Works you hate by composers you love

[karlhenning]

It is not a matter of hate, but I simply don't like some works even from my favorite composers.

Examples:

BEETHOVEN: 5th piano Concerto

Because it is one of those (many, many) pieces which WCRB will play four times a month, whether you need it or no, I do hear this piece with a sense of dread and distaste.  And the indignation is because I know that if my ears were just given a rest from this piece for two years, I could love it again, for the first time . . . .

[dtwilbanks]

Because it is one of those (many, many) pieces which WCRB will play four times a month, whether you need it or no, I do hear this piece with a sense of dread and distaste.  And the indignation is because I know that if my ears were just given a rest from this piece for two years, I could love it again, for the first time . . . .

Stop listening to WCRB. 

[karlhenning]

Stop listening to WCRB. 

But . . . they're the only radio station in the world where you can sometimes hear my music! 

[dtwilbanks]

But . . . they're the only radio station in the world where you can sometimes hear my music! 

Well, then. Carry on.

[karlhenning]

Right-ho!

[karlhenning]

To address the question properly (and with the understanding that 'hate' is probably overstatement in most cases):

Debussy, Chansons de Bilitis
Stravinsky, Circus Polka (for a young elephant)
Sibelius, Finlandia
Bach, Musette from the Anna Madgdalena Notebook

[The Emperor]

Finlandia is cool, it was my first Sibelius, i like it a lot, shame on you Karl 

[karlhenning]

No, I won't take the shame 

It's another of those pieces which gets much too much play, especially when there is plenty other great Sibelius to program.

[bhodges]

I like a lot of Wagner's work, but last spring I saw Die Meistersinger at the Met, and don't think I need to see it again any time soon.  The production was excellent (if traditional), the cast was quite good, and Levine and the Met Orchestra played the score splendidly, so I could only conclude that it's the piece that I didn't respond to.

That night I had dinner with a friend for whom this is not just his favorite Wagner opera, but his favorite opera, period.  He has seen some sixteen different productions of it all over the world.  Needless to say, we had an interesting conversation...

--Bruce

[Cato]

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned: after decades of trying I still cannot find anything redeeming in...

Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony.    0:)

And rather than hate, for works I laugh out loud at, because they are so awful, by a composer I do not otherwise like, there is Ferde Grofe's Hudson River Suite and Mississippi Suite.    

Amen on Finlandia: my former school used the tune for its alma mater song and ruined it.  Requiescat in pace!      0:)

[Haffner]

Beethoven is a favorite composer of mine, but there are several piano sonatas I don't care for by him, and much of what he wrote before 1809 I rarely listen to.

Mozart's symphonies before no. 25...and in fact most of the symphonies following that one.

And there are a few Joseph Haydn symphonies that I could care less about ever hearing again.

[karlhenning]

. . . after decades of trying I still cannot find anything redeeming in...

Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony.    0:)

[rappy]

Prokofiev's 7th is just great, as his 5th, 1st and second. The third and fourth I haven't listened to yet, the 6th I just don't understand.

But let's come to the question:

Schumann's cello and violin concerto are very weak compositions IMO.
Most parts of Sibelius' 2nd symphony sound boring to me.
Don Juan by R. Strauss, love the beginning with its beautiful theme, but the rest bores me completly.

[karlhenning]

Oh, I defend Cato's privilege not to thrill to the Prokofiev Seventh, though I like the piece a great deal.

Just as you are free not to like the Sibelius Second, or the Schumann Cello Concerto . . . .

[orbital]

Beethoven is a favorite composer of mine, but there are several piano sonatas I don't care for by him..

Yes, I call them "filler" sonatas, and I generally skip them when I play the sonatas CDs.

[Drasko]

Yes, I call them "filler" sonatas, and I generally skip them when I play the sonatas CDs.

One of those usually regarded as 'filler' is actually one of my favorites - op.79

as for original question - Chopin op.40/1

[Cato]

Concerning Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony

I know !  I know!  I have read all the explanations: I just do not connect with it.

But I see nobody has written to wonder about my dissing the Grofe epics!   

[BachQ]

Much as I love Schubert, I find his symphonies rather weak, save 4th, 8th and 9th (this last is a masterpiece, OTOH).

2nd Sym is a gem ........

[BachQ]

I do hear this piece with a sense of dread and distaste. 

Your take is wrong Karl ........ every performance of the Emperor is special .........   

[Don]

And there are a few Joseph Haydn symphonies that I could care less about ever hearing again.

I wouldn't mind never hearing a Haydn symphony again.