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

[Jo498]

The badinerie was always in the b minor suite with a traverse flute (although probably highjacked by some recorder players), not in a BRandenburg!

tbh I had already written "three are recorder free" but then looked it up and realized that they are only in 2 and 4.

[Florestan]

The badinerie was always in the b minor suite with a traverse flute (although probably highjacked by some recorder players), not in a BRandenburg!

Woooops, I had a brainfart. 

[vandermolen]

There are some works which I think highly of but they have lost much of their appeal to me through over-familiarity.

Amongst these I'd include:

The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams (it's broadcast almost every time I put on the radio).
Enigma Variations by Elgar
Concerto for Orchestra by Bartok

[SymphonicAddict]

There are some works which I think highly of but they have lost much of their appeal to me through over-familiarity.

Amongst these I'd include:

The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams (it's broadcast almost every time I put on the radio).
Enigma Variations by Elgar
Concerto for Orchestra by Bartok

I tend to agree with you about the Bartok. For me it's not that great, but it has its merits.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I tend to agree with you about the Bartok. For me it's not that great, but it has its merits.

I never tire of Bartok's CfO. I've never understood the appeal of "The Lark Ascending."

[vandermolen]

I never tire of Bartok's CfO. I've never understood the appeal of "The Lark Ascending."

I now, for example, much prefer Bartok's PC No.3.

[Christo]

I never tire of Bartok's CfO. I've never understood the appeal of "The Lark Ascending."

Yet that isn't that hard: RVW completed it in 1920, after returning home from the Great War, and made it an 'almost unbearable' monument of an innocent world lost and gone - not just an idyll, but an ideal type of an idyll.

[kyjo]

Let's see...

Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
Beethoven - Symphony no. 9
Brahms - Symphony no. 1
Bruch - Violin Concerto no. 1
Dvorak - "New World" Symphony and "American" Quartet
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Mahler - Symphony no. 5
Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto, Rococo Variations, and ballets


Most of these works have simply lost their luster to me due to overexposure.

[vandermolen]

Let's see...

Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
Beethoven - Symphony no. 9
Brahms - Symphony no. 1
Bruch - Violin Concerto no. 1
Dvorak - "New World" Symphony and "American" Quartet
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Mahler - Symphony no. 5
Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto, Rococo Variations, and ballets


Most of these works have simply lost their luster to me due to overexposure.

Very largely the case for me too Kyle although maybe not the Mahler so much. I would rather listen to Miaskovsky's Cello Concerto than the Elgar, great as it is (my daughter's favourite classical work).

[Mirror Image]

I'm still not going to commit myself to a 'Top 10' list, but I just never really understood why Ravel's Boléro is considered one of his best works. I've explored every inch of this composer's oeuvre and he remains one of my 'Top 3' composers, but Boléro has never done anything for me. In fact, I'm not a the biggest fan of Ravel's orchestral music as I seem to prefer the original versions for piano nowadays, but I do still have a great fondness for Daphnis et Chloé, the piano concerti (of course!), and Ma mère l'oye. Overall, I tend to favor his piano works, chamber music, mélodies (I'm including those incredible song cycles into this category), and L'enfant et les sortilèges. Boléro just kind always felt ho-hum to me and rather unremarkable.

[Ken B]

I'm still not going to commit myself to a 'Top 10' list, but I just never really understood why Ravel's Boléro is considered one of his best works. I've explored every inch of this composer's oeuvre and he remains one of my 'Top 3' composers, but Boléro has never done anything for me. In fact, I'm not a the biggest fan of Ravel's orchestral music as I seem to prefer the original versions for piano nowadays, but I do still have a great fondness for Daphnis et Chloé, the piano concerti (of course!), and Ma mère l'oye. Overall, I tend to favor his piano works, chamber music, mélodies (I'm including those incredible song cycles into this category), and L'enfant et les sortilèges. Boléro just kind always felt ho-hum to me and rather unremarkable.

Progress! You won't be fully cured until you discover that all of Debussy's best music is for piano. 

