.

[Richard Barrett]

Blumine when mistakenly placed out of context in Mahler's 1896 1st Symphony.

Oh come on Bryn, it's OK now and again.

Five pieces? That's a tough one. Five composers any of whose works I would be happy not to hear again? Much easier. I won't include any living composers since there's always some small chance that they'll come up with something new and different. Anyway: Elgar, Delius, Britten, Rachmaninov, Smetana, Saint-Saëns, Reger. Oops, that's six.

[Nick Armstrong]

Oops, that's six.

Seven actually!

I'm having trouble getting down to 5 too...

[Bryn]

Oh come on Bryn, it's OK now and again ...

I have no problem at all with it in the context of the Budapest or Hamburg versions of the Symphonic-Poem in 2 Parts, 'Titan'. It's placing it between the re-orchestrated first and second movements of the 1896 1st Symphony that I would rather not hear again. Fine on its own, too.

[Richard Barrett]

Seven actually!

Blame my unquenchable enthusiasm.

[Petrushka]

What are yours ?

None. I don't have any. There might be the odd piece here and there that I don't particularly care for (eg Liszt PC1 & 2, RVW Sea Symphony) but I would never say that I don't want to hear them again. The trick in avoiding over-familiarity is to steer clear of some pieces for a while then go back to them.

On the whole I'd much rather hear of boarder's enthusiasms than negative reactions to pieces I love! One or two of you have dropped a notch or two in my estimation with your nominations

[Barbirollians]

None. I don't have any. There might be the odd piece here and there that I don't particularly care for (eg Liszt PC1 & 2, RVW Sea Symphony) but I would never say that I don't want to hear them again. The trick in avoiding over-familiarity is to steer clear of some pieces for a while then go back to them.

On the whole I'd much rather hear of boarder's enthusiasms than negative reactions to pieces I love! One or two of you have dropped a notch or two in my estimation with your nominations

With the exception of Carmina Burana I am sure it is my problem rather than the composer's !