Unpopular Opinions

[MusicTurner]

Yes, one doesn't expect a big breakthrough for Leibowitz's music among the public. I once had a CD with chamber music, but culled it, finding it bland and anonymous. The funny thing is though, that members of the younger French avant-garde generation took up Sibelius and found him an essential and inspirational 20th-century figure.

[pjme]

OK, ok - still, one can dislike a work by Sibelius.
The violin concerto....just ugly! 

[Madiel]

OK, ok - still, one can dislike a work by Sibelius.
The violin concerto....just ugly! 

You don't want to start that one again. The rage induced in one member...

[pjme]

You don't want to start that one again. The rage induced in one member...

I will use all my magical and heathen powers to prevent rage. And will retreat then in strict confinement and chastise myself.

[Sergeant Rock]

Thank you for sparing me the machine gun. 

Since you like four of the five movements, I decided to spare you this time 

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

The second movement is supposed to be a rural dance or so, representing Rhenish cheerfulness. If anything, I'd say that some passages in the more heroic first movement are fit for a western. But there is other classical music much closer, e.g. the last movement from Hindemith's metamorphoses (basically the cavalry coming in...) or quite a bit in the finale of Tchaikovsky's 5th, even parts of the finale of Brahms 3rd would be better candidates for me. (It's not a negative for me either.)

I'll have to listen to those works with your words in mind to see if I can hear what you're saying.

Sarge

[Brahmsian]

Since you like four of the five movements, I decided to spare you this time 

Sarge

Thank you again. Rest assured, I think very highly of Schumann's symphonies as a whole! 🙂

[Karl Henning]

Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto is better than Mozart's

[Irons]

Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto is better than Mozart's

Finzi's is better then Nielsen's.

[DaveF]

Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto is better than Mozart's

But there are many more good recorded performances of the latter than the former (perhaps most clarinettists think they can play the Nielsen when they really can't).

[MusicTurner]

But there are many more good recorded performances of the latter than the former (perhaps most clarinettists think they can play the Nielsen when they really can't).

Interesting, since it's the opposite experience for me ... bland Mozarts versus lively and varied Nielsens 

Of course, Nielsen, Weber 1st, Mozart and Finzi are the best ones ...

[Symphonic Addict]

Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto is better than Mozart's

Not unpopular to me. Actually, Nielsen's concerto is the best one ever. An imaginative and original creation.

[Symphonic Addict]

Finzi's is better then Nielsen's.

Now, this is unpopular. 

Finzi's would come second or third in my list, though.

[Jo498]

I could agree that the Nielsen concerto has a considerably higher within Nielsen's oeuvre than Mozart's. Very few people would claim that the clarinet concerto is Mozart's best concerto (I'd say it is his best concerto for only one instrument that is not the piano ) whereas it justifiedly seems the favorite among Nielsen's concertos.

My favorite 20th century clarinet concerto is the Ebony concerto, I think...

[Irons]

Now, this is unpopular. 

Finzi's would come second or third in my list, though.

[71 dB]

Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto is better than Mozart's

Finzi's is better then Nielsen's.

Why rank them at all when you can just love them all?  0:) The best clarinet concerto doesn't exist, because Elgar didn't write one! 

[The new erato]

Time for a democratization in such titling matters, for sure.

There's a 'Liverpool Oratorio', but no Croydon, s'-Hertogenbosch, or Nyiregyhaza stuff ..

There's a Lofoten Oratorio:

[pjme]

And Detlev Glanert's Requiem was composed for 's Hertogenbosch most famous historical citizen, Hieronymus Bosch.



And there's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ervin_Nyiregyh%C3%A1zi

[DaveF]

Interesting, since it's the opposite experience for me ... bland Mozarts versus lively and varied Nielsens 

I have a very intense and long-lasting relationship with the Nielsen concerto - my life partner, you might call it.  When I got my first clarinet, at the age of 15, I bought at the same time the piano edition of the concerto.  I remember the assistant in Taphouse's in Oxford, who obviously knew his stuff, commenting "That's certainly something to aspire to, sir."  Since then I've failed to master the solo part, and was recently within a few weeks of playing the snare-drum part in a concert, before the orchestra (not the soloist) got cold feet.  I have also typeset the whole score in Sibelius, out of sheer fascination with it.  I'm not suggesting for a minute that this gives my opinions of the piece any special status, but it does make me awfully hard to please with regard to performances.  I think I have finally settled on my 2 favourites, so what I plan to do... sometime this year... is a Hurwitz-style review on this very forum (no video, don't panic, Hurwitz is George Clooney compared to me, I promise you) along the lines of BBC Radio 3's Building a Library, comparing the available versions.  I've just got a fair number left to listen to, after which pen will start hitting paper, or fingers keyboard.

[The new erato]

And Detlev Glanert's Requiem was composed for 's Hertogenbosch most famous historical citizen, Hieronymus Bosch.

Before he emigrated to the US and became a hotshot detective?