[Florestan]

I just never really understood why Ravel's Boléro is considered one of his best works.

A catchy melody, a rythm that once heard will stay in one's head forever, a 10-minute free lesson in orchestration plus an orgasm as bonus --- what more could you ask for? 

No, really, that's neoclassicism at its best: a master craftsman composer knowing what the audience would love, and delivering it big time. Haydn did it, Mozart did it.

[Jo498]

Neither Haydn nor Mozart ever wrote a boring 10 min lesson in orchestration... they had better audiences, I guess.

You know there is a law of musical history that many composers are not best known for their best works. I.e. Bach with toccata and fugue d minor (that might not be by him or an arrangement) or "Air on the G string", Mozart with Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Beethoven with a trifle like Pour Elise, Mendelssohn with the Wedding March, Brahms with Hungarian dances or that A flat major waltz, Liszt with Hungarian Rhapsodies and Liebesträume, Tchaikovsky with 1812 and the Sugar Plum fairy, Wagner with Lohengrin and Tannhäuser.
In the worst cases, the best known works are not even by the composers famous for them, e.g. the "Serenade" quartet movement that is almost certainly not by Haydn. Or the "trumpet voluntary" that had been ascribed to Purcell for a long time (it's by Jeremiah Clarke).

Ravel could not escape that law

[Florestan]

Neither Haydn nor Mozart ever wrote a boring 10 min lesson in orchestration... they had better audiences, I guess.

Come on, Bolero boring? In a quarter of an hour it's over, all the while you can check your whatsup or look for pretty ladies in the attendance or even hum your favorite Schoenberg. During The Ring you're not even supposed to budge your neck, remember the physical traits of your first love or fall asleep --- 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. 

Mozart with Eine kleine Nachtmusik,

I beg your pardon? EKNM is echt, quintessential Mozart. Anyone who disdain it is a tasteless ass.

Beethoven with a trifle like Pour Elise,

As opposed to the noble and profound vulgar and coarse four-note fate motif.

Mendelssohn with the Wedding March,

To write something that people would play and hum in some of their happiest moments, for generations and generations and generations to come --- can you think of a closer claim to immortality?

Brahms with Hungarian dances

I'd rather have them all in a row than that conceit of a First Symphony.

or that A flat major waltz,

A gem, one of Brahms' most felicitous inventions, whose melodic contour was actually an idée fixe of Brahms, cf. the Trio of the Op. 8 Piano Trio's Scherzo, the first theme of the 2nd Symphony's Allegro non troppo and even the finale of the Violin Concerto --- among many other instances.

Liszt with Hungarian Rhapsodies and Liebesträume,

Well, Liszt played the Hungarian and the lover all his life --- call it poetical justice.

Tchaikovsky with 1812 and the Sugar Plum fairy,

Here you do have a point.

Wagner with Lohengrin and Tannhäuser.

What's wrong with a composer being remembered for his best orchestral works?

In the worst cases, the best known works are not even by the composers famous for them, e.g. the "Serenade" quartet movement that is almost certainly not by Haydn.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

Ravel could not escape that law

As long as Bolero will be played and enjoyed, Ravel's name and fame will be alive. Get over it.

[Ken B]

Bolero is the essence of Ravel. When you tell people you like Ravel they associate you with Bolero, now, and for the rest of time. "Jo, he's the Bolero guy."

[Florestan]

Bolero is the essence of Ravel.

And why not?

[Ken B]

And why not?

I watched a movie the other night. There was a throw away line about trying to seduce someone by ... putting on some Ravel.

[Alek Hidell]

I don't mind Boléro at all. That bewitching melody, the drone of the rhythm ... what's not to like? Besides, it's sex set to music!

That said, I don't want to listen to it all the time. Not tonight, dear, I have a headache.

[Florestan]

I don't mind Boléro at all. That bewitching melody, the drone of the rhythm ... what's not to like? Besides, it's sex set to music!

Great minds etc.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Anyone who disdain it is a tasteless ass.

Always nice to hear that I am a tasteless ass.