Classical composers you used to dislike—but now you love their works?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I'm glad too Bartok has to be one of the most consistent composers, even most of his juvenilia I find to be quite high quality. With my natural love of chamber music it was incorrect of me to dive straight into the string quartets, though they are now among my favorite works in the entire classical repertoire. With Berg and Webern I would start with their lieder if you like that style, both of them (same with Schoenberg) wrote very beautiful songs.

Thank you for the suggestions.  I'll check to see whether or not I have any of their lieder.

PD

[Karl Henning]

Benjamin Britten.

When I first sang Rejoice in the Lamb, I thought it atrocious. I loved it by the time performance-time came around. Same thing happened the next year, when we sang Hymn to St. Cecilia: initial hatred, followed by grudging admiration, and concluding with utter adoration.

This patch of Britten's œuvre is like Carmina burana for me: I much prefer participating in the performance, to enduring it as a passive auditor.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Hello folks I thank you kindly for so mutch response I might  had I too has in youth did not like , Schoenberg until I heard six Orchestral songs which are bright and shinning.

Did slightly dislike J.S Bach, out of one reason my father  force it unpon whit: Les quatre saisons de Vivaldi Ravel because this was is only classical music and all very mainstream, not that it's a problem Satie Les Gnossienne is very notorious but I love.

[lordlance]

I would say all of them.

Some composers have certain works that I loved instantly (in parts) but otherwise classical has never been a love-at-first-listen genre of music for me. Even now I have a strong distaste of slow movements. But what I do love I love to bits and pieces.

[Valentino]

Wagner. Aureka moment back in 2009 when I stopped following advice and dived into the Ring (or is that the Rhein?). I wasn't supposed to do that they said. It wouldn't work they said.
Schumann. Boring muddy symphonies. Just found a new way in by a couple of works for choir and orchestra, and of course my oldest son singing one of his Lieder for his exams. These are early days but at least I'm not switching off any more.

[71 dB]

For me first disliking and then liking later is about having known too little about the music to appreciate it fully. I can mention the names:

Liszt
Telemann

Once I actually listened to the music of these composers carefully with an open mind I found out I do like their music. Especially Liszt was a pleasant surprise and I hear a lot of "proto-Elgarian" epicness in his music.

Did slightly dislike J.S Bach, out of one reason my father  force it unpon whit:

I certainly didn't have that problem with my jazz-nut dad. I had to discover J. S. Bach myself and I was the one teaching my father to appreciare Bach!  0:)

Wagner. Aureka moment back in 2009 when I stopped following advice...

I wonder what was the advice keeping you from getting into Wagner that well...

[Lisztianwagner]

Chopin and Vaughan Williams come immediately into my mind. I didn't exactly dislike them, nonetheless when I discovered those composers and tried to listen to some of their music, I remember at first I couldn't connect much with their works, which left me little captured and impressed. But after a serious immersion into their compositions, I completely changed opinion.

[vandermolen]

Definitely Britten (although not the operas)
Schubert's 'Unfinished Symphony'
VW 'A Sea Symphony'
Shostakovich Symphony 13 'Babi Yar'

[pjme]

Rossini - after finally listening to a complete Semiramide (Caballe & Horne) I was won over

[KevinP]

The bastardisation of certain Tchaikovsky pieces in the media (1812 and Swan Lake in particular) turned me against him before I ever started exploring classical music. Chuck Berry may have had a slight influence as well.

I'm still haven't fully converted, but I do enjoy some of his vocal works now.

[vers la flamme]

The bastardisation of certain Tchaikovsky pieces in the media (1812 and Swan Lake in particular) turned me against him before I ever started exploring classical music. Chuck Berry may have had a slight influence as well.

I'm still haven't fully converted, but I do enjoy some of his vocal works now.

Which ones? Asking because I don't think I know any of Tchaikovsky's vocal works.

[pjme]

The bastardisation of certain Tchaikovsky pieces in the media (1812 and Swan Lake in particular) turned me against him before I ever started exploring classical music.

I'm still haven't fully converted, but I do enjoy some of his vocal works now.

So do I:

https://www.youtube.com/v/OPlK5HwFxcw

and

https://www.youtube.com/v/0gnQKHiCnTs

and with more pomp ...

https://www.youtube.com/v/tubbrHbV8JU

[KevinP]

Which ones? Asking because I don't think I know any of Tchaikovsky's vocal works.

A Rimsky-Korsakov phase a couple years ago led me to Netrebko's Still of Night album which has some of songs. I then explored his opera, particularly Iolanta and Eugene Onegin. Neither is my favourite opera but they're both enjoyable.

[Roberto]

Interestingly I didn't have composers I disliked. At least those whose music I am familiar with. My common problem was that I found some composers' music boring. Or I would say I didn't understand their music. Now I became more mature to understand their music.
Mozart is my absolutely favorite composer now but some 15 years ago I didn't care much about him.
I started to enjoy Bach's music 2 or 3 years ago. (Although St Matthew Passion is still too difficult and too long for me. Although interestingly I love Wagner's long operas...)
Chopin was also one of the great composers whose music was uninteresting for me for long time.
But always there is a recording or performance which changes my mind. And after that kind of performance I don't understand why I didn't like this kind of music earlier.

