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

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Now, I know there is probably not a single piece of musical work that "everyone else" likes but I used it as synonym for "widely appreciated/liked/loved". And rest assured that I don't really "hate" these works, they just haven't yet made that much of an impression to me. It may well be that after giving them some more time I may grow to love them. And I don't have nearly as much as 10 works listed here (can't think of any more right now) so you're free to list less than 10.

Here goes!

1. Giacomo Puccini: La Boheme
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro
3. Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
4. Jean Sibelius: 7th symphony
5. Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew passion
6. Johann Sebastian Bach: St. John passion

[Jay F]

Choose any ten works by Wagner.

[springrite]

Schubert String Quintet

Bruckner 8

Schubert Symphony 9

Wagner Parsifal

Verdi Falstaff (well, not EVERYONE like it, but you know...)

Tchaikovsky (well, lots of them...)

[Sergeant Rock]

Bach St. Matthew Passion
Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit
Ravel Daphnis et Chloé
Debussy Préludes
Stravinsky Firebird
Grieg Lyric Pieces
Shostakovich Symphony No.10

Sarge

[Brahmsian]

In no particular order:

1. Handel's Messiah
2. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
3. Baroque orchestral works (exceptions - Vivaldi, and Bach Violin Concertos)
4. Beethoven (replacement final movement of the 13th string quartet)
5. Schumann's 3rd Symphony (2nd movement only) 
6. Saint Saens' Organ Symphony
7. Italian Opera (with a few exceptions)

[Karl Henning]

Choose any ten works by Wagner.

Not "everyone else" likes them, though . . . .

[mn dave]

A lot of them there "modern" composers.

If I listened to their works, I would know the composition names.  0:)

[Brian]

1. Beethoven's Violin Concerto
2. Brahms' First Piano Concerto
3. Brahms' First Symphony
4. Mahler's Fifth (except the adagietto, best heard separately or arranged as a choral work on that one Accentus CD)
5. Bach's St John Passion
6. Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
TIE-7. Bartok's six string quartets

[NorthNYMark]

1. Beethoven's Violin Concerto
2. Brahms' First Piano Concerto
3. Brahms' First Symphony
4. Mahler's Fifth (except the adagietto, best heard separately or arranged as a choral work on that one Accentus CD)
5. Bach's St John Passion
6. Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
TIE-7. Bartok's six string quartets

Wow--we have very different tastes!

[springrite]

Wow--we have very different tastes!

Well, he just doesn't like what other people like! 

[mn dave]

Well, he just doesn't like what other people like! 

"Whatever it is, I'm against it!"

[NorthNYMark]

1. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
2. Ode to Joy (love the rest of the symphony, though)
3. The New World Symphony

[Brahmsian]

1. Beethoven's Violin Concerto
2. Brahms' First Piano Concerto

[amw]

Mahler: Symphonies 1, 5, 6, 7, 9
Shostakovich: Symphonies 5 & 10, 24 Preludes and Fugues
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, Der Ring des Nibelungen

Those were the first ones to come to mind but on reflection I could probably have redone the list with any ten works by Rachmaninov.

[Karl Henning]

"Whatever it is, I'm against it!"

POW!

[Karl Henning]

I just cannot come up with any response to the thread query.

Just reporting the fact, is all.

[EigenUser]

Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit

5. Schumann's 3rd Symphony (2nd movement only) 

A lot of them there "modern" composers.

If I listened to their works, I would know the composition names.  0:)

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"
6. Stockhausen "Gruppen"
7. Schoenberg "Five Pieces for Orchestra"
8. Brahms "Double Concerto"
9. Stravinsky "Firebird"

[Lisztianwagner]

I have some problems with Italian Opera, especially its most illustrious figure:

Verdi: Nabucco
Verdi: La traviata
Verdi: Aida
Verdi: Don Carlo
Verdi: Rigoletto

[mn dave]

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!"

Well, you hear them but they don't stay with you.

[EigenUser]

Well, you hear them but they don't stay with you.

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.