Little things that annoy you

[amw]

A 5 minute drive is real good, but 30 to 60 minute drives to work are not unusual in metropolitan areas.

A few years back, one of my parents regularly (several times a week) had a 2 hour commute, each way.

The local classical music radio stations were much appreciated. The main problem was that about halfway through the drive one of the stations would fade out, and the other one would be too staticky to listen to for the next 20-30 minutes. Or maybe we just happened to be tuning in to that station during their Merzbow portrait hour, I'm not sure.

[Pessoa]

The fragility of cd cases as mentioned above, particularly in the hinge corners: broken by slight bumps. not to mention if you drop them.

[Fafner]

The price of 1955 Keilberth Ring.   

[Karl Henning]

The fact that almost no classical clarinetist uses vibrato--the only woodwind now not to do so!

Well, and why should all the woodwinds be the same, eh? 

[Karl Henning]

Grumpy from Snow White and the 7 dwarves.

Disneyfication.

[Madiel]

Vocal music sold without translations. If you can write liner notes in English, you can provide something more useful in English to go with it.

[jochanaan]

Well, and why should all the woodwinds be the same, eh? 

Hmmm...Shall we go back to the 1920s and 30s when no woodwinds used vibrato, at least in European orchestras?

[Karl Henning]

Ooh, that must be HIP for Les Six, then! 

It's only my personal preference, however formed . . . but I don't much care for vibrato on the clarinet . . . .

[jochanaan]

Well, it's a personal preference that most other classical clarinetists seem to share.  Jazz clarinetists mostly use vibrato, sometimes very intensely (think Sidney Bechet), but classical ones nearly all use straight tone (but not without expression).  Strange...

[Superhorn]

   Another thing ; Notes in CD booklets that are so small  you need  magnifying glass to read them.  Back in the LP era,  they didn't have to make the notes so small  to fit them onto  it .   CDs have advantages , such as  not wearing out quickly like LPs,  ability to switch easily from track to track unlike a tone arm around an LP ,  ability to hear n entire Bruckner or Mahler symphony without a break etc,
but the small print is a hassle .

[jochanaan]

   Another thing ; Notes in CD booklets that are so small  you need  magnifying glass to read them.  Back in the LP era,  they didn't have to make the notes so small  to fit them onto  it .   CDs have advantages , such as  not wearing out quickly like LPs,  ability to switch easily from track to track unlike a tone arm around an LP ,  ability to hear n entire Bruckner or Mahler symphony without a break etc,
but the small print is a hassle .

Yeah, I don't get that either.  Why can't they just print booklets?  But no, they have to skimp on printing and make the print microscopic.

[Brian]

Yeah, I don't get that either.  Why can't they just print booklets?  But no, they have to skimp on printing and make the print microscopic.

What I really don't understand is many recent Chandos albums have the tiny, tiny print in the booklets, but all the text is surrounded by a GIANT moat of white space. Really? You couldn't think of a way to use that white space?

[Karl Henning]

Apart from legibility . . . that's third-grade level graphic design.

[mc ukrneal]

What I really don't understand is many recent Chandos albums have the tiny, tiny print in the booklets, but all the text is surrounded by a GIANT moat of white space. Really? You couldn't think of a way to use that white space?

But at least Chandos can be found online (where zoom is your friend), so I am willing to forgive them for that reason. But it is silly...

[TheGSMoeller]

That annoyingly sunny Allegro Giocoso right in the middle of what could have been the gloomiest, and possibly the best three-movement symphony ever composed! 

[Karl Henning]

Ah, the magnifcent flaw in the magnificent Op.98     0:)   

[TheGSMoeller]

Ah, the magnifcent flaw in the magnificent Op.98     0:)   

[The Six]

Wannabe music experts in audiences: This seems very common amongst late middle-aged men. I love it when the SQ says they will play the finale Beethoven Opus 59, No2 as an encore, and some old corvette-driving wannabe connoisseur exclaims, "Oh! Oh!"

Riiiiiight. Like you really have all the Beethoven Opus numbers memorized you fatuous a--hole. Why don't you start prattling on about hearing the "inner voices" like the two old farts across the aisle.? 

You can see this in all walks of life. There are just some people out there who really want to let others know how smart they are. I remember in a Japanese history class I took the teacher once started to tell a story about something obscure. It wasn't a language class, but she was using some Japanese words to tell the story. In the middle of it, one student started bellylaughing loudly. It wasn't even that funny of a story; he just wanted to signal to the class that he totally understood the story and that he knew all of those words.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Studies show that most on-line listening occurs at home or work, while most broadcast listening takes place while driving. Unless people have an incredibly long commute in the morning and are lucky enough to turn the radio on just as a piece starts, they're not going to listen to complete symphonies or other extended compositions on the radio.
Classical on-air stations need to program to meet the realities of today's world, especially commercial enterprises that have to make money to survive. Anyone who's going to sit down to listen for an extended period of time is going to listen to their own library or make selections from an on-line site. If I happen to catch a short piece or snippet on the radio I enjoy during my 5 minute drive to work, it's a nice way to start the day.

That's an interesting point. My commute is also short - 10-15 minutes tops - so it's not likely I'd hear the entirety of a piece anyway. And finding time for extended listening at home is sporadic for me so I'm more likely to choose music based on the mood I'm in not what might be playing on the radio. So I'll head to my CDs.

I haven't always had a short commute but I've found listening to classical in the car oftentimes exasperating. Even with a CD if it's not music of a sustained extrovert nature the music can be overwhelmed by noise from the car/road. And blasting music of any kind in my car isn't my preference. 

That said, classical radio should be more duty-bound to provide more of a variety than they do - or at least that my local station does. But I do get a hefty dose of Mozart's piano concertos...which is no bad thing.

[Brian]

I haven't always had a short commute but I've found listening to classical in the car oftentimes exasperating. Even with a CD if it's not music of a sustained extrovert nature the music can be overwhelmed by noise from the car/road. And blasting music of any kind in my car isn't my preference. 

Actually I find consistent dynamics to be the most important factor - which points to either solo piano music, or the baroque. Bach in the car is unusually successful, though he doesn't get me amped for driving in the same way that, say, Dave Brubeck does.