Extremely annoying pieces of classical music

[Mr Pee]

"For a long time the music of Berlioz remained a sealed book to me. Each person comes to a particular composer in his or her own way and time; no rules govern the processes of musical discovery. But circumstances of cultural climate and environment may delay it. The more conditioned we are to the music we know, the more, unconsciously, we expect the unfamiliar to approximate to it. Bruckner's formal designs are usually incomprehensible, to begin with, to someone accustomed to Brahms's; and most people know Brahms's symphonies before they encounter Bruckner's. There are musicians and music-lovers who are drawn to Berlioz's music irresistibly and for whom its idiosyncrasies of style are no barrier; in their deepest being it sounds a note of instant recognition. To many others it seems alien when they first hear it and perhaps for long afterwards, as it did to me. I was brought up from the age of eight or nine in the German tradition: first Bach, then a few years later Beethoven, finally Brahms. Composers not squarely in that tradition were assimilated with difficulty at all. (Even Mozart seemed trivial.) I remember, one day when I was in my early twenties, my sister coming home in great excitement with a recording of the Fantastic Symphony that she had just heard. She insisted on my listening to it then and there. It made absolutely no sense to me.
Nearly ten years passed before anything occurred to change this attitude. [...] Gradually ... the barriers fell away and enlightenment dawned - until I realized with delight that the language which ten years before had been so much gibberish to my musical understanding had become familiar and made sense, thrilling, unimagined sense after all."

from the 'Prologue' to David Cairns: "Berlioz - The Making of an Artist"

In my case, actually, it's worked the other way round. When I was younger, I quite liked Berlioz, and listened to it a lot. Now, as I stagger through mid-life, I find it almost totally devoid of any musical interest, although the "March to the Scaffold" is quite fun in a tub-thumping sort of way.

His music is cleverly orchestrated, and often very imaginative, but it just doesn't engage me I'm afraid.

Which is probably as incomprehensible to a Berliozian as a dislike of Elgar's music is to me.

[Chris Newman]

I find that Elgar's music has stayed the course with me and still thrills over 50 years later. With Berlioz the vocal music grows and grows on me: song cycles, operas, cantatas and separate songs are magical. The excitement of the orchestral music: well, maybe I have overdone it. I get too over-critical with performances of Symphonie Fantastique.

[Mandryka]

Thanks Ahinton - and good to see your post! - with apologies for my carelessness, which was due to my being inexplicably logged off the board, and worried about losing my place when I returned.

Yes - Lento by Skempton, of course, NOT Adagio or for that matter anything else by Tim Souster, for me much missed (RIP).

BTW can you (or anyone) recommend a GOOD recording of Pelleas und Melisande? My copy is the admittedly mono 1965 CBS version with the CBC under Craft, "liner notes" as it were by the composer, and his cover portrait by Kokoschka. Pretty definitive one might think, but one is always open to re-persuasion.

S-A

In order to select a Pelleas...that will do for you, you're going to have to engage in the big 'is it possible to perform this opera with non-Francophone singers?' debate. As I tend to listen to the orchetra in Pelleas, rather than the voices, I would tend to go for either the Karajan or Abbado recordings, both of which have their fans. If French singers are an absolute necessity, you may have to reconcile yourself to mono sound and go for noe of the sets recorded in the 40s/50s.

[Chris Newman]

In order to select a Pelleas...that will do for you, you're going to have to engage in the big 'is it possible to perform this opera with non-Francophone singers?' debate. As I tend to listen to the orchetra in Pelleas, rather than the voices, I would tend to go for either the Karajan or Abbado recordings, both of which have their fans. If French singers are an absolute necessity, you may have to reconcile yourself to mono sound and go for noe of the sets recorded in the 40s/50s.

I think when S-A talks of Pelleas and mentions Craft he means the Schoenberg version. My favourite of this has long been Sir John Barbirolli closely followed by Herbert von Karajan. I often grumble about Herbie's lush wallows in Baroque, Classical and Romantic music (Wagner and Brahms) but when he conducted 20th Century music (Sibelius, Holst, Schoenberg, Webern....and... er....Lehar) he found a strange perfection.

