Top10 compositions that you don't like but everyone else does

[mn dave]

As a huge fan of (good) modern music, I actually agree with you. Most pieces that are now my favorites are things that I didn't like at all -- the Ligeti PC is the perfect example and I warmed up to it one movement at a time (five total). Stravinsky's "Agon" is another.

It's weird with modern (postwar especially). There are plenty of things I listen to that I don't like and I don't listen to them again for a while (if ever). Then, there are other things that I don't like -- but, for some inexplicable reason I keep coming back to. There must be something there that attracts me, yet it only reveals itself upon repeated hearings.

Lots of times when I give something a second, third or fourth chance, it turns out I never liked it and never will.

[Sammy]

The only highly popular composer who comes to mind is Vivaldi.  So I'll pick the Four Seasons and anything else by Vivaldi that most folks think highly of.

[gutstrings]

I could never hear anything worthwhile in Mahler symphonies. Years ago, I searched record stores, thinking maybe I just don't have the right recording. Never found it.

[Jay F]

I could never hear anything worthwhile in Mahler symphonies. Years ago, I searched record stores, thinking maybe I just don't have the right recording. Never found it.

How do you like Wagner? Brahms?

[EigenUser]

I could never hear anything worthwhile in Mahler symphonies. Years ago, I searched record stores, thinking maybe I just don't have the right recording. Never found it.

I enjoy Mahler in smahler doses than most music I like.

I've been enjoying "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" and I almost bought the score today.

[gutstrings]

Not a big opera fan, haven't listened to much Wagner. Brahms is OK, at one time I liked Abbado's approach, sorry to learn of his recent passing... but aside from Brahms' Hungarian Dances, he doesn't move me. Tchaikovsky steals the show.

[Karl Henning]

I could never hear anything worthwhile in Mahler symphonies. Years ago, I searched record stores, thinking maybe I just don't have the right recording. Never found it.

It took me quite a while to warm to them.  I just had to be ready, I think.

[Karl Henning]

. . . Brahms is OK, at one time I liked Abbado's approach, sorry to learn of his recent passing... but aside from Brahms' Hungarian Dances, he doesn't move me. . . .

How about the clarinet sonatas?

[Karl Henning]

I enjoy Mahler in smahler doses than most music I like.

I am similar . . . now and again I really dig listening to one of the symphonies;  I seldom listen to two in the same week.

[North Star]

Reminds me of George Carlin talking about how he was a picky eater when he was little.

"And then they would ask me 'How do you know you don't like it if you've never even tried it'? It came to me in a dream!"

Anyway, my list:
1. Bartok SQs (Brian, I sympathize with you -- and Bartok is my favorite composer. I should say that I do like the 3rd.)
2. Mozart "Symphony No. 40"
3. Shostakovich "Symphony No. 5"
4. Janacek "Sinfonietta"
5. Ligeti "Cello Concerto"
...
7. Schoenberg "Five Pieces for Orchestra"
8. Brahms "Double Concerto"
9. Stravinsky "Firebird"

You can't afford being mad at others, Nate 
'Everyone' likes Stocky Gruppen or Ligeti CC? Where do you hang out?  0:)

I am similar . . . now and again I really dig listening to one of the symphonies;  I seldom listen to two in the same week.

But he meant he listens to a movement here, a movement there - hardly the same as listening to a whole symphony once a week or less often.

[Karl Henning]

Oh, I missed that.

[Sergeant Rock]

Anyway, my list:6. Stockhausen "Gruppen"
7. Schoenberg "Five Pieces for Orchestra"

You think everyone else likes Gruppen and Five Pieces?    What universe do you live in? It's definitely not the same as mine 

Edit: I see that North Star beat me to the punch.

'Everyone' likes Stocky Gruppen or Ligeti CC? Where do you hang out?  0:)

Sarge

[mn dave]

Most pieces just don't grab me; I'm indifferent.

[Jay F]

It took me quite a while to warm to them.  I just had to be ready, I think.

I took to Mahler the way I did the Beatles, immediately and with full fervor. He was the first composer I had a full shelf of when I started listening to classical music. I will never forget one foppish friend who asked me one day, "But you haven't yet listened to Brahms. You need to know Brahms before you can begin to appreciate Mahler."

To which I said, channeling Edna Krabappel, "Hah!"

[Brian]

But you haven't yet listened to Brahms. You need to know Brahms before you can begin to appreciate Mahler.

Really? That's odd. That's like saying you need to know Charleston before you can appreciate Vegas.

[Karl Henning]

Aye, pointlessly snooty IMO.

[North Star]

You need to know Palestrina before you can begin to appreciate Brahms.

[Karl Henning]

You need to know Leonin before you can appreciate Palestrina!

[EigenUser]

You can't afford being mad at others, Nate 
'Everyone' likes Stocky Gruppen or Ligeti CC? Where do you hang out?  0:)
But he meant he listens to a movement here, a movement there - hardly the same as listening to a whole symphony once a week or less often.

You think everyone else likes Gruppen and Five Pieces?    What universe do you live in? It's definitely not the same as mine 

Edit: I see that North Star beat me to the punch.

Sarge

I guess those don't quite fit the title. It seems like most Ligeti fans love his CC, so I guess I was going by that. Also, I read in a concert review awhile ago something like "...and anyone who isn't a classical music dinosaur appreciated the fun of Gruppen." They didn't use these words, but that was the gist of what they were saying. Of course, that's just one writer's opinion.

[North Star]

Also, I read in a concert review awhile ago something like "...and anyone who isn't a classical music dinosaur appreciated the fun of Gruppen." They didn't use these words, but that was the gist of what they were saying. Of course, that's just one writer's opinion.

Indeed. One man writing that everyone likes something doesn't mean that everyone really likes it. Everyone knows that.