Extremely annoying pieces of classical music

[3rd Viennese School]

Performance on 3 got good a few weeks ago (DSCH 7, Proko 6 et all....)

And then recently its gone bad again.

Awful concert arias, boring boring songs etc.

And Classic MF hasnt been any better, broadcasting some awful violin concetos by who ever.

I've been clearing up in total silence recently!

3VS

[Roehre]

Weak?? Oh no!!!

Always need to have the Kleenex nearby.

I know that feeling, but that still doesn't make An Oxford Elegy a really strong work, I'm afraid.

[vinteuil]

Performance on 3 got good a few weeks ago (DSCH 7, Proko 6 et all....)
And then recently its gone bad again.
Awful concert arias, boring boring songs etc.

3VS

... ah well, there you have it. One man's "got good" probably equals another's "got bad".

For me, Shostakovitch or Prokofiev ( - to be honest, almost all Russians... ) would be a distinct 'turn-off'...

[Stanfordian]

Isn't the Toy Symphony Wolfgang Mozart's daddy?

3VS

I was of the opinion that it was by Michael Haydn. But you may be right with Mozart's father. Who composed the 'Toy Symphony' is a matter of conjecture it seems. It's still awful in my view.

[Stanfordian]

In addition to the 'Toy Symphony' I think that there are only two other works that I would turn the radio immediately off for and they are: Beethoven's 'Wellington's Victory' ('The Battle of Vitoria') and Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture' with the canon and motar effects.

I listen to a wide range of music from early music to many contemporary offerings yet for some reason there a few works that I’m not too keen on, although, I can’t necessarily say why. Although I generally love most of Schubert’s works his ‘Wind Octet’ is one work that I have heard once too often in concert and I now avoid it. Another is Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s ‘Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise’; that contrived drunken piper part drives me mad. Max’s piano piece ‘Farewell to Stromness’ now that Classic FM have got hold of it in their ‘Hall of Fame’ just grates on me with repeated hearings. However, I don’t mind hearing Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ in concert every now and then. By playing certain movements over and over again Classic FM are doing their best to kill for me works such as the slow movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto; Vaughan Williams’s ‘Tallis Fantasia’ and the slow movement of Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’.

[3rd Viennese School]

so used to Radio 3 playing xxxx again that I didnt turn Po3 on until later on.

And missed the best bits of DSCH 5! That 1st mvt! I like mvt 1, and I missed it!!



No. Hang on.

Hang on. Here it comes.

[Roehre]

I listen to a wide range of music from early music to many contemporary offerings yet for some reason there a few works that I’m not too keen on, although, I can’t necessarily say why.

Stanfordian, I do think this is an experience all of us on these boards share.
And quite often it is our own inclination which causes some works being less favourably "judged", even though many times these are undisputed masterworks: heard too often, heard in some (unfavourable) circumstances which now consciously or unconsciously play a part in our appreciation, etc.

[Barbirollians]

Britten Spring Symphony - after many years away from it I tried again today - no I cannot stick it !

[Ferretfancy]

Britten Spring Symphony - after many years away from it I tried again today - no I cannot stick it !

Agreed. it's a curiously cold, rather calculating work which I can never get into. Some of the solo work reminds me of Dudley Moore in his famous parody in Beyond the Fringe.

[Stanfordian]

Agreed. it's a curiously cold, rather calculating work which I can never get into. Some of the solo work reminds me of Dudley Moore in his famous parody in Beyond the Fringe.

Hello Barbirollians & Ferretfancy,

I am in full accord Britten's Spring Symphony leaves me cold. Maybe hearing it performed in concert would change my view.

The Franck Symphonic Variations and Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn don’t do anything for me either. Generally I have a very wide interest in music but in truth for some reason most sets of variations leave me cold.

[Nick Armstrong]

Franck Symphonic Variations

A true stinker!

[Barbirollians]

A true stinker!

Clifford Curzon's version is worth a try and comes with his legendary Brahms 1 with Szell .

[Nick Armstrong]

Clifford Curzon's version is worth a try and comes with his legendary Brahms 1 with Szell .

It's beyond redemption, I'm afraid, even with Sir Clifford's intercession.

[EdgeleyRob]

Hello Barbirollians & Ferretfancy,

I am in full accord Britten's Spring Symphony leaves me cold. Maybe hearing it performed in concert would change my view.

The Franck Symphonic Variations and Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn don’t do anything for me either. Generally I have a very wide interest in music but in truth for some reason most sets of variations leave me cold.

Agreed. it's a curiously cold, rather calculating work which I can never get into. Some of the solo work reminds me of Dudley Moore in his famous parody in Beyond the Fringe.

Britten Spring Symphony - after many years away from it I tried again today - no I cannot stick it !

No way Jose.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I'm afraid I largely agree on the Britten Spring Symphony, I find it amongst his least inspired works, rather cold and almost manufactured, a precursor to a number of similarly 'cold' works from the 1960's.