GMG Classical Music Forum

Well??!?!?

I picked mazurkas, ballades, and scherzos, though I'm sure my answer will be different next year. Right now, mazurkas would be my #1 choice.

Wicked poll.  And the damnedest thing is, I cast my votes before I read your inaugural post.

Quote from: karlhenning on July 30, 2014, 06:44:12 AM
Wicked poll.  And the damnedest thing is, I cast my votes before I read your inaugural post.

Guess this means we're

(http://soulculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Twins-2.jpg)

Gosh, I hope you're not the taller of us twain . . . .

I only vote for one selection -- ballades, and I hate the fact that ballades don't have a selection to themselves! Why???  >:(

Chopin's greatest achievements? Or which genres do we like the best? Yeah, that's what I thought you meant  ;D

Preludes, Nocturnes, Polonaises


Sarge

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on July 30, 2014, 07:12:30 AM
Chopin's greatest achievements? Or which genres do we like the best? Yeah, that's what I thought you meant  ;D

Preludes, Nocturnes, Polonaises


Sarge

Well played withal!

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on July 30, 2014, 07:12:30 AM
Chopin's greatest achievements? Or which genres do we like the best? Yeah, that's what I thought you meant  ;D

Preludes, Nocturnes, Polonaises


Sarge

Preludes, Nocturnes, Etudes.....close.

Preludes, Polonaises, Ballades.

Too many categories... For me there are short piano pieces (Preludes, Etudes) medium length piano pieces (Ballades, Polonaises, Scherzi and most nocturnes), dance-like pieces (waltzes, mazurkas), sonatas, chamber music, piano and orchestra. Everything is very good, the music with orchestra slightly less so (I do not really know the songs). The chamber music is underrated (it's only two and a half pieces, though).
So I voted Preludes, Nocturnes, Ballades etc. For me the best things are the Ballades, Polonaise-Fantaisie, Barcarole and Preludes. But of course I also like many others a lot.

Preludes, Nocturnes, Mazurkas and Polonaises.

I missed the polonaises option when I voted, I would have chosen that over mazurkas.  Arg, I don't like this poll.  Too many options.  Don't see the point of it either.

Mazurkas stand alone on the top of the heap. Preludes for the Op. 28, and that Ballades & al. group are my other picks. I do like the Scherzi, too, though..

I didn't like leaving the Preludes out . . . .

The Polonaise-Fantasie belongs with the Ballades et al. Therefore I'm voting for that group along with Mazurkas and Sonata No. 3.

Etudes rate for me for a variety of reasons, the main one being that Chopin significantly changed this genre thus leading onto the likes of Liszt's TEs and PEs.

The Nocturnes are some of the best short pieces ever written for piano.

The Ballades, taking program music into new realms.

Quote from: karlhenning on July 30, 2014, 09:29:48 AM
I didn't like leaving the Preludes out . . . .

A poll isn't fun unless it hurts.

I'd vote for music for piano solo, but can't find it  ;)

Seriously ... Nocturnes, Ballades, Préludes - maybe? Next three would be the Mazurkas, Polonaises and Scherzi, I guess.

Rather hard to choose; but I would pick mazurkas, nocturnes and waltzes.

Preludes first, then nocturnes and mazurkas.

I do love the Préludes, and I repent of omitting them from my votes, but for me the Mazurkas are always first!

(Just had to say it . . . .)

Etudes, by a mile. After that Mazurkas. Then it was a tough choice between waltzes and nocturnes. I went for Waltzes. Preludes never grab me the same way.

I worry about the 1 out of 27 who cast the I don't like Chopin vote 8)

Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2014, 09:59:38 AM
I worry about the 1 out of 27 who cast the I don't like Chopin vote 8)

Why? I know many people in that category, including myself at different times.

Most of these wouldn't bother to vote at all, I guess.

Quote from: springrite on August 07, 2014, 04:43:11 PM
Why? I know many people in that category, including myself at different times.

I should hesitate to ask this of a psychologist, but do you really dislike Chopin at those times, or do you simply wish to hear other music?

Quote from: jochanaan on July 30, 2014, 08:01:47 AM
Preludes, Polonaises, Ballades.

Snap.

I don't quite know why the Ballades are thrown in with the Barcarolle and the Fantaisie, but that made my first choice an absolute no-brainer. You've got most of his great larger-scale masterpieces right there. The only one that might not be is the Polonaise-Fantaisie, but I took care of that by voting for the Polonaises.

I voted Nocturnes, Preludes and Sonatas.

Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2014, 03:38:19 AM
I do love the Préludes, and I repent of omitting them from my votes, but for me the Mazurkas are always first!

(Just had to say it . . . .)

In 2/4 or 3/4? ;)

Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2014, 09:59:38 AM
I worry about the 1 out of 27 who cast the I don't like Chopin vote 8)

Imagine my shock when Len, the publisher of MusicWeb, thanked me for requesting 3 Chopin CDs and wrote, "None of our other writers like Chopin." My reply was a more eloquent version of "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!????!"

Quote from: Brian on August 08, 2014, 01:15:32 PM
Imagine my shock when Len, the publisher of MusicWeb, thanked me for requesting 3 Chopin CDs and wrote, "None of our other writers like Chopin." My reply was a more eloquent version of "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!????!"

:o :o :o

They might as well say "we don't like breathing".

Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on August 08, 2014, 04:22:59 PM
:o :o :o

They might as well say "we don't like breathing".

+1   :D

Quote from: orfeo on August 08, 2014, 07:53:03 AM
Snap.

I don't quite know why the Ballades are thrown in with the Barcarolle and the Fantaisie, but that made my first choice an absolute no-brainer. You've got most of his great larger-scale masterpieces right there. The only one that might not be is the Polonaise-Fantaisie, but I took care of that by voting for the Polonaises.

