Well-known music you've somehow overlooked (or never got round to hearing)

[The new erato]

That was first said some 100 years ago by a German critic, Oscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz, who felt that "nothing on earth is more terrible than English music, except English painting."

I think Turner proved him wrong.

[71 dB]

The ignorant comments about British music makes me want to avoid this thread. 

Really, a lot of the time I spend on internet discussion boards I feel sick reading what people say.

I feel sick when religious people call atheists bad people without moral.
I feel sick when people call the Star Wars Prequels crap.
I feel sick when scientific things like climate change and evolution are denied.
I feel sick when Elgar's music is called bombastic.
I feel sick when People say they hate Kesha without realising who and how talented she really is.

This list goes on and on. The changes to avoid these comments is practically zero. Avoiding the interned means peace of mind.

Ignorance and hate everywhere. How did people express those feelings before the internet? Did the internet create all this hate?

I avoided Ives. Then about 2 weeks ago I decided to stop ignoring his music and I found out I actually dig it. Once again it was me who was stupid and ignorant. Now I am hopefully a bit wiser.

[Karl Henning]

I think Turner proved him wrong.

Well, and since (if (poco) sfz's chronology be correct) he made the remark after Turner, ignorance can be his only excuse.

[71 dB]

Very Nearly Thread Duty:

In fact, I had somehow managed to avoid the Mendelssohn pf concerti for (say) four decades;  but once I heard 'em, I loved 'em.  (The vn cto, of course, was an immediate hit.)

I don't think I have heard Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos. I like Mendelssohn, but there is no time (and money) for everything.

[Karl Henning]

The ignorant comments about British music makes me want to avoid this thread. 

Really, a lot of the time I spend on internet discussion boards I feel sick reading what people say.

I feel sick when religious people call atheists bad people without moral.
I feel sick when people call the Star Wars Prequels crap.
I feel sick when scientific things like climate change and evolution are denied.
I feel sick when Elgar's music is called bombastic.
I feel sick when People say they hate Kesha without realising who and how talented she really is.

This list goes on and on. The changes to avoid these comments is practically zero. Avoiding the interned means peace of mind.

Ignorance and hate everywhere. How did people express those feelings before the internet? Did the internet create all this hate?

I avoided Ives. Then about 2 weeks ago I decided to stop ignoring his music and I found out I actually dig it. Once again it was me who was stupid and ignorant. Now I am hopefully a bit wiser.

Ah, well: another rant.

[Karl Henning]

I don't think I have heard Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos. I like Mendelssohn, but there is no time (and money) for everything.

Well, you're here rationalizing your avoidance. The pf cti fit on a single disc, so the cost (whether in time or treasure) is minimal; and you are already a fan of the composer.

[Florestan]

I don't think I have heard Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos. I like Mendelssohn, but there is no time (and money) for everything.

Youtube has both of them for free, including the famous Serkin / Ormandy version and an (almost) equally stunning one from Yuja Wang and Kurt Masur. 

[Jo498]

I don't think I have heard Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos. I like Mendelssohn, but there is no time (and money) for everything.

Mendelssohn himself apparently did not think highly of those concertos, called them merely light fluff or so. But then he was very self-critical (did not allow publication of the 5th symphony during his lifetime) and they are brilliant and entertaining pieces although not as important as the 3rd and 4th symphonies, the violin concerto, the trios, octet or the a minor and f minor quartets.

[71 dB]

Well, you're here rationalizing your avoidance. The pf cti fit on a single disc, so the cost (whether in time or treasure) is minimal; and you are already a fan of the composer.

Time is bigger problem. I can't listen to Mendelssohn NOW, because NOW I am listening to Ives!

Mendelssohn works I do have:
- Violin Sonatas
- Cello Sonatas
- String Quartets
- Paulus
- String Symphonies Nos. 10-13
- Octet
- Violin Concerto

[North Star]

I think Turner proved him wrong.

Well, and since (if (poco) sfz's chronology be correct) he made the remark after Turner, ignorance can be his only excuse.

And Constable, but before both of them Gainsborough. Afterwards, Pre-Raphaelites, Grimshaw & others. But the remark is quite probably pure cultural chauvinism, or a reaction to  something his aesthetic didn't agree with.

