What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

Again, fair enough! Apology accepted.

I think that a good analogy of you with Messiaen is me with cheese. I dislike cheese of all forms and I actually can't even eat something with cheese without spitting it out. I've been like for my whole life and I'm almost positive I won't change. Would I bet my life that I won't like cheese for the rest of my life? No way! Who knows? Maybe I'll have some culinary epiphany five years from now and won't be able to get enough of it. But, I highly doubt it.

The one odd exception is grated Parmesan in olive oil for dipping bread in Italian restaurants (we'll call this your L'Ascension ).
+1, totally agree

Your dislike of cheese sounds like my dislike for squash and all its forms. I can't even take the smell of squash cooking without feeling a bit nauseous. On the other hand, I love cheese, except for the feta, blue, and goat cheeses.

[ritter]

I'm very much in a Cristóbal Halffter mood these days...

Cristóbal Halffter: Attendite (for 8 violoncellos) - Cello Octet Conjunto  Ibérico, led by Elias Arizcuren

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Halffter has an uncanny ability to make music that is extremely complex (or busy, if you will) always retain an underlying lyricism which I find very appealing. Among my favourite 20th/21st century composers  (and there's no nationalistic issues here  )...

[PaulR]

Morning.

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[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Appalachian Spring. Great performance.

[Sergeant Rock]

Schnittke String Quartet No.3 played by the Pacifica




Sarge

[ritter]

And more Halffter:

Cristóbal Halffter: Versus (for large orchestra) - Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, conducted by the composer.

[Florestan]

Haydn - String Quartet in D minor "Fifths" Hob III:76 Op. 76 No. 2

Quatuor Mosaiques

http://www.youtube.com/v/PCXg8xo31h0

[PaulR]

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Piano Concerto #2 in G Minor

[Ken B]

I think this would have been a more effective example if not for the fact that the post in question was in response not simply to your praise of minimalists, but to your claim that minimalists proved to people that "not all modern music had to be awful." [Apologies if I have misremembered the exact wording).  Had the response been to a simple praising of minimalists, I'd agree that it was out of line; however, your post was so needlessly provocative (and frankly insulting to those of us who enjoy  non-minimalist contemporary compostion) that it pretty much demanded such a response, IMO. 

As to "It's OK to hate music, and it's OK to say so," I guess I'll just repeat what I said before--it seems to me incumbent upon us to express such viewpoints with considered diplomacy.  Why would one not want to?  I don't understand the need for people to be so scathing in their expressions of negative judgments.  For example, my least favorite classical styles tend to be ones that seem to be favorites of yours (minimalism and 18th century classicism); however, I would normally be extra careful about expressing negative opinions about them (and certainly never imply that the music itself is at fault for my lack of full appreciation), both out of respect for those who feel differently, and out of the consideration that I may well change my mind about them as my tastes grow and develop (so why say something now that I'll almost surely regret having said later)?

Sorry, no. You want mealy mouthed praise for your taste mixed in with any expression of another's taste in effect. If John or I had criticized another poster or his understanding that would be one thing. But what John said, and Jeffery said too, was that they hear only a mess when they listen to Messiaen. They said nothing about Nate or you. Criticising music is not criticising listeners.
Your logic is also bad. If saying Messiaen's music is a mess is criticism of you for liking then why is saying the fault is in the listener not a criticism of John?
Wander over to the movie thread. Look up Todd's comments on Thor. He called it not just a pile but a steaming pile. Do you seriously ask that he preface that with boilerplate about how of course some people like it and of course he is probably just just incapable of recognizing its virtues but etc etc? Because that is what you seem to want here.
People disagree and honest expressions of disagreement are a good thing.

I love feta cheese so I guess I am an injured party here. Meanies.

[Todd]

[PaulR]

.
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Piano Concerto #2 in G Minor

[Lisztianwagner]

Antonin Dvorak
Symphony No.7

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[Wanderer]

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[otare]

[North Star]

Sibelius
Symphonies Nos. 5-7
Wiener Philharmoniker
Maazel

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[Ken B]

Mahler 6, Boulez

[Mirror Image]

Sorry, no. You want mealy mouthed praise for your taste mixed in with any expression of another's taste in effect. If John or I had criticized another poster or his understanding that would be one thing. But what John said, and Jeffery said too, was that they hear only a mess when they listen to Messiaen. They said nothing about Nate or you. Criticising music is not criticising listeners.
Your logic is also bad. If saying Messiaen's music is a mess is criticism of you for liking then why is saying the fault is in the listener not a criticism of John?
Wander over to the movie thread. Look up Todd's comments on Thor. He called it not just a pile but a steaming pile. Do you seriously ask that he preface that with boilerplate about how of course some people like it and of course he is probably just just incapable of recognizing its virtues but etc etc? Because that is what you seem to want here.
People disagree and honest expressions of disagreement are a good thing.

I love feta cheese so I guess I am an injured party here. Meanies.

I don't wish to get between the two of you guys, but let me say that I used to be really sensitive to criticism of composers I liked, but sometimes, like the case with Delius, I have taken in the criticism and realize that there is merit to that criticism. As an effect, I no longer enjoy Delius' music like I once did, because I weighed how I felt about the music both positively and negatively. The criticism of his music is quite accurate in my view but me being stubborn and holding onto him like he's a composer that only I understood and no one else does is not a real legitimate reason to give him praise that he, in the end, didn't deserve from me in the first place. So Delius is where I looked at the negative criticism against him and accepted that he wasn't among the greats and that the whole 'underground movement' if you will that said he's one of the greatest of the 20th Century was simply trying to sway people into believing what they believed. Thankfully, my own personal tastes and musical judgment prevailed here.

[SonicMan46]

Continuing w/ my brief (just not much in my collection w/ him) homage to Christopher Hogwood w/ the Gade Symphonies, V. 1 & 2 (Nos. 2, 4, 7, & '8') - for those interested Hurwitz's comments on Vol. 1 and Vol. 3) - Dave

 

[HIPster]

Some beautiful Handel this morning:

Handel - La Risonanza
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[Ken B]

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