The Five Pieces You Never Want To Hear Again!

[hornteacher]

There isn't much music that grates on my nerves but I'm sure everyone has a list of tunes you could go the rest of your life without ever hearing again.  They are the tunes that make you turn off the Classical station and look for your Beethoven CDs.

My five are:

1) Blue Danube Waltz
2) Canon in D
3) Bolero
4) Waltz of the Flowers
5) Air on the G String

[Bogey]

I used to be right there with you with a number of pieces that I did not care to hear again....one of which was LvB's 9th due to my overplaying it.  However, of late I have found that the pieces that I thought I wanted to be "on the shelf" in a permanent fashion are beginning to creep back off my shelves (including the 9th) as they have been given the proper rest from my ears and also due to discovering new performances of these pieces that give them freshness.  So all in all, there are not any recordings at this time that I would never want to hear again....just pieces that I need to rotate out of my listening, take a break from, and come back to at a later date.

[Greta]

Oh my!  Five Pieces You Never Want to Hear Again, huh? 

Well, I thought you meant so bad you never wanted to hear them again...I have some of those!

I can't really remember what because I don't own them (haha!), but some things that come on the classical radio while driving, ick. Doesn't happen often, but sometimes, usually coming home at night, when I'd love to hear some Debussy piano...and then no, then it's avantgarde time! Oh yes, avantgarde piano banging music!

I don't really remember what pieces in particular or composers, but those would rank among works I never want to hear again. LOL Really out-there SQ, also ouch.

But as far as overplayed, can't really think of any. I really overplayed the Wagner overtures the first 5 years I was in to classical, and have been away from them for a long time, now I'm finding some new recordings and having fun with my old friends again.

[not edward]

I don't think I have any. There are pieces I don't want to hear for a long time, but I'll re-evaluate them later, when ready to come to them afresh.

[Heather Harrison]

Sometimes, pieces that get overplayed go off of my list for a long time, but it seems that I always come back to them, so I can't think of any that I never want to hear again.  I was sick of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for years, primarily because the first movement is overplayed, but one day I bought Gardiner's Beethoven set, and his historically informed performance breathed new life into this piece, and I am no longer sick of it.

Some that I am currently sick of hearing are Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Nutcracker, Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and J. Strauss II's Blue Danube.  (I couldn't think of a fifth piece for this list, but there probably is one.)  These are all good pieces of music, but they are way too popular.  Maybe in a few years, I will no longer be so sick of them, but in the meantime I will listen instead to the parodies of these pieces by P.D.Q. Bach and Spike Jones.  P.D.Q. Bach's 1712 Overture is hilarious, and many years ago Spike Jones did a great job of butchering some pieces from Nutcracker.

Heather

[Don]

I'd go with Pachelbel's Canon, the Matthews Pluto and just about anything by Dittersdorf.

[helios]

Pachelbel Canon's only crime is it deserved popularity.   The work is genius.

[Steve]

Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'
Glass, Violin Concerto
Elgar, Starlight Express
Bach, Air on a G String
Pachelbel, Canon in D

[hornteacher]

Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'

Wow, I could hear that one every day, in spite of how overplayed it is.

[Don]

Pachelbel Canon's only crime is it deserved popularity.   The work is genius.

I don't dispute its quality.  I've just heard it too often.

[Steve]

Wow, I could hear that one every day, in spite of how overplayed it is.

Well, I knew my selections wouldn't be without their devotees. 

[mahlertitan]

1. Beethoven's 5th symphony
2. Dvorak's 9th symphony
3. Tchaikovsky first piano concerto
4. Tchaikovsky violin concerto
5. 3 b's violin concerto, Brahms, Beethoven, Bruch

[Bunny]

1. Hans Peter Kyburz: Noësis
2. Any
3. Bad
3. Recording or
4. Performance of
5. Anything

[Cato]

Yes, agreed, the topic seems to mean 5 pieces that are bad, laughingly bad, like Ed Wood movies:

Hollywood Suite
Niagara Falls Suite
Mississippi Suite
Hudson River Suite
Death Valley Suite

by Ferde Grofe.     

[mahlertitan]

Yes, agreed, the topic seems to mean 5 pieces that are bad, laughingly bad, like Ed Wood movies:

Hollywood Suite
Niagara Falls Suite
Mississippi Suite
Hudson River Suite
Death Valley Suite

by Ferde Grofe.     

blue danube is "laughingly bad"?

[hornteacher]

blue danube is "laughingly bad"?

It is if you're a horn player:

rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop

and the grand finale:

rest - bop - bop - BOP!

[mahlertitan]

It is if you're a horn player:

rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop
rest - bop - bop

and the grand finale:

rest - bop - bop - BOP!

well, so? Bass players don't do much in most classical music anyways, what if they don't like what they do? the music is still good.

[The Mad Hatter]

Beethoven: Fur Elise (should be locked in a safe and buried at the bottom of the ocean for a hundred years, so people can rediscover how wonderful it is)

Aside from that, not much...

Steve: odd that you mention Glass's Violin Concerto, it's one of very few works of his that I do like. Though the third movement is a bit of a letdown...

[Cato]

blue danube is "laughingly bad"?

No, I never said that!   

I was agreeing that the topic should be restricted to works that are ipso facto "laughingly bad" and not things that one has simply gotten tired of.

[val]

BUSSOTTI: Rara Requiem

STOCKHAUSEN: Stimmung

BERLIOZ: Te Deum

BONTEMPO: Te Deum

LISZT: Orage (piano)