[Jo498]

That was first said some 100 years ago by a German critic, Oscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz, who felt that "nothing on earth is more terrible than English music, except English painting."

From what I know about European culture of the (late) Victorian age, that critic was not totally off (re music, I don't really understand what should be lacking in 19th century Briish painting). And not only with respect to obviously "great composers" but the musical culture in general. German and Austrian culture, down the petit bourgeoise was really immersed in classical music (often including avantgarde of the day, like Wagner). Whereas in Britain "music lover" supposedly was a euphemism? for a gay man...

Tovey has scathing remarks in his essays about musical life in Britain in the early 1900s and a novel like Forster's "Howard's End" depicts most of the British upper class as fairly ignorant with respect to music/ "high culture" (maybe exaggerating to prove a point).

[Karl Henning]

And Constable, but before both of them Gainsborough. Afterwards, Pre-Raphaelites, Grimshaw & others. But the remark is quite probably pure cultural chauvinism, or a reaction to  something his aesthetic didn't agree with.

Yes, indeed.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I feel sick when religious people call atheists bad people without moral.
I feel sick when people call the Star Wars Prequels crap.
I feel sick when scientific things like climate change and evolution are denied.
I feel sick when Elgar's music is called bombastic.
I feel sick when People say they hate Kesha without realising who and how talented she really is.

Have you seen your doctor? Personally, I feel sick when I hear Elgar's bombastic music.

[Madiel]

I declared The Phantom Menace to be crap just yesterday. This is not exactly a minority opinion.

[Jo498]

I took the liberty to completely ignore all latter day Star Wars movies. I do not even care enough about that stuff to ever watch to be able to call it crap with a clean conscience
It's unfortunate enough that with watching a little TV and surfing the internet one is inundated with current popular culture I'd rather ignore completely.
(FWIW I probably do not care enough about the "original trilogy" either to ever watch it again.)

[DaveF]

Fauré gets a couple of mentions above, and I don't know anything either, apart from the Requiem and the Cantique de Jean Racine.  In fact, don't know anything about any of those late French romantics - Chausson, d'Indy, Chabrier, Gounod...  I tried to remedy this by ordering Brilliant's Fauré edition from Amazon last year at SDCB price, but 6 months on it's still out of stock.  Perhaps I'm not meant to know Fauré.

[The new erato]

I feel sick when people call the Star Wars Prequels crap.

Ones priorities are one's own. Me: I wish I could have that prequel time back so I could listen to some more Mendelssohn. :-)

[Jo498]

Fauré wrote some of the best chamber music of the time; actually any lover of chamber music should try it. I do not know the piano music well enough and found what I heard of the orchestral music comparably minor, but the piano quartets/quintets, violin + cello sonatas and the late string quartet are all remarkable pieces.

Chausson has a nice symphony, almost as good as Franck's (and not played to death) and some worthwhile chamber music as well, most famous maybe the haunting "concert" for piano, violin and string quartet.

(Gounod and Chabrier are mainly "opera", so I cannot comment on them.)

Because the "British bias" was mentioned elsewhere: It cannot be denied that British labels and musicians really care for their tradition.
Fauré, Chausson, even Magnard or Roussel are IMO usually superior to most late romantic British composers (I will not name names) but only a few of their pieces are as well known or as often recorded.

And there are Reger and Pfitzner, not even popular in Germany (except for Pfitzner's opera "Palestrina" and some organ and choral stuff by Reger). They can be tough nuts (and Pfitzner was a despicable person, an antisemite and conservative nationalist who was so contrarian and headstrong that despite his attitudes he fell out with the Nazis) but they also wrote some remarkable music.
Reger was highly regarded both by the Schönberg circle and also by the Busch brothers; Rudolf and Peter Serkin have been among the few champions of his music.

[Madiel]

Perhaps I'm not meant to know Fauré.

No god would be so cruel as to deny you this knowledge.

I do occasionally find it bizarre and amusing that everyone always says "well, I know the Requiem"... and I own about 80% of Faure's output but not the Requiem.

[Karl Henning]

(FWIW I probably do not care enough about the "original trilogy" either to ever watch it again.)

We share that (potentially unpopular) opinion