[Mandryka]

Interestingly I didn't have composers I disliked. At least those whose music I am familiar with. My common problem was that I found some composers' music boring. Or I would say I didn't understand their music. Now I became more mature to understand their music.
Mozart is my absolutely favorite composer now but some 15 years ago I didn't care much about him.
I started to enjoy Bach's music 2 or 3 years ago. (Although St Matthew Passion is still too difficult and too long for me. Although interestingly I love Wagner's long operas...)
Chopin was also one of the great composers whose music was uninteresting for me for long time.
But always there is a recording or performance which changes my mind. And after that kind of performance I don't understand why I didn't like this kind of music earlier.

Yes I felt like that about Mozart and Bach too. I think I first started to enjoy Bach after hearing Nikolai Demidenko play some Busoni transcriptions in a concert and slowly moved from that to Tureck and Gould and on to Leonhardt.  This is what got me into the Matthew Passion - remember it's in two parts, so you can take a break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3SrPkdRqSU&ab_channel=sortsome

Mozart was really hard -- it was only after seeing Don Giovanni that I started to want to investigate seriously. Oh, and Lipati in 310.  Even now I have trouble with Mozart's music, or most of it.

Chopin was just a tinkle tinkle in the background for years for me, and then I met someone who was really enthusiastic about Cortot and it kind of took off.

[Roberto]

Yes I felt like that about Mozart and Bach too. I think I first started to enjoy Bach after hearing Nikolai Demidenko play some Busoni transcriptions in a concert and slowly moved from that to Tureck and Gould and on to Leonhardt. 

Bach is a slow process for me too. Yes of course I listened to the Brandenburgs when I started to listen classical music 25 years ago but that was it.
Interestingly Gould's first Goldberg was the recording which changed my mind. That was on my shelf for years and I put into the player once. After that point I started to collect more recordings. Interesting that now I don't like Gould's performance in spite of this turning point.

This is what got me into the Matthew Passion - remember it's in two parts, so you can take a break.

Thank you for your suggestion! Months ago I listened again to St John Passion with Herreweghe. It was basically easier for me than St. Matthew but now that was the point when it was spiritual and uplifting experience for the first time. I usually take break between parts or I listen to first part one day and second part next day.

Mozart was really hard -- it was only after seeing Don Giovanni that I started to want to investigate seriously. Oh, and Lipati in 310.  Even now I have trouble with Mozart's music, or most of it.

An opera for me too. But for me it was the Figaro with Harnoncourt's controversial 2006 Salzburg recording. There was a great blog article years ago about it. I bought it on DVD because of that article althought I don't watch DVDs and it is still my only one opera DVD. After that I started Mozart with period instrument recordings but now I enjoy his music on modern instrument performances too. I started the piano sonatas with Pires (on the first Denon recordings) but I found Brautigam's fortepiano BIS recordings and that is still the reference version for me.
Mozart's music is special for me more than any other composer.

Chopin was just a tinkle tinkle in the background for years for me, and then I met someone who was really enthusiastic about Cortot and it kind of took off.

Like for me too. Turning point was a presentation held by Tamás Vásáry here in Budapest maybe 4 years ago. He talked about music and Chopin of course. A young pianist played pieces during his presentation. She played the 4th ballade too. It was fantastic and I felt that this piece written by a genius. (As it was indeed. ) I started to listen to Chopin's music after that.

[LKB]

I avoided Shostakovich for years, until:

https://elusivedisc.com/bernard-haitink-shostakovich-symphonies-nos-5-9-hybrid-stereo-japanese-import-sacd

After being mightily impressed by Symphony No. 5, l quickly became familiar and comfortable with several of his other symphonies.

I now believe that l simply had to accumulate a certain amount of life-experience before his music became accessible. Or, in other words, l had to grow into it.

[Maestro267]

I avoided Shostakovich for years, until:

https://elusivedisc.com/bernard-haitink-shostakovich-symphonies-nos-5-9-hybrid-stereo-japanese-import-sacd

After being mightily impressed by Symphony No. 5, l quickly became familiar and comfortable with several of his other symphonies.

I now believe that l simply had to accumulate a certain amount of life-experience before his music became accessible. Or, in other words, l had to grow into it.

People are different. I got into Shostakovich pretty much straight away, around age 18-19. I will say that that experience probably applies to me as far as chamber music is concerned.

[Sergeant Rock]

When I was a teen, it was Bruckner. As a fanatical Wagnerian, I thought Anton would be a piece of cake. So i took out his "Wagner" symphony from the library and I didn't make it even through the first movement. I thought it was a complete bore. Then, when I was 22 I received a letter from a good friend who raved about a Bruckner concert he had been to. I decided I'd give Anton another chance. The Fort Hood library had Walter's Fourth. I loved it and loved everything I subsequently heard. In fact Bruckner has been one of my Top 3 composers for 50 years.

Sarge

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Hey, tastes often change over time.

For example, I used to love ice cream with all kinds of stuff in it (Think Ben & Jerry's).  These days, if in the mood for ice cream, I'll normally go for a really good vanilla or sometimes chocolate ice cream. 

PD