Unpopular Opinions

[Madiel]

 

[James]

Time to commit virtual suicide here:

I find 95% of opera cheesy (not the good kind) and cringey. As a composer, it's not a genre I'm drawn to either 

Fret not, most of it is in fact a total waste of time.

And btw, Mozart is a vastly over-rated bore. Ditto the sickening melodramatic cheese that is Beethoven.

[Artran]

GASP!

Do you at least care about bitrate??

Yep, everything above 192 is fine.

[Karl Henning]

(* chortle *)

[North Star]

G'day, Karl!

Yep, everything above 192 is fine.

That's like saying 'yes, I worry about getting bald - but it's fine as long as I have at least 192 hairs.'

[Madiel]

Yep, everything above 192 is fine.

Phew. Okay, you're basically sane.

[Artran]

Welp, in all honesty, I've Audio Technica ATH-W1000 with headphone amplifier. So I cared once about sound quality. But one day I've compared one of my CD's played on my CD player with my expansive headphones and the exact same recordings on Spotify with standard headphones Sennheiser PX 100-II and the difference was so small (for me), that I've just stop cared about sound and started to listen music again.

[James]

the difference was so small, that I've just stop caring about sound and started to listen music again.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Every year I listen to Mozart's Requiem convinced that the overwhelming emotion and genius will finally connect with me. And, if the past 45 minutes is any indication, every year I get so freaking bored. I couldn't wait for it to end. Did nothing at all for me.

At best it's only half by Mozart. Some superb sections, but much of it was actually written by his pupil Süssmayr who botched several of the movements. Stay with the C minor mass (even though also a fragment) if you want Mozart's church music at its best; no one else tried to "finish" it.

[Madiel]

Welp, in all honesty, I've Audio Technica ATH-W1000 with headphone amplifier. So I cared once about sound quality. But one day I've compared one of my CD's played on my CD player with my expansive headphones and the exact same recordings on Spotify with standard headphones Sennheiser PX 100-II and the difference was so small (for me), that I've just stop cared about sound and started to listen music again.

Yeah, I think there is a point after which the differences become really small. But I also remember having a chance to compare a CD to some mp3s I bought and in that case, the CD was clearly better. So lossless might not be necessary, but you still need a half-decent format!

Also Sennheisers aren't exactly bad headphones either!

[Jo498]

Fret not, most of it is in fact a total waste of time.

And btw, Mozart is a vastly over-rated bore. Ditto the sickening melodramatic cheese that is Beethoven.

"Und ging hinaus und wei-hei-hei-hei-hei-hei-nete bitterlich!"

[Rons_talking]

It bothers me when composers insert vocals into a symphony. In particular, when the finale has individual vocalists pop out of nowhere and take over the orchestra. I realize that many great composers do this, and that more than a few masterworks make use of late-inning vocals, but to me, it destroys the balance and integrity of the music. It is as if the work has lost steam and requires vocals to keep the audience in their seats. From Beethoven to Mahler to Bernstein, many have done it. Obviously, some works have vocals strung throughout (Gorecki, Stravinsky SOPsalms) and that doesn't bother me; I have different ears for those works. But just as a matter of principle, I prefer symphonic music remain symphonic...

[Mahlerian]

It bothers me when composers insert vocals into a symphony. In particular, when the finale has individual vocalists pop out of nowhere and take over the orchestra. I realize that many great composers do this, and that more than a few masterworks make use of late-inning vocals, but to me, it destroys the balance and integrity of the music. It is as if the work has lost steam and requires vocals to keep the audience in their seats. From Beethoven to Mahler to Bernstein, many have done it. Obviously, some works have vocals strung throughout (Gorecki, Stravinsky SOPsalms) and that doesn't bother me; I have different ears for those works. But just as a matter of principle, I prefer symphonic music remain symphonic...

What does "symphonic" mean to you then?  I don't see how the Beethoven and Mahler examples are not symphonic in any way.

[TheGSMoeller]

This thread is hot! Let's keep it going....


The Allegro giocoso from Brahms' Op.98...no, no, no, NO, NO!!! I try year after year to accept this movement, and I just cannot. It sticks out like a sore thumb within the other surrounding, and brilliant, movements. I'm sure I've left this unpopular opinion on here before. But just spun the piece and as soon as the giocoso started I began to squirm.

Other than that. it's been a great day!   

[Jo498]

I am not too fond of the 3rd movement from Brahms' 4th either (and he should have cut that triangle...) but I love the "trio" horn passage and admire the movement and its placement within the symphony for several more remote, abstract reasons.
First, it is a necessary contrast (maybe too strong, though?), second it is a brilliant fusion between a scherzo, grotesque march and classicist finale movement, third it serves both as a scherzo as well as a faux finale in the symphony and thus makes the unconventional tragic finale more effective...

[Karl Henning]

This thread is hot! Let's keep it going....

The Allegro giocoso from Brahms' Op.98...no, no, no, NO, NO!!! I try year after year to accept this movement, and I just cannot. It sticks out like a sore thumb within the other surrounding, and brilliant, movements. I'm sure I've left this unpopular opinion on here before. But just spun the piece and as soon as the giocoso started I began to squirm.

Other than that. it's been a great day!   

For myself, it didn't help at all that this is the "Rick Wakeman Brahms" ("Cans and Brahms" is pushing the envelope for lame prog titles, IMO)  0:)

[PotashPie]

I'm still trying to penetrate Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 in C minor. Not yet. I can't hear themes; it sounds like harmonic rambling, unfocussed. Oh, this is Girgiev, he should know as well as anybody how to play Shostakovich and convey meaning.

[Karl Henning]

I'm still trying to penetrate Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 in C minor. Not yet. I can't hear themes; it sounds like harmonic rambling, unfocussed. Oh, this is Girgiev, he should know as well as anybody how to play Shostakovich and convey meaning.

Let us know when you're ready to challenge the assertion that Gergiev knows best.

[PerfectWagnerite]

I'm still trying to penetrate Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 in C minor. Not yet. I can't hear themes; it sounds like harmonic rambling, unfocussed. Oh, this is Girgiev, he should know as well as anybody how to play Shostakovich and convey meaning.

I know of no conductor by the name of Girgiev so I would challenge how he should know better than anyone on how to play DSCH.

[Parsifal]

It bothers me when composers insert vocals into a symphony. In particular, when the finale has individual vocalists pop out of nowhere and take over the orchestra. I realize that many great composers do this, and that more than a few masterworks make use of late-inning vocals, but to me, it destroys the balance and integrity of the music. It is as if the work has lost steam and requires vocals to keep the audience in their seats. From Beethoven to Mahler to Bernstein, many have done it. Obviously, some works have vocals strung throughout (Gorecki, Stravinsky SOPsalms) and that doesn't bother me; I have different ears for those works. But just as a matter of principle, I prefer symphonic music remain symphonic...

I wouldn't put it in quite those terms, but I think of a symphony as use of sound to create an abstract musical narrative. Introduction of a text makes it something other than a symphony, as I think of it. It seems to me that Beethoven's 9th is a cantata by another name.