Once too often......

[teamsaint]

JLW feels an "over familiarity" thread coming on.

Well who are we to argue?
So what piece has somehow been spoiled for you, or have you spoiled for yourself?
Ok, bound to turn into a bit of "Breakfast" bashing but somebody must have a good story.

For me, its Mendelssohn #4. Never really recovered from being an O level piece. I can just about listen and kind of enjoy, but it will never be the same.

[Petrushka]

Coincidentally, it was the first movement of the Mendelssohn Italian that I associate so much with my school music teacher circa 1968 on account of his endlessly playing it on the record player. He was very fond of Petrushka as well so a seed must have been sown somewhere. Never been able to rid myself of the M4 association, I'm afraid and doubt now if I ever will.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

George Lloyd, Symphony no 8.




Heard it once.


("Harpsichords and Irritating Period Pianos", indeed!)

[robk]

Sheherazade. It was the only LP that the school music society had. Fortunately we sometimes had good visiting speakers that introduced me to Das Lied von der Erde & Bluebeard's Castle.

[EdgeleyRob]

George Lloyd, Symphony no 8.




Heard it once.


("Harpsichords and Irritating Period Pianos", indeed!)

You win.

[Pabmusic]

George Lloyd, Symphony no 8.
Heard it once.

Why not a thread about GL - then we could say what we really think.

("Harpsichords and Irritating Period Pianos", indeed!)

Priceless!

[cloughie]

My Room 101 candidates

Bolero - no surprise there
Sibelius VC - increasingly scrapy 20th Century Violin music seems to annoy me - Berg, Bartok and Shostakovich and maybe Prokofiev VCs hae a similar effect - maybe I'll come back to them, who knows? but if not there's so much more to explore.
Elgar CC - over-exposed, doesn't excite me anymore - his VC still does, as do the Symphonies.
Isn't musical taste so subjective and a joy as a result.

[Beef Oven]

My Room 101 candidates

Bolero - no surprise there
Sibelius VC - increasingly scrapy 20th Century Violin music seems to annoy me - Berg, Bartok and Shostakovich and maybe Prokofiev VCs hae a similar effect - maybe I'll come back to them, who knows? but if not there's so much more to explore.
Elgar CC - over-exposed, doesn't excite me anymore - his VC still does, as do the Symphonies.
Isn't musical taste so subjective and a joy as a result.

You are a very controversial fellow Cloughie! I'm convinced that you are joking about Berg and Bartok VCs.

[cloughie]

You are a very controversial fellow Cloughie! I'm convinced that you are joking about Berg and Bartok VCs.

I take that as a compliment Beefy. I'll not deny that the Berg and Bartok are great music but I don't want to hear them for now...

[Beef Oven]

I take that as a compliment Beefy. I'll not deny that the Berg and Bartok are great music but I don't want to hear them for now...

[jayne lee wilson]

Ah, My Ever Changing Moods...

One thing is the early purchase of vinyl - of LPs. I got Klemperer's Bruckner 5th and 9th (with that stunning clouds/sky design) and now they're virtually exhausted of emotion for me... the 5th's finale can still work - but I wouldn't play it on its own, so it can seem hard work getting there. The 9th came back to life with Rattle's recording of the version with finale (After playing the finale on its own several times) but now it's shelved again...

I nearly wore out Solti's Mahler 6, and Mahler 6 itself - the muddy sound on the LP forced me into repeated listening to get the hang of it! Luckily the Karajan arrived to refresh my responses, then Haitink and others...
Two recent, intense concert experiences of Mahler 5th may force me to ignore the Proms one...

Le Sacre? Probably just tuning in to R3 too often, whenever it was on, I only ever borrowed the library's Columbia IS one...

It can be mysterious. The Bartok Vn. CTo 2 seems a bit used up now, yet none of the Piano Concertos do. The 3rd was in the freezer for a while, now I love it again.
Or a cycle like the Sibelius is de-familiarised through a new-to-you recording...

But this year I find I need new or unfamiliar music much more, to find again the excitement of discovery - hence Dutilleux, Lutoslawski, Holmboe, Petrassi and just now.... Milhaud.

[Pabmusic]

...a cycle like the Sibelius is de-familiarised through a new-to-you recording...

Yes indeed. And I have many recordings that fall into this group, not necessarily complete sets but single recordings. The music is hardly diminished by being more easily available - if the performance is special. It might become more difficult with time to find a new 'special' recording (and this might itself lead one to question whether it's worth looking any more) but that is because you already have heard many that satisfy you.

There's another aspect, too. It would be easy to say that something like (to pick a classic example) The Lark Ascending has lost its edge by being played too often. But I discovered The Lark Ascending in about 1966 from a radio programme hosted by Steve Race - it wasn't recommended to me; I just heard it and loved it. I can recall that clearly. So my feelings about the piece are bound up with the memories of first encountering it. That is largely unaffected by its present popularity (if anything, there's regret about the popularity simply because more people are in on the secret!). If I don't rush to acquire another copy, it's because I know that I have enough to satisfy already.

There are pieces I find boring, but it's not usually because they are overly familiar.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For me, its Mendelssohn #4. Never really recovered from being an O level piece. I can just about listen and kind of enjoy, but it will never be the same.

For that reason I feel the same about Brahms 2nd, Dvorak's 7th, Purcell's Dido and even Beethoven's Violin Concerto - all great works, but I rarely listen to them.

[Hornspieler]

Shostakovitch #10.

Since Dudamel's Prom with the Simon Bolivar Youth(sic) Orchestra, even the local village orchestra seems to want to have a go at it.

For me, one of the composer's least impressive works, but I could enjoy #1,5,6,8 and 9 as often as you would like to play them for me.

HS

[cloughie]

That is largely unaffected by its present popularity (if anything, there's regret about the popularity simply because more people are in on the secret!).

Very selfish, but I know exactly what you mean Faure and Ravel's Pavanes are in that bracket for me. Also as someone who objects to the bleeding chunk approach on R3, I find I have a contradiction in my mind. As time goes by I find that I like the first three movements of Beethoven 9 more and more whereas the finale resides in Room 101.