Great composers whom you like a few works of, but who usually bore you.

[Mirror Image]

Debussy. I like La Mer and, when in the right mood, Jeux, the 3 orchestral images and his Quartet. That's it.

You don't like the Cello Sonata, Violin Sonata, or the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp?

[SimonNZ]

Franck. I adore his symphony and like his violin sonata. But I can't sit through any of his organ or piano music. His other chamber music doesn't appeal much either.

I played Franck's Les Sept Paroles du Christ sur la Croix for the first time just the other day, and was immediately surprised that it isn't a massively popular household/movie soundtrack etc favourite, or even better known among regular classical listeners. Maybe not his best work from an academic point of view, but radiantly beautiful.

[Mahlerian]

Oh, may as well post an ontopic comment.

Schonberg
I like most of his earlier works (Verklarte Nacht in particular) but not his later works.

Although bore is not quite the correct term.  I actively dislike Pierrot Lunaire and Erwartung: the entire musical style in those pieces hits me the wrong way.

He's truly the Beethoven of the 20th century.  Even 50 years after his death some people find his later works too extreme.

[Mirror Image]

He's truly the Beethoven of the 20th century.  Even 50 years after his death some people find his later works too extreme.

Not by me. I don't like Pierrot Lunaire, but have an extreme fondness for works like the Kammersymphonies, Fünf Orchesterstücke, Die Jakobsleiter, Die glückliche Hand, A Survivor From Warsaw, Piano Concerto, Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene, and, of course, Verklärte Nacht (both arrangements).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

To me Schoenberg's music sounds like he was writing in the same kind of style (late romantic but tending towards the sounds that some composers after him picked up) all his life apart from some very early pieces like the String Quartet in D. I find that Verklärte Nacht and A Survivor from Warsaw sound very much like it could only have been composed by the same person with his individual style....

[André]

You don't like the Cello Sonata, Violin Sonata, or the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp?

Nice but boring 

[amw]

Shostakovich - I like the First Cello Concerto, Second Piano Trio, Third Quartet, Fourteenth Symphony, some of the early piano music (notably Aphorisms) and some of the light music (notably the Suites for Variety Orchestra). I find most of the rest of his music dull as dishwater and about as grey although, with repeated listening, there are a few individual movements and pieces I occasionally enjoy returning to.

Richard Strauss - I like, perhaps oddly, the Violin Sonata—a piece that's hardly ever remarked on, though it shows up on recital programmes often enough. Some of the other early chamber music is also rather pleasant. Most of his music, however (including Metamorphosen and Four Last Songs) just doesn't appeal. Hard to say exactly why. I've never really gotten on with a lot of the German/Austrian late-romantics actually (Mahler, Zemlinsky, Schreker, early Schoenberg and Berg, etc... made an effort to like Reger, but failed; I guess overwrought chromaticism and development only appeals to me in Russian)

Boulez - Ok, so I'm sure lots of anti-modernists out there question the idea of Boulez being a "great" composer in the first place. He's certainly been influential, though, and for the life of me I'm not sure why. Some of the earlier music, again, can be kind of fun when one's in the mood for total serialism (Structures, Sonata No. 2), but a great deal of his music just feels turgid and dogmatic and his tendency to make each revision less striking than the previous one also contributes to that.

Rakhmaninov - Until I was about 17 I had very little tolerance for the Late Romantics, but around that time Brahms and Dvořák broke through my self-imposed barriers and since then the net's been spread much wider. Rakhmaninov and Strauss are now practically alone in the never-listen-to category with the unholy trinity (Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler—who don't really qualify for this thread because there aren't (yet) any works of theirs I like). Lately I've been finding some of Rakhmaninov's solo piano music downright appealing, so perhaps someday soon the piano concertos and The Bells and so forth will become more interesting to me as well.

Stockhausen - Not as extreme a case as some of the above, but a lot of his early epoch-making pieces (Gesang der Jünglinge, Hymnen, Stimmen etc) do very little for me, as do most of the later bits of Klang. Of course, I also like pieces that even the pants-on-head Stockhausen fanatics aren't crazy about, like Mikrophonie I, so perhaps that's more a thing for the "Unpopular Opinions" thread.

Shostakovich, Strauss & Boulez still qualify for this thread. With Rachmaninov I will add the Symphonic Dances (2 piano version preferably) and nothing else. (Stockhausen I like more now so he's off the list.)

New additions, if they count as great composers:

Britten - I like the Violin Concerto and have collected several recordings of it. I also like the 2nd string quartet and some of the early music (unnumbered string quartets, fantasy with oboe, sinfonietta etc). I don't get on with most of his mature work though. Sometimes feels sterile.

Elgar - Forgot about him first go round. I like the Enigma Variations, the violin sonata and maybe possibly the violin concerto, also warming to both symphonies. Most of his work hasn't done much for me though.

Walton - The piano quartet. String quartet to some extent. And I have some affection for the viola concerto for sure. Very very lukewarm about basically everything else.

Reich - Music for 18 Musicians is good. For some reason like it better than the rest of his work despite it being basically the same.

[SymphonicAddict]

Overall, most of Baroque and Rennaissance composers, mainly those who composed plenty of operas and vocal/choral music. Actually I can't stand them. I prefer the choral works of Classicism onwards.

[Autumn Leaves]

Can only think of 1 Composer (I think to be fair and answer the question honestly one would need to have listened to a reasonable amount of the Composers work) - so..

Messiaen

Love the Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps and Turangalila but the rest of what I have heard (which is not an inconsiderable amount) have disappointed me somewhat - I still find Messiaen fascinating and will keep trying to find a way to increase my appreciation of his work..