Five Pieces you would be happy to never hear again

[LMcD]

Probably of minmal interest!

[Bella Kemp]

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 .

For me there are pieces that have simply worn out - and my initial list would match Alan Bennet's quite closely.But recently I chanced upon the recordings of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and Mozart's 40th that I heard first of all (Klemperer and Furtwangler respectively) and it was a revelation. For so long these works had become tired and unimaginative to my jaded ears, and then suddenly I heard them again as if for the first time and something of that initial pure joy flooded back.

[pastoralguy]

For me there are pieces that have simply worn out - and my initial list would match Alan Bennet's quite closely.But recently I chanced upon the recordings of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and Mozart's 40th that I heard first of all (Klemperer and Furtwangler respectively) and it was a revelation. For so long these works had become tired and unimaginative to my jaded ears, and then suddenly I heard them again as if for the first time and something of that initial pure joy flooded back.

I've always felt that the Pastoral symphony is the most difficult to bring off convincingly in a cycle. All that F Major and a second movement that can, in the wrong hands, be interminable. The Klemperer Philharmonia recording is extremely good indeed and I'm delighted you've found that particular performance.

Mozart 40? Well, for me, even conducted badly it can pack a punch.

[DracoM]

Enigma Variations
Dream of Gerontius
- my top 2

[MrGongGong]

Enigma Variations
Dream of Gerontius
- my top 2

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Enigma Variations
Dream of Gerontius
- my top 2

If you ever get an unwanted ticket, please let me know.

[DracoM]

Yes, indeed! I DO realise that such a pair of dislikes might just raise eyebrows!!

[Alison]

I see the Rattle VPO Gerontius is on the wireless next week

[Zucchini]

What's a wireless?

[ahinton]

What's a wireless?

A device without wires, I guess; as best I recall, member Sydney Grew used to mention them de temps en temps when he posted here...

[Alison]

A device without wires, I guess; as best I recall, member Sydney Grew used to mention them de temps en temps when he posted here...

[french frank]

A device without wires, I guess;

I don't think so. The wirelesses I remember, like the one we had in our village school, had all sorts of valves, funny noises - and wires coming out of it.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I see the Rattle VPO Gerontius is on the wireless next week

I wonder whether they have sorted out the amateurish compressed dynamic range. I hope so because there were some great things about this performance.

[Bella Kemp]

'All that F major'! - perhaps we should start a new thread on keys we simply despise!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

'All that F major'! - perhaps we should start a new thread on keys we simply despise!

That's easy: B Flat major.