I'd just say the Polonaise-Fantaisie belongs with the Ballades et al. anyway. So would Charles Rosen apparently. Either way it's certainly a country mile ahead of the remainder of the Polonaises, however nice some of them may be.

Of course I also voted for a category because of a single work as IMO the B minor sonata is the greatest piano sonata after Beethoven. >.>

Quote from: karlhenning on August 08, 2014, 02:10:39 AM
I should hesitate to ask this of a psychologist, but do you really dislike Chopin at those times, or do you simply wish to hear other music?

Well, more often than not, I dislike all the emoting going on (same goes with Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov). I can only take them at specific times and small doses.

Quote from: amw on August 08, 2014, 09:05:49 PM
Of course I also voted for a category because of a single work as IMO the B minor sonata is the greatest piano sonata after Beethoven. >.>

Would you like to expand/geek out on this? I have had a hard time digesting that sonata, aside from the final movement, which is maybe the most straightforward. Last I heard it was live in Paris last month, and I was captivated by the entire second half, but the first movement confuses me - it seems so patchwork. What should I listen for? Is it unreasonable to ask you this?

Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on August 08, 2014, 04:22:59 PM
:o :o :o

They might as well say "we don't like breathing".

Well of course, they were also saying "all the new Chopin albums are yours from now on," so I wasn't offended for too long! ;)

Quote from: springrite on August 08, 2014, 09:33:25 PM
Well, more often than not, I dislike all the emoting going on (same goes with Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov). I can only take them at specific times and small doses.

I understand, though somehow I can probably take larger doses of all three composers than your esteemed self.

That said, maybe that is why I like the Mazurkas best of all:  I feel them as dances, not as soliloquy.

For me Chopin is a far more "classical", even sometimes terse and austere and usually more tasteful composer than Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. I like some pieces of the latter, but others I can only bear once in a blue moon. But I can almost always listen to Chopin

Quote from: Jo498 on August 09, 2014, 05:17:38 AM
For me Chopin is a far more "classical", even sometimes terse and austere [...] composer than Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

I agree with this assessment, although I do not at all hold that as any fault on the part of the two later Russians.

Playing Chopin is damn difficult, because he asks you to have the lightness of Mozart while giving you twice as many notes to play as Mozart would.

It is impossible for me to definitely pick only three. I have not heard anything by Chopin that I did not love (as distinct from like). (Ditto for Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, BTW).

Therefore I say only this: Chopin best genre was music for piano, in whatever combination he saw fit to use it.  :D

Quote from: Jo498 on August 09, 2014, 05:17:38 AM
For me Chopin is a far more "classical", even sometimes terse and austere and usually more tasteful composer than Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. I like some pieces of the latter, but others I can only bear once in a blue moon. But I can almost always listen to Chopin

I am fascinated by Chopin's style because he has such a unique mixture of classical rigor and romantic expression. There are pieces which are formally perfectly old-fashioned but full of odd harmonies. Chopin seems to have been simultaneously 50 years behind his time and 50 years ahead of his time.

Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2014, 09:59:38 AM
I worry about the 1 out of 27 who cast the I don't like Chopin vote 8)

This is probably going to sound just as bad, but I am not familiar with, nor do I have recordings of, any of the Mazurkas.  (I voted for Etudes, Preludes, and Nocturnes.)  Every time I hear one on the radio, I don't get any urge to buy the complete set (because I tend to buy sets when it comes to classical recordings).  Can't explain why.  ???

Quote from: yeongil on August 09, 2014, 08:37:55 AM
This is probably going to sound just as bad, but I am not familiar with, nor do I have recordings of, any of the Mazurkas.

Well, that means you are in for a treat, when you get around to them!

Ballades, Nocturnes, Mazurkas

Quote from: Brian on August 09, 2014, 06:33:54 AM
...There are pieces which are formally perfectly old-fashioned but full of odd harmonies...

Indeed.  The best example I know is Prelude #2, in which the key does not become apparent until the very last chord! :o ;D

Quote from: Brian on August 08, 2014, 09:48:24 PM
Would you like to expand/geek out on this? I have had a hard time digesting that sonata, aside from the final movement, which is maybe the most straightforward. Last I heard it was live in Paris last month, and I was captivated by the entire second half, but the first movement confuses me - it seems so patchwork. What should I listen for? Is it unreasonable to ask you this?

I totally will at some point, too hard to think right now. Highlights to include - the first movement as the most perfect synthesis of classical sonata form with a romantic aesthetic (the sonata forms of Schubert and Schumann often being somewhat weaker due to their attempts to fit their material to the formal plan rather than vice versa, whereas Liszt and his followers more or less abandoned sonata form altogether and Brahms's and Dvorak's solutions often being less concise and cohesive), the second movement as proof of Chopin's mastery of pure monophony (unequalled by anyone except Bach), the third as proof of his mastery of Italian bel canto, etc. As long as we're looking into sonatas the 1st and 4th movements of the Second are also pretty exemplary—I've never actually liked the funeral march though

Good starting point for Sonata No. 3: how much Chopin manages to make out of the first five notes... without ever repeating them exactly for the rest of the piece.

Quote from: ChamberNut on August 08, 2014, 07:57:40 AM
I voted Nocturnes, Preludes and Sonatas.

Me, too.
With a tear shed for the Mazurkas.

Those are the four Chopin genres I return to the most.
I really love his 2nd and 3rd sonata. They've got all Chopin has got to offer. Great stuff.

Quote from: Marc on August 10, 2014, 10:26:29 AM
With a tear shed for the Mazurkas.

I always liked you :)

Technically speaking, these aren't "genres," but it's an interesting poll.