# Which masterpieces are critically acclaimed that the composer initially dismissed?



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Curious to see if any pieces that the composer was meh about that the audience/critics receive favorably nowadays?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Who knows how many great works Brahms destroyed? He was notorious for that.

He forgot one: the Double Concerto.

Tchaikovsky seemed to have a chronic self-doubting about his symphonies.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Carnival of the Animals. While he was alive CS-S suppressed all but the Swan movement, which I think he arranged for cello and piano.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Debussy was not happy with _Reverie_, but his publisher released it anyway.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

So you're admitting that the Double Concerto is a great work? :devil:



hpowders said:


> Who knows how many great works Brahms destroyed? He was notorious for that.
> 
> He forgot one: the Double Concerto.
> 
> Tchaikovsky seemed to have a chronic self-doubting about his symphonies.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

But did he suppress it because he doubted its quality or because it ridiculed other people?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Maybe someone who knows more than I will respond. 



elgars ghost said:


> Carnival of the Animals. While he was alive CS-S suppressed all but the Swan movement, which I think he arranged for cello and piano.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

spradlig said:


> But did he suppress it because he doubted its quality or because it ridiculed other people?
> 
> Enquiring minds want to know!
> 
> Maybe someone who knows more than I will respond.


Mainly due to it being quite frivolous and CS-S didn't want to gain a reputation for that sort of thing. He never even assigned an opus no. to it which was rare for him.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Rachmaninoff famously hated his C# minor prelude, which remained one of his most popular pieces his whole life.

I don't know if it's _critically _acclaimed, though - I think a lot of critics would agree with Rachmaninoff on that one.


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## poconoron (Oct 26, 2011)

Beethoven had his doubts about his opera, Fidelio.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

poconoron said:


> Beethoven had his doubts about his opera, Fidelio.


Especially the overture, it seems!


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Tchaikovsky didn't particularly like The Nutcracker.
Mendelssohn was never pleased with the Italian Symphony.
Grieg thought "In the Hall of the Mountain King" was coarse and monstrous.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

poconoron said:


> Beethoven had his doubts about his opera, Fidelio.


I assume that the name change from Leonore reflects this?


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Albert7 said:


> I assume that the name change from Leonore reflects this?


No, I think he was forced to change the name for political reasons, or something similar.


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## Revel (Feb 25, 2015)

Sibelius #5 I think? He was unhappy with it,so he edited it twice...both times well after the public premier. That should qualify.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I don't know what Robert Schumann thought of his violin concerto, but after his death his wife forbade it from being performed for a rather long time.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

All the famous posthumous Chopin pieces.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

GGluek said:


> Mendelssohn was never pleased with the Italian Symphony.


Mendelssohn actually revised it, and that version was recorded, alongside the original which we know, by John Eliot Gardiner. The revision is notably inferior, but fascinating to hear. In most cases of revision, a composer's final thoughts are given priority, but in this case the revised version has not caught on, for good reason.


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## Guest (Mar 8, 2015)

In his writeup of Alexander Goehr, Tom Service makes a fairly big deal of Arianna. The slightest bit of googlin' will reveal that Goehr considered it an unimportant work. 

I have to say, from the point of view of someone who's never written a piece of music longer than 10 minutes in his life, it blows my mind that someone would consider such a colorful opera to be of little significance, but I guess it makes sense for the sheer fact that it doesn't sound like most of his work.


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## ericdxx (Jul 7, 2013)

Canon in D, written as a demonstration in counterpoint for his students to study. it is arguably one out of the three most well known works ever!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

spradlig said:


> So you're admitting that the Double Concerto is a great work? :devil:


It's not really all that bad. My opinions change frequently.


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

The Symphony in C, by Georges Bizet. I think it was never played in his lifetime.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Bruckner revised nearly all of his symphonies repeatedly (Nos 1-5 and 8 especially; 5-7 seem to avoided this), suggesting he was hardly ever happy with the final outcome.
Rakhmaninov withdrew his 1st Symphony after its disastrous premiere in 1897. It was discovered and reconstructed from a set of parts found after his death in a room in Leningrad.
Ravel called his _Boléro_ "Orchestration without music".
Tchaikovsky hated his 1812 Overture, which he wrote for money.
Vaughan Williams said of his powerful 4th Symphony "I don't know whether I like it or not, but it's what I meant".


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

GGluek said:


> Mendelssohn was never pleased with the Italian Symphony.


I would have thought of his Reformation Symphony first, which he withdrew. But maybe people don't consider it a masterpiece.


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