Unpopular Opinions

Started by The Six, November 11, 2011, 10:32:51 AM

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Opus106

Quote from: Velimir on December 05, 2011, 06:49:14 AM
Prokofiev is just not all that good as a symphonist.

What's with the redundancy at the end?


;D
Regards,
Navneeth

Karl Henning

But this is an entertaining thread! : )
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Florestan

Quote from: Velimir on December 05, 2011, 06:49:14 AM
Masses would be a lot easier to listen to if they removed the long, doctrinally specific Credo movement.

In which case they wouldn't be Masses anymore. :D

Quote
Prokofiev is just not all that good as a symphonist.

Except when he tries to be the Haydn of the 20th century.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2011, 06:48:30 AM
I should have written "contemporary teenager" and I would not have been wrong anymore. What say you?:)

Maybe. But I was a "contemporary teenager" in the 1980s, and if I grew out of it, anyone can  :)

One more observation:

Schubert's symphonies are mostly forgettable.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2011, 06:53:08 AM
Except when he tries to be the Haydn of the 20th century.

Too bad he only did that once.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

TheGSMoeller

Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2011, 06:19:42 AM
Nice thread, folks. :)

Here's mine: if you want to ruin a teenager prospective to become a Classical music lover, give him Mahler. Chances are very high that he'll become a Late Romanticism nut and forever scorn any music scored for less than 200 instruments; thus he'll narrowly limit himself to only 40-50 (and certainly not the best) years of the whole history of music making .  ;D


My experience with this statement is that when I was in high school I played the French horn and my brother played trombone, and we were very attached to pieces that were brass heavy, and Mahler was one of my first introductions to this. But as the years passed I began to appreciate Mahler's music less, I found myself waiting for certain moments in his pieces rather than enjoying them in their entirety. I wouldn't say that Mahler is overrated, but I would much rather listen to any Haydn symphony over a Mahler symphony nowadays.

TheGSMoeller


Florestan

Quote from: Velimir on December 05, 2011, 06:53:41 AM
Maybe. But I was a "contemporary teenager" in the 1980s, and if I grew out of it, anyone can  :)

Absolutely. After all, if truth is generally unpopular, it doesn't follow that every unpopular opinion is true. :)

Quote
Schubert's symphonies are mostly forgettable.

Yes, but the unforgettable ones (2,5,6,8,9) make for all the rest.  :D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Quote from: Velimir on December 05, 2011, 06:54:11 AM
Too bad he only did that once.

Or too bad he didn't stop at that one.  ;D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Lethevich

Quote from: Velimir on December 05, 2011, 06:53:41 AM
Schubert's symphonies are mostly forgettable.

I tried very hard to have an opinion on this, but it came out even :(
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Florestan

Quote from: TheGSMoeller on December 05, 2011, 06:54:41 AM
I wouldn't say that Mahler is overrated, but I would much rather listen to any Haydn symphony over a Mahler symphony nowadays.

That's perhaps because there are French horns in Haydn. How about your trombone brother?  :D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

TheGSMoeller

#311
Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2011, 06:59:44 AM
That's perhaps because there are French horns in Haydn. How about your trombone brother?  :D


He still loves Mahler, but his taste in who performs it how it's performed has changed.


Karl Henning

Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2011, 06:57:47 AM
Or too bad he didn't stop at that one.  ;D

Eeek!

Thread Duty: The Second is the best of the Prokofev symphonies

There's not a single note too many in Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony

Mozart's clarinet concerto is better as arranged for the regular A clarinet.

Apart from the Violin Concerto, I cannot bear a note of Glazunov.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

And: practically throughout his compositional output, Berlioz is a genius.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

TheGSMoeller

Quote from: karlhenning on December 05, 2011, 07:04:27 AM
And: practically throughout his compositional output, Berlioz is a genius.


This is very true.

Lethevich

I find more musical riches in Liszt's output than Wagner and Bruckner combined.
.
..

Haters gon' hate.

Quote from: karlhenning on December 05, 2011, 07:03:25 AM
Apart from the Violin Concerto, I cannot bear a note of Glazunov.

Unpopular indeed - most people totally ignore the VC too ;D
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

PaulR

Although this might be a biased opinion, Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata sounds better on the bass than it does on the cello.  (an unusual thing to say :D :P )

I think the 4th movement of Mahler 4 is the weakest part of the symphony, even if the rest of the symphony was derived from that movement.

Florestan

Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevna Pettersson on December 05, 2011, 07:10:23 AM
I find more musical riches in Liszt's output than Wagner and Bruckner combined.

Fleurs melodiques des Alpes immediately comes to mind.  ;D

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Quote from: karlhenning on December 05, 2011, 07:03:25 AM
There's not a single note too many in Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony

Whoever said it is?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Lethevich

Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2011, 07:18:49 AM
Whoever said it is?

I think GMGer Nav has never actually reached the end of the piece yet ;D I am sympathetic to the view.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.