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

[knight66]

Welcome Kamisama, you have reminded me of another for the bonfire. I have been made to yell my way through Carmina Burana several times and would be happy never to encounter it again.

Mike

[North Star]

Welcome Kamisama - you certainly chose a good place to start making friends

Thanks, I will give that a try from home.

Mike

Do tell how it fares.

[knight66]

It certainly works better for me in the original version. (the rest of the Argerich & Pletnev recording is also on YT)
https://www.youtube.com/v/vfPIdFT-UDU https://www.youtube.com/v/eCWC32pPQC4

Yes, you were right, what a good idea. That works well for me and I have found it on Spotify. I see it is paired with Prokofiev and oddly, the first time I heard the piece was when i was in choir for Alexander Nevsky and the Ravel preceded it. It did not feel like a good pairing and the Ravel seemed bitty and boring, I uave it on CD, but after a couple of plays gave up on it. So, thanks.

So out with the Ravel and in with the Orff. Now, no one try me on the Shosta Quartets.......I am not going there.

Mike

[North Star]

Yes, you were right, what a good idea. That works well for me and I have found it on Spotify. I see it is paired with Prokofiev and oddly, the first time I heard the piece was when i was in choir for Alexander Nevsky and the Ravel preceded it. It did not feel like a good pairing and the Ravel seemed bitty and boring, I uave it on CD, but after a couple of plays gave up on it. So, thanks.

Excellent! Yes, seems odd to pair it with Nevsky. The Cinderella suite arrangement is a fine pairing though, on the Argerich/Pletnev disc.

So out with the Ravel and in with the Orff. Now, no one try me on the Shosta Quartets.......I am not going there.

Mike

[EigenUser]

The Ravel is beautiful. We did it in orchestra a few years ago and it was one of the most touching things I've ever played. I also have a solo piano version that I try and play from time-to-time.

Now, no one try me on the Shosta Quartets.......I am not going there.

Mike

Didn't you know that all 15 quartets were originally written for piano, ondes-Martinot, kazoo, and triangle? You should give 'em a try. I think it works better in that original form, anyways.

[knight66]

Now, there is a bit of arcane music history. Clearly Shosta was influenced by Berlioz, who used that same combo as the original orchestration for his Grande Messe. Harnoncourt has a terrific recording of that version, goes with a real swing.

Mike

[Karl Henning]

Welcome Kamisama, you have reminded me of another for the bonfire. I have been made to yell my way through Carmina Burana several times and would be happy never to encounter it again.

Mike

+ 1

[Jo498]

Carmina Burana is a hilarious romp and a guilty pleasure once a year or so. Now that around here gratum et optatum ver reducit gaudea I should probably give it a spin.
But can understand that people hate it.

[Karl Henning]

Like the Pachelbel Canon:  Not at all a genuinely bad piece.  Only a piece which doesn't bear up particularly well after saturation broadcasting.

[jochanaan]

I rather agree with this. I have never appreciated Berg's VC. Mind you I am not that keen on the one by Sibelius either and he is one of my favourite composers.

De gustibus non disputandum est, again.  I loved both of those concertos on my first encounter with them, and my love continues.  But my tastes are well-known here as leaning "left," that is, progressive.

(Off-topic question to anyone with more Latin than I: What is the proper form of that Latin sentence?  I've seen it a couple of different ways.  Also, is it disputandUm or disputandEm?)

[Karl Henning]

Paging Cato!

[Gurn Blanston]

De gustibus non disputandum est, again.  I loved both of those concertos on my first encounter with them, and my love continues.  But my tastes are well-known here as leaning "left," that is, progressive.

(Off-topic question to anyone with more Latin than I: What is the proper form of that Latin sentence?  I've seen it a couple of different ways.  Also, is it disputandUm or disputandEm?)

The way you have it written:  "The debate is not about tastes"

I wouldn't change it, unless you think you mean something else altogether.

[jochanaan]

The way you have it written:  "The debate is not about tastes"

I wouldn't change it, unless you think you mean something else altogether.

"I tell the tale that I heard told." (A.E. Housman) It was my mother who introduced me to that saying.  Even at 100 years old, her memory for accurate detail is astounding.

[Wanderer]

De gustibus non disputandum est.

What is the proper form of that Latin sentence?  I've seen it a couple of different ways.  Also, is it disputandUm or disputandEm?

It's either "De gustibus non disputandum est" or "De gustibus non est disputandum"; both mean exactly the same thing. Sometimes the verb (est) is omitted with no loss of meaning.

And it's always disputandum.

[Jo498]

De gustibus non disputandum est, again.  I loved both of those concertos on my first encounter with them, and my love continues.  But my tastes are well-known here as leaning "left," that is, progressive.

(Off-topic question to anyone with more Latin than I: What is the proper form of that Latin sentence?  I've seen it a couple of different ways.  Also, is it disputandUm or disputandEm?)

disputandum, the other is simply wrong, it's not even a well-formed word. (The ending -em is possible in other words, like "ars est celare artem" (the art consists in hiding the art), but not here.) The "um" should also be pronounced clearly distinguishable from "em"

word order is very liberal in Latin and one can also leave out the "est" often.

"About tastes there cannot be a debate/dispute" is maybe the closest translation. It should be noted that a "disputatio" was a formal debate at medieval university. So it is not just any arguing that is supposed to be out of place as far as tastes are concerned. But a debate with logical arguments and rebuttals is not possible.
Ergo, we can keep arguing about tastes because we are not engaging in a formal debate

[Florestan]

It's either "De gustibus non disputandum est" or "De gustibus non est disputandum"; both mean exactly the same thing. Sometimes the verb (est) is omitted with no loss of meaning.

And it's always disputandum.

Seen it also as "De gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est".

[SymphonicAddict]

Highly subjective and personal list (I don't want to hurt sensitivities):

-Mozart: Requiem (terribly overrated IMHO)
-Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
-Schönberg: String quartets
-Rachmaninov: Piano concerto No. 2 (I like it, but not so much)
-Stravinsky: Agon, Orpheus
-Fauré: Requiem (it doesn't convince me enough)
-Poulenc: Gloria (it doesn't convince me enough)
-Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (it has some interesting moments, but it's too dense)
-Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 (I never thought to say anything bad about Sibelius, but this symphony is the least I like about him, it's too gray)
-French Baroque operas by Lully, Rameau, etc.

[Mahlerian]

-Schönberg: String quartets

This is the first time I've seen anyone say that liking these is more popular than disliking them.  I mean, I think they're the best quartets of the 20th century, but I thought that was an unpopular opinion.

As for myself?

I don't like Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade much, or Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.

[bwv 1080]

Most music I am just indifferent to, very little I actively dislike but among composers I like:

Stravinsky - Les Noces (sounds like someone's crazy idea of bad chinese music)
Ligeti - Violin Concerto (such a plodding piece on a mediocre faux folk tune)
Henze - Symphonies 6 and 9 (just a mess)
Brahms - String Quartets op 51(dull, dull, dull)

[Karl Henning]

If it's any consolation the Sarge – who is as devoted a fan of Dmitri Dmitryevich as any of us – has trouble with the e minor symphony.