Composers of whose music one CD is enough

[karlhenning]

Dare I say it?


Wagner!

No! Even I've got three discs (of selections), and I wouldn't part with any of it! 

[Grazioso]

I think the composer on the podium does even Blomstedt one or two better on the Symphonia serena.  In any event, if you do not yet know the Konzertmusik for strings and brass, Opus 50, that is a piece you must hear before presuming to pass lasting judgment upon him.

Karl, I never pass lasting judgment on a composer as my tastes inevitably shift and my listening skills steadily increase as the years go by, but I've certainly had a hard time moving beyond the Mathis der Maler symphony with any joy.

[karlhenning]

Karl, I never pass lasting judgment on a composer as my tastes inevitably shift and my listening skills steadily increase as the years go by . . .

Very good.

[Kullervo]

An advice not to be ignored. 

Bachianas Brasileiras 1-9 are essential Villa-Lobos. I have Batiz on EMI but I think the new discs on BIS are considered the best versions of these works. Also, Choros No. 11 (Ralf Gothoni/Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo/Ondine) kicks ass!  0:)

What about the Naxos box? That is high on my wishlist.

[sound67]

Alan Hovhaness wins this thread...

Indeed. Alan Hovhaness was born to be a one-CD-is-enough composer.

Thomas

[sound67]

Somehow, one of Elgar's marches slipped into my CD collection (it's only 4 minutes, thankfully) ......... otherwise .........

Yawn!

[sound67]

Two symphonies (I think Nos 4 &6  ) + 2 Fantasias and Lark
The symphonies really did not pique my interest at all and that's what he is known if I'm not mistaken

Then that's entirely your own fault.

[71 dB]

What about the Naxos box? That is high on my wishlist.

Unfortunately I have not heard it. Probably it's good...

[orbital]

Then that's entirely your own fault.

Bad choices ? otherwise of course it is my own fault. I never fault a composer. Performers, yes, but composers no.

[Kullervo]

Bad choices ? otherwise of course it is my own fault. I never fault a composer. Performers, yes, but composers no.

The 6th is not the one to start with, honestly. It took me some time to warm up to it.

[DavidW]

Then that's entirely your own fault.

I hear that alot on this board, but it doesn't make sense.  How can someone be at fault for not liking something? 

Oh yeah, well it's your fault Karl that you don't like Mahler!

[karlhenning]

Dadfrazzanabit! Caught out again! 

[orbital]

I hear that alot on this board, but it doesn't make sense.  How can someone be at fault for not liking something? 

I generally find it useless to stand against an artist [as a creator not performer, of art]. If I don't agree with what s/he has created I like to think that the fault lies with me. Which does not actually mean I am in error, but just that the only way to agree with it, if I want to, is to switch my aesthetics since this is not possible the other way around. I generally don't switch easily though, and we remain quarreled for a long time 
I care and s/he doesn't  Nobody really loses 

[DavidW]

I generally find it useless to stand against an artist [as a creator not performer, of art]. If I don't agree with what s/he has created I like to think that the fault lies with me. Which does not actually mean I am in error, but just that the only way to agree with it, if I want to, is to switch my aesthetics since this is not possible the other way around. I generally don't switch easily though, and we remain quarreled for a long time 
I care and s/he doesn't  Nobody really loses 

But that suggests that the listener assumes an inferior position.  It's not as if their aesthetic is fallible while the composer's aesthetic is infallible.  They merely are different.

[longears]

Y'all're proposing that pushpin's good as poetry.

I regard Beethoven's art and artistry as superior to Yanni's.  Taste alone is nothing; informed taste is quite another matter.

Mascagni.  Pachelbel.  Bruch.  Delius.  Williams (John).  Tippet.  Sor.  Barrios.  Ponce.  Griffes.  Grofe.  Milhaud.  Moeran.

Is one enough?  Plenty!  Now--what about those for whom one CD is more than enough? 

[orbital]

But that suggests that the listener assumes an inferior position.  It's not as if their aesthetic is fallible while the composer's aesthetic is infallible. 

True, but only in the sense that the composer's aesthetic is the basis on which we adjust ours. There are the created works (be it a composition, painting or literature) and then there is our develop(ed/ing) sense of how close we feel towards them. I think the question is, which comes first. We inevitably experience art after it has been created, so in a sense each of them are established pillars of aesthetics to which we either cling to or not.

Think of it this way: I don't agree with a composer's sense of style. Say this is Vaughan Williams. I find his music too lyrical without much drama with a dull stream of harmonies. At least in the case of VW, there is only one way in which we will connect, and that is if I start change my understanding that lyricism more or less equals dullness i.e a change in my aesthetics.
I can't fault him for not having written thundering crescendos (maybe he did, and I have not heard it yet), and I can't be faulted for looking for them in the music that I hear, yet if one day I say "You know what? I think VW is great" it will only mean that I have adjusted my likes/dislikes at least a little bit whereas VW's music has always remained the same.  

With performers it is different. If I am listening to a performer it is generally a piece that I already enjoy (i.e suiting my aesthetic vision). The performer may do something within that creation that I don't agree with. There I can probably ask "Why has s/he done this? It doesn't suit the piece", or perhaps even "Hey, this is not written in there".  I can -although subjectively- blame the performer. But I wouldn't be able to say the same thing about a composer. I would have no grounds to do so.

[DavidW]

True, but only in the sense that the composer's aesthetic is the basis on which we adjust ours. There are the created works (be it a composition, painting or literature) and then there is our develop(ed/ing) sense of how close we feel towards them. I think the question is, which comes first. We inevitably experience art after it has been created, so in a sense each of them are established pillars of aesthetics to which we either cling to or not.

Ah but that's not true. With jazz, the art is being created live.  But anyway many composers revise their works after performing them.  Just as we respond and adjust to the music we hear, so do composers respond and adjust to the reaction of the audience.  To use a physics example, even the sun moves in response to the planets, even if only a little.

Listening to new music might change our aesthetic, but it might not.  Certainly we shouldn't feel that it's an obligation to change our perception every time we hear music that was new to us.  It certainly we should expect that composers do care what their audience thinks and reacts to us reacting.  I still just don't see it as one sided.

Cough: spelling mistake I don't listen to hazz whatever that maybe.

[Lethevich]

Think of it this way: I don't agree with a composer's sense of style. Say this is Vaughan Williams. I find his music too lyrical without much drama with a dull stream of harmonies. At least in the case of VW, there is only one way in which we will connect, and that is if I start change my understanding that lyricism more or less equals dullness i.e a change in my aesthetics.
I can't fault him for not having written thundering crescendos (maybe he did, and I have not heard it yet), and I can't be faulted for looking for them in the music that I hear, yet if one day I say "You know what? I think VW is great" it will only mean that I have adjusted my likes/dislikes at least a little bit whereas VW's music has always remained the same. 

Maybe double-check which symphonies you do have - his 4th and 6th are his most dramatic. The 4th keeps surprising me that it came from the same pen as the guy who wrote the docile 3rd and 5th, and the 6th is a model of drama in music... I love the more friendly sounding works too, though.

[not edward]

Funny how views differ: I hear a lot of hidden anger beneath bleakness in the 3rd, rather than docility!

[Lethevich]

Funny how views differ: I hear a lot of hidden anger beneath bleakness in the 3rd, rather than docility!

A definite wrong choice of word - I'm tired and lazy May be better described as a more outward "prettiness" versus the craggy 4th and 6th, despite the "hidden message" of the 3rd.

Bedtime for me!