With Debussy, there are so many moving performances but i agree with Mandryka perfection comes in early mono performances.

[Cellini]

Ha ha, no, I was suggesting that it was viola parts that were so undemanding that little or no practice is necessary

Seriously, though, I would like to place on record that cellists think violas are wonderful -- when you're sitting in the strings you can really hear the violas knitting everything together

Since you raise Mozart, I was hesitating to say this on the thread about R3's Total Immersion season, but I will anyway -- I don't think Mozart had any interest in cellos, and the parts are usually pretty boring to play. The way I think of it is that it's a bloody good job the music sounds so wonderful

I'm not so keen on violas anymore, myself ... they are OK as long as I don't have to play one, which I refuse to do now.

The problem with cellists and Mozart quartets is that cellists should go the extra mile to make the parts sound interesting, as the cello in a quartet is the foundation, and everything else bounces off that bass part.

[Uncle Monty]

The problem with cellists and Mozart quartets is that cellists should go the extra mile to make the parts sound interesting, as the cello in a quartet is the foundation, and everything else bounces off that bass part.

Absolutely. What's the point of being passive in a quartet?!

[3rd Viennese School]

Schoenberg Pelleas would be okay if it wasn’t 40 minutes long. I liked hearing the first 15 minutes that I recorded before my tape came to the end. I was less enthusiastic when I heard the full length version.

Anyway, here are some more irritating pieces that are irritating and are designed to irritate.

That opera football one Pavarotti that was in the charts in 1990. Ugh!
Go compare
All other operas except Prokofiev and Berg and Shoshtakovich.

3VS

[Serial_Apologist]

I think when S-A talks of Pelleas and mentions Craft he means the Schoenberg version. My favourite of this has long been Sir John Barbirolli closely followed by Herbert von Karajan. I often grumble about Herbie's lush wallows in Baroque, Classical and Romantic music (Wagner and Brahms) but when he conducted 20th Century music (Sibelius, Holst, Schoenberg, Webern....and... er....Lehar) he found a strange perfection.

With Debussy, there are so many moving performances but i agree with Mandryka perfection comes in early mono performances.

Chris

Thanks for clarifying on my behalf. Most kind

S-A

[Nick Armstrong]

I realised this morning what an annoying, banal piece Rimsky's 'Capriccio Espagnol' is... Put me in quite a bad mood, before I switched the repetitive nonsense off!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Go compare

Now that really IS annoying and does classical music - opera in particular - no favours at all.

[rauschwerk]

I note with interest that Caruso recorded Over There, the song of which Go Compare parodies. It's not so much the song, or the way it's sung by Wynne Evans, that gets to me - it's the silly hair and moustache.

[Nick Armstrong]

It's not so much the song, or the way it's sung by Wynne Evans, that gets to me - it's the silly hair and moustache.

I agree with Alps - it's everything. Those ads are now the subject of a reward at home for whoever can get to the TV or remote first, to switch off / over / mute before the wretched singing starts. In addition I delete furiously any pop-up or email flogging 'go-compare' 's services, renewing my solemn oath never to have anything to do with them (but then that goes for any advertiser who infests my surfing with pop-ups).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I note with interest that Caruso recorded Over There, the song of which Go Compare parodies. It's not so much the song, or the way it's sung by Wynne Evans, that gets to me - it's the silly hair and moustache.

But it's so much better with Caruso singing.

[salymap]

I realised this morning what an annoying, banal piece Rimsky's 'Capriccio Espagnol' is... Put me in quite a bad mood, before I switched the repetitive nonsense off!

I do agree about this Caliban, especially the opening which gives me a 'sinking heart' sort of feeling.It was played a lot at concerts years ago and I was trapped in my seat and had to listen.

[barber olly]

I realised this morning what an annoying, banal piece Rimsky's 'Capriccio Espagnol' is... Put me in quite a bad mood, before I switched the repetitive nonsense off!

I think it goes on my list of works, whilst not bad music, I really don't like much anymore. The annoying thing is that many of these I have many versions on my shelves, largely because the couplings were attractive.