Great composers that are not your cup of tea

[The Emperor]

Mozart(except for the requiem so far), verdi, etc

[mahlertitan]

~
I will try some chamber music of Shostakovich. I certainly have no interest in film music or jazz. I know what you mean about spending effort to appreciate some composers, but have not been attracted to  Shostakovich based on symphonies I have heard in concert and on records. Apparently not my cup of tea.

then it's perfectly alright, knowing that you put effort in understand his music.

[mahlertitan]

I completely agree with you. But this is a never-ending story.

this is also fun to read

[PaulR]

Besides the cello concerto, I have a hard time listening to Elgar's music.  The music is too "jumbled" for my taste.  I just can't seem to get into it.

In past years, I would've said Mahler to, but I'm starting to like his music.  Schumann too.

[looja]

Welcome to the Forum!

And what a fascinating post!  From my viewpoint, actually, Shostakovitch is hardly new at all (the fellow has been dead already some 30 years, after all).

But if his symphonies are leaving you cold, leave them be for a spell;  listen to other music which fires your interest.  You may find your ears have changed towards Shostakovitch five, ten years from now.

Hello! I am not new actually , just changed my name due to the forum location changes. But I haven't been in here for a month or so and now decided to refresh my mind with some new classical music debates
But I would really like to enjoy Shostakovitch more someday.

[Danny]

Handel.

[71 dB]

Besides the cello concerto, I have a hard time listening to Elgar's music.  The music is too "jumbled" for my taste.  I just can't seem to get into it.

Elgar's music is difficult even if it seems easy. I find Elgar's music the least "jumbled", a continuing multidimensional fabric. The Cello Concerto is easy Elgar, thin and simple work but has strong emotional impact. Why is it thin? Because it's written just after WW I and half of the orchestral players had injured/died in the war. Music had to be writen for half-empty orchestras.   

[lukeottevanger]

Elgar's music is difficult even if it seems easy. I find Elgar's music the least "jumbled", a continuing multidimensional fabric. The Cello Concerto is easy Elgar, thin and simple work but has strong emotional impact. Why is it thin? Because it's written just after WW I and half of the orchestral players had injured/died in the war. Music had to be writen for half-empty orchestras.   

No, this isn't really true of the Cello Concerto, in practical terms, even though 'spiritually' it may be. In fact, the Cello Concerto is written for the same standard large orchestra as the Violin Concerto, for instance, and at the climaxes it really lets rip in the same way. It's certainly more sparsely-scored from moment-to-moment, however, but that is partly because that's what the tone of the music demands, and partly because it is Elgar's practical way of letting the cello be heard (this problem being the main reason there weren't many Romantic cello concertos around).

[Sergeant Rock]

Mozart(except for the requiem so far), verdi, etc

Who are the etceteras?

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Hello! I am not new actually , just changed my name due to the forum location changes.

And who were you in that previous forum life?

Sarge

[looja]

And who were you in that previous forum life?

Sarge

I was LaurT., I am not sure you know me. I haven't been around here lately

[Siedler]

Sibelius isn't very much liked actually, not outside the US, UK and Scandinavia anyway, and not beyond the Violin Concerto. The symphonies are rarely played in Germany, for example. And it's nonsense that Sibelius is "easy" music. I second Karl: just say you prefer Elgar to Sibelius because...because you like Elgar more. No one will argue with that and we'll all walk away happy.

By the way, my first classical record was Barbirolli's recording of the RVW 8th and the Enigma Variations. I bought it for Vaughan Williams; I didn't know Elgar at all then. I was immediately won over, though, playing Enigma far more than the 8th. Elgar is still one of my favorite composers. But...so is Sibelius and, honestly, I can't understand your arguments against this great music.

Sarge

I once read that Germans don't like much of Sibelius because according to them he was a Nazi sympathiser.

[Florestan]

I once read that Germans don't like much of Sibelius because according to them he was a Nazi sympathiser.

Now that's something completely new for me. Were there any arguments for that in that book / article?

[Lethevich]

I once read that Germans don't like much of Sibelius because according to them he was a Nazi sympathiser.

Amazingly stupid if true, he was one of the few composers who came out of that fascist/Nazi/communist period with all his integrity intact...

[Siedler]

Now that's something completely new for me. Were there any arguments for that in that book / article?

I can't find the article but here's an another one. Apparently some German philosopher bashed Sibelius and claimed him to be a nazi sympathiser.
http://www2.hs.fi/english/archive/news.asp?id=20001024IE3

Why is it that the music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) and perhaps also that of other Finnish composers finds a relatively chilly reception in Germany? One reason that has been offered up for decades is the writing of the German philosopher and sociologist Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-1969), who took a very dim view of our national composer.

For Adorno, Sibelius was a "scribbler" and to be classified along with the other amateurs who were frightened to study composition theory. These barbs carried some weight, since Adorno was an important figure on the cultural scene in West Germany in the post-war period.

[Siedler]

Here's one more, also from Helsingin Sanomat: Ruth-Maria Gleissner investigates Sibelius's reception in Germany

"Theodor Adorno badmouthed Sibelius to great effect and influenced other critics. For my research paper, I asked the modern-day German concert audience for their views on Sibelius. One in ten of them said something about the composer's political leanings and background, even though I di not a ask them about this at all", reports Ruth-Maria Gleissner.

[mahlertitan]

xenakis, definitely don't want to listen to his music while having a cup of tea.

[The Emperor]

Who are the etceteras?

Sarge

Mostly Composers of the Classical period with the exception of Beethoven and some works here and there.
And keep those operas away from me!!!

[Schu]

Rachmaninoff.

I've tried. The 2nd Piano Concerto evokes images of middle-aged, middle-class couples not having sex at a railway station as the steam trains pull in and out.

As everybody knows sex wasn't invented until the sixties.

The 2nd concerto is not trying, I love rach but I hate his 2nd. Listen to the 3rd. Listen to the 2nd symphony too.

[Joe_Campbell]

Be kind to me.

Bach!

HOWEVER...

I've just started to delve into his preludes and fugues, and I think I just might finally be getting the contrapunctal coolness. Definitely different from my most commonly preferred performer: Debussy. 

I've actually started some brief work on his prelude in d minor from the first book. I'm only in gr4, but the biggest challenge for me seems to be memory work. I don't find memorizing that easy if the entire piece is just triplets after triplets after triplets. I'm trying to follow the chords...it might help.