Extremely annoying pieces of classical music

[3rd Viennese School]

If you dont want to hear the lark ascending try turning your Radio over from classic FM!

3VS

[ahinton]

If you dont want to hear the lark ascending try turning your Radio over from classic FM!

Or simply switch off altogether! As someone once said to me, "I have no objection to RVW's lark but do wish that it would fly away rather than merely going around in circles". Perhaps anyone fed up with this piece should try David Matthews's chamber arrangement of it. That said, pretty much any piece might start to generate at least some degree of annoyance in some listeners if it's broadcast disproportionately often (think Bartók re Shostakovich 7, to cite a relatively early example)...

[Bryn]

(think Bartók re Shostakovich 7, to cite a relatively early example)...

Tut, tut, Mr. Hinton. Surely you are aware that both composers are now more widely held to have been referencing Hitler's avowed love for Lehar's Da geh' ich zu Maxim.

[ahinton]

Tut, tut, Mr. Hinton. Surely you are aware that both composers are now more widely held to have been referencing Hitler's avowed love for Lehar's Da geh' ich zu Maxim.

Sure, but does that really detract from the principle of the thing? I don't think so, sir! Odd also, is not it, how the opening theme of the Eighth Symphony begins with what migbht be heard as a flip side of the opening of that oft-repeatd one in the Leningrad (and I can''t now remember who it was that described the Leningrad as on the somethingth degree of longitude and the last degree of platitude, can you? - I think that Sorabji quoted it rather than coined it himself)...

[3rd Viennese School]

The 8th symphony starts with Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony.

8VS

[ahinton]

The 8th symphony starts with Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony.

Yes, I know! I meant the first theme of the 8th, not the actual beginning; sorry!

[3rd Viennese School]

both symphonies of which, are not annoying.

Nor is Shostakovich 7 except mvt 3 and bits of mvt 4 and the end of it but thats cause it drags and drags. But mvt 1 is a masterpiece.

7VS

[Nick Armstrong]

Tchaikovsky's "Francesca da Rimini"

[vinteuil]

Tchaikovsky's "Francesca da Rimini"

... some of us just say -

Tchaikovsky...

[amateur51]

Tchaikovsky

- a deeply emotional man who wrote passionate music that reflected his own tortured life?

OR

- a self-absorbed old poof who wrote great tunes?

I LIKE Tchaikovsky's music, me

[Serial_Apologist]

- a self-absorbed old poof who wrote great tunes?

I LIKE Tchaikovsky's music, me

These two statements don't match up, Ams!

[vinteuil]

Tchaikovsky
- a deeply emotional man who wrote passionate music that reflected his own tortured life?OR
- a self-absorbed old poof who wrote great tunes?
I LIKE Tchaikovsky's music, me

... well, Ams - I s'pose I don't 'relate' to passionate music - an' certainly not to tortured lives - and for me "great tunes" is the least of it...

[amateur51]

These two statements don't match up, Ams!

well done!

[John Skelton]

You are not an admirer of Gesualdo di Venosa, vinteuil?

[vinteuil]

You are not an admirer of Gesualdo di Venosa, vinteuil?

... well spotted, John Skelton - as it happens, no, I don't care for the extremes of Gesualdo. Just 'cos I like 'old things' doesn't mean I like ALL old things!

But perhaps a deeper point you were making is pertinent - yes, I do 'relate' to the emotions in JS Bach - and to the transient passions in CPE Bach - and to the Empfindlichkeit in Mozart - and the Sehnsucht in Schubert - it's the vulgarity in Tchaikovsky I find intollewobble...