Frustrated/bored with GMG

[PerfectWagnerite]

I think that is essentially correct, but a shooting match at a sitting duck isn't that much fun after a while. Aside from that 71 dB has good points to make in this thread .

Such as what?

I didn't know about that abuse and hate. I can't figure out the reason Harry because you are always polite. People envy you for your purchases?

Nobody ENVIES Harry or his purchases. Why would anyone envy someone who has a compulsive buying disorder or for purchases that we can hear in the nearest shopping mall?

[Don]

Nobody ENVIES Harry or his purchases. Why would anyone envy someone who has a compulsive buying disorder or for purchases that we can hear in the nearest shopping mall?

Unless a thorough survey has been taken, I doubt it's reasonable to state that nobody on this board has a little envy at Harry's buying frequency.  

[AnthonyAthletic]

Yes, I am not going to complain when as a personal taste I have 'Gada Meilin' up there in my top 20 of tone poems Just because 90% of the forum aren't buying the music I buy or listen to.

Also through, many posters who become friends over the years now tend to trade music with each other wether it be online with uploads or through the old way via the Postman/woman I do discover new music almost every week/month, but still have the need to grab as much as I can of my 'old chestnuts' as I can.  I have around 20+ Mahler 1sts and have just downloaded appx another 20+ which are rare material, unreleased as yet.  So if the members don't download these new versions then how pitiful their lives must be   (but I don't think like that) hence the smiley.

Remember the mini ding dong we had about downloading a few weeks ago?  I didn't get the Shostakovich sets you posted (the ones I don't have) but it made me get off my arse and download elsewhere, and as well as curtailing my buying habits for a while, downloading much music has taken me from total luddite to luddite no more...

[mahlertitan]

Maybe you don't, but how would you know about others?

Q

do you want to start a poll about it? I know i don't either. I wonder how many people actually envy him.

[The new erato]

I thoroughly recommend everybody to post on their enthusiasms and feel we could have even more of that here. The problem comes when we feel the need to justify our enthusiasms by comparing to, and denigrating, other composers, some of whom we obviously have little familiarity with. And when we additionally try to justify that denigration by using musical terms we  obviously are somewhat uncomfortable with, the whole post goes seriously wrong.

Come on, guys and girls, tell me what you like, why you like it and what your experiences with various recordings of it have been, and shut up about all the other irrelevant stuff. Talk about the things you know, and don't try to come on a smartass by talking about stuff you don't know. THAT would make this a better board.

There I've said it.

[71 dB]

What 71db must realize is that there must be many posters who don't have the music of Bruhns, Dittersdorf or particular composers whom any individual wants to talk about. 

I hope 71db realizes that its swings and roundabouts, there is too much music out there to come onto a forum and complain that nobody talks about x or y, when I may be right in saying that posters don't own or few of us do, works by the named x or y?

Bruhns, who the hell is he?  I am not being spiteful or agressive, simply, I just do not know yet...so no conversation.  Some posters take curiosity for flaming, sometimes.

I understand this because I don't own many many composers either. Perhaps our tastes are so scattered that composers like Mahler, Beethoven and Bruckner are the only ones people can discuss about. I like Bruhns, Harry likes Krenek and so on...

I have dedicated discs from 127 composers (from John Adams to Philipp Wolfrum) and music from hundreds of composers.

[The new erato]

I really like your enthusiasm and some times I share them (Bruhns, Buxtehude), some times not (Ditttersdorf, and only partially Elgar), but some times not the way you communicate them, which often results in your threads going down in flames instad of communicating something valuable. But please continue to post!

[marvinbrown]

I am also sick of the Mahler/Bruckner/Beethoven hysteria

     71bB, first let me say that I much enjoyed our discussions about the Bach Cantatas, although it has been a while since you and I conversed.  No need to feel frustrated though, often I find myself sitting back and just reading threads with nothing to contribute- I really do not have that many cds to comment on various recordings and I am basically an opera and vocal listener (which are not the most popular discussion threads) .  I can relate to your frustration regarding Elgar, I am a very big fan of Verdi and not much discussion about this fine Italian opera composer can be found lately.  The discussions on Wagner's music aren't any better (Aside from the GMG moderators, I get the feeling Sarge, Greta and I are practically the only three people that are passionate about Wagner's music).......

  With regrads to the Mahler/Bruckner/Beethoven hysteria, you are not alone here.   I can not tell you how often I have read how GREAT Fidelio is.  Come on....if I am going to listen to a GREAT German opera I ain't playing Fidelio!!!!!

 marvin  

[Topaz]

I find Dittersdorf's symphonies better than Mozart's early symphonies and better than most symphonies by Haydn. I love Giob. Predictable maybe but the music is beautiful and enjoyable (somehow the melody/harmony structure really works). I enjoy Vanhal's symphonies too! Another neglected figure!   

Yes but can you be sure they weren't all written Andrea Luchesi?  It seems almost like everything else of any decency was written by this guy in the late 18th Century.  He was Beethoven's tutor-in-chief whilst a student at the Bonn Chapel, and apparently was so good he wrote tons of stuff not only for Haydn, Mozart but for Beethoven himself?

