# Composers you don't mesh with



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

In another thread I wrote that although he's fine as part of a recital, I never put on Chopin at home. His Romantic "pretty pianism" doesn't appeal to me. Other composers I don't get along with -- despite being liked by people whose opinions I respect -- include Bruckner and Vivaldi, Also, in recent years I have noticed that whenever a Sibelius Symphony comes up on my iPod, I skip over it. I realize it's me, not them.

Who are the otherwise well regarded composers you have little in common with?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Sometimes it's them...not you!

There are many composers I don't mesh with. Too many minor composers to mention. But of the big guys: Mozart, Schubert, Johann Strauss I & II, Richard Strauss, Handel, Chopin, Rossini, Verdi, and even JS Bach (but I like the orchestral transcriptions). Their music rarely is in the cd player.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I was about to say Chopin, but I got hold of the DG Chopin Masters box, and I'm really enjoying it. I used to dislike Strauss until I got Kempe's box. The same for Bruckner until I heard Tintner's set. 

It seems like if it's a major composer, somewhere there's a recording that will become your gateway.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Chopin. Every time I try, I simply can't make it through a CD. He strikes me as a genius of the piano, but not of composition. So many of his "pianisms" strike me as showy, vapid and gratuitous gestures. Aaron Copland. He makes me want to throw things through closed windows. Mendelssohn is on the edge. Moscheles. Weber. Franz Danzi shortens my life by a year every time I hear him. Edward Elgar just reeks of Edwardian leather. Carl Nielsen—sound and fury signifying nothing. But, it's me, not them.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

The one that comes to mind is Mendelssohn. 

Tried it and it didn't taste good.


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

One of the more notable composers I have always drawn a blank with is Telemann. As King Charles II said about his niece's husband, Prince George of Denmark: _"I have tried him drunk and I have tried him sober, but there is nothing in him..."_.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

The composers I don't mesh with are Raff, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, and Hanson.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> One of the more notable composers I have always drawn a blank with is Telemann. As King Charles II said about his niece's husband, Prince George of Denmark: _"I have tried him drunk and I have tried him sober, but there is nothing in him..."_.


I find Telemann's music highly enjoyable, especially after indulging in my drug of choice.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Ah... Sibelius too.

But I like his 7th.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Delius, Rachmaninoff...
A little Johann Strauss goes a long way, too.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Pretty much the entire "Music of the Future" Romantics and their descendants: Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Bruckner, R. Strauss, etc. I much prefer the line of composers that combined Romantic expression with Classical forms: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak, etc. It's just the musical formalist in me I suppose.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Delius I find pretty but uninteresting. There;s lot Mendelssohn I can take or leave. The J. Strausses I find tuneful but vapid (one New Years' Concert I find enough for my lifetime).

Intriguing J Strauss story: In seventh grade, a friend's mother who wanted to encourage our interest, took four of us into Boston for a performance of Die Fledermaus. (Met tour or Boston Opera I don't remember.) Loved it and couldn't wait to get a record. Settled for a single Ormandy disc with overture and orchestral excerpts. Played it four times and never since. Had all the good tunes -- but once you've heard them and know them, there's no there there.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Menuhin said something very true: "[...] those who love something are more likely to be right than those who don't."


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Richard Strauss generally doesn't ring my bell. Nor Berlioz (even though the bells in _Symphonie fantastique_ ring rather dramatically!).

I will throw Morton Feldman in here, too. I'd much rather listen to John Cage.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Bruckner, Strauss (all of them), Berlioz, Vivaldi, Handel, Rossini, Nielsen, Telemann, Liszt, Cage, Orff, Copland, Bernstein, Whitacre, all the minimalists ... I am sure there are plenty more.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I read the title as if Sean Connery was saying it.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

There's many composers I've briefly encountered and not sought them out for further exploration. There's a couple - Chopin, Mozart - with whom I've had a more aggressive attempt to tolerate (I actually own more than one CD of their works) but they just don't do it for me.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

One post and references to it were removed for copyright reasons.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

[saved the mods the trouble of deleting my post]


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Mahler. I can and do admire the skill (and sheer industry) that went into writing that music but, try as I used to, I find I simply can't enjoy the sounds which emerge from those gigantic scores.


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## karajan1976 (Jun 7, 2019)

Satie, most Debussy, Elgar, 
Vaughan Williams, most Mendelssohn, Britten, Donizetti, Pfizner...