Has this Forum not yet been visited by the great expositor of this theory?

[71 dB]

I really like your enthusiasm and some times I share them (Bruhns, Buxtehude), some times not (Ditttersdorf, and only partially Elgar), but some times not the way you communicate them, which often results in your threads going down in flames instad of communicating something valuable. But please continue to post!

I have difficulties explaining myself, even with my mother language, Finnish.

Dittersdorf isn't on the level of Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven but bringing him up I want to make a statement about his significance. His music is enjoyable in it's own way. Same with Vanhal. 

[Don]

Yes but can you be sure they weren't all written Andrea Luchesi?  It seems almost like everything else of any decency was written by this guy in the late 18th Century.  He was Beethoven's tutor-in-chief whilst a student at the Bonn Chapel, and apparently was so good he wrote tons of stuff not only for Haydn, Mozart but for Beethoven himself?

Has this Forum not yet been visited by the great expositor of this theory?

I don't think so and sincerely hope he stays away.  That guy is like a triple dose of Corkin, one dose being more than enough.

[M forever]

Dittersdorf isn't on the level of Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven but bringing him up I want to make a statement about his significance. His music is enjoyable in it's own way. Same with Vanhal. 

Dittersdorf and Vanhal are *very* valuable. After all, both wrote two great bass concertos each.  

So did Haydn, actually, but his two are lost, unfortunately  

This isn't the first time you say this and this is what totally ruined my self-esteem, thank you!

You are welcome. Frankly, if your "self-esteem" can be ruined by some guy(s) typing in negative stuff in response to your hollow nonsense on an internet forum, I don't think there was much left to ruin to begin with.

I have been listening to classical music intensively for almost 11 years. If all these years haven't teached me anything then how can I ever learn anything about anything?

Good question. Basically, you could by not falsely imagining you already know everything, and by listening to some of the good advice and intelligent responses some people give you here. And I don't even mean me in this context. I hardly ever reply to you anyway anymore because I rarely ever see anything worth replying to, but a lot of other nice people still do. Their efforts are more or less 100% wasted on you, though.

[71 dB]

With regrads to the Mahler/Bruckner/Beethoven hysteria, you are not alone here.   I can not tell you how often I have read how GREAT Fidelio is.  Come on....if I am going to listen to a GREAT German opera I ain't playing Fidelio!!!!!

 marvin  

To me saying Fidelio is an excellent opera is insanity. I have heard it once and it was suffering. Beethoven was unbelievable good with String Quartets. He wasn't an opera composer.

Yes but can you be sure they weren't all written Andrea Luchesi? 

I am sure about how much I enjoy the music, whoever wrote it.

[Don]

To me saying Fidelio is an excellent opera is insanity. I have heard it once and it was suffering. Beethoven was unbelievable good with String Quartets. He wasn't an opera composer.

I can't take the above seriously.  To listen to a work just one time and then make definitive statements about its value doesn't make sense to me.  If I employed your ways, I would never have grown to love Bach's organ music or hundreds of other works by hundreds of other composers.

There's also the other end of the spectrum where a first listen results in much pleasure.  Then, after some continued listening, the work becomes a predictable bore.  Pachelbel's Canon is in that category for me.

[71 dB]

I can't take the above seriously.  To listen to a work just one time and then make definitive statements about its value doesn't make sense to me.  If I employed your ways, I would never have grown to love Bach's organ music or hundreds of other works by hundreds of other composers.

I borrowed the CD from my friend. I returned it before further listening. I sense very quickly if the music has any potential.

[sidoze]

Lovely stuff...like drinking liquid smoke.

This is a rather strange image couldn't begin to imagine how it could taste. But if it's smokey, it's probably banned here now 

Not sure what's wrong with the OP. Whenever I get bored of this place I just delete my account and come back several weeks or months later when I regain enthusiasm. In the meantime the OP could try RMCR 

[bhodges]

I borrowed the CD from my friend. I returned it before further listening. I sense very quickly if the music has any potential.

Try to hear what Don is trying to tell you.  I, too, didn't care for Fidelio the first time I heard it.  Then I saw it, first on DVD and then in person (and really, DVDs are a fantastic way to experience opera if you can't get to one live), and the score began to "click" in a way that I could never have imagined.  First impressions are valuable, but you might want to be open to changing those impressions.  Second, third, fourth and fifth hearings often result in the music revealing more than you anticipated.  And just my opinion, but sometimes music that takes awhile to grasp is often the most rewarding.

--Bruce

[The new erato]

His music is enjoyable in it's own way.

Most music on reasonable quality is enjoyable on it's own terms. I don't believe in people who only listen to flaming masterpieces (I seem to remember a thread about operetta). And we need to listen to minor masters occasionally to really understand the great ones!

[Don]

I borrowed the CD from my friend. I returned it before further listening. I sense very quickly if the music has any potential.

With that kind of thinking, you'll never get much respect from other classical music lovers.

[Don]

And just my opinion, but sometimes music that takes awhile to grasp is often the most rewarding.

--Bruce

An opinion shared by millions including myself.  Why 71 dB can't grasp it puzzles me.