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Whilst I enjoy their chamber works and Lieder, the orchestral Schumann and Brahms do nothing for me, and it's not for want of trying. I just find the music uninteresting and the orchestration stodgy.


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## Ned Low (Jul 29, 2020)

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> Whilst I enjoy their chamber works and Lieder, the orchestral Schumann and Brahms do nothing for me, and it's not for want of trying. I just find them music uninteresting and the orchestration stodgy.


I also prefer their chamber works to their orchestral works. for instance, Schumann' first string quartet is a great piece which sadly is ignored by musicians unlike the overly played 3rd symphony or Piano concerto, both favourites of concert hall.


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

Ethereality said:


> I read the title as if Sean Connery was saying it.


Then we surely would have to namecheck Morton Feldman. Total bruiser. He even looked like a Bond villain's henchman.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Ibert. I'm generally a huge fan of French Impressionism, but for some reason, Ibert doesn't quite grab me.



mbhaub said:


> Sometimes it's them...not you!
> 
> There are many composers I don't mesh with. Too many minor composers to mention. But of the big guys: Mozart, Schubert, Johann Strauss I & II, Richard Strauss, Handel, Chopin, Rossini, Verdi, and even JS Bach (but I like the orchestral transcriptions). Their music rarely is in the cd player.


Schubert specifically, I only really click with his late works. For example, his symphonies starting with the Unfinished, and his string quartets starting with No. 12.



Heck148 said:


> A little Johann Strauss goes a long way, too.


Make that the entire Strauss Family for me. For the most part, they can waltz right out of my living room.


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Most British composers after 1759. I...just don't.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Olias said:


> Pretty much the entire "Music of the Future" Romantics and their descendants: Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Bruckner, R. Strauss, etc. I much prefer the line of composers that combined Romantic expression with Classical forms: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak, etc. It's just the musical formalist in me I suppose.


That's a good way of putting it. My inner formalist agrees. That said, I have a thing for Sibelius. Something about his music compels me.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

It's too bad Nielsen is getting quite a bit of a mentioning here. This life-affirming composer does wonders for me every time.

As for composers you don't mesh with:

Ture Rangstrom: a hard nut to crack.
Havergal Brian
Walter Piston: still a work in progress.
Clara Schumann: a fine composer, but....
Philip Glass _and_,
Any minimalist composers


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I have answered this question before: Verdi.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Pretty much all composers _before_ Beethoven. The Romantic Era is where my enjoyment of classical music begins.


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## AaronSF (Sep 5, 2021)

Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Pierre Boulez. I just can't. And I've tried.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

I named the composer that I don’t mesh with, but I just got a message telling me my post is too short. I’ll try again later.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Glass, and Adams on the west side of the pond. I could never understand why they're so popular. Aho, on the other side. He cranks out a lot of music in the traditional forms but I just don't find much of it very interesting.

There are many major composers I don't listen to much. There's just too much music to devote enough attention to in one human life which is pretty darn short even if you do live to be 90 or so.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Berlioz
Schumann
Tchaikovsky
Vivaldi
Pachelbel
Cage
Reich
Glass
Young
Handel
Saint-Saëns
Bruckner
Bizet
Fauré


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## alvaro (Sep 21, 2021)

Mmmhh... Wagner. I know is so very loved... but I can't. Just can't. Also anything dealing with serialism, dodecaphonism or electroacustic things, it's a big no-no. Vade retro Cage and Stockhausen! Oh, and Philip Glass.


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## JTS (Sep 26, 2021)

starthrower said:


> Glass, and Adams on the west side of the pond. I could never understand why they're so popular. Aho, on the other side. He cranks out a lot of music in the traditional forms but I just don't find much of it very interesting.
> 
> There are many major composers I don't listen to much. There's just too much music to devote enough attention to in one human life which is pretty darn short even if you do live to be 90 or so.


Me too I can't get on with Glass and Adams. I watched one of Glass' operas and never been so bored with the tuneless music. I can't stand the other minimalists either. And of course there is much modern music like serialism which I haven't the faintest idea what anyone can enjoy but no doubt people do. However it doesn't do it for me. Hindemith is someone else and Schoenberg and Webern and Stockhausen and the like only played to get rid of unwanted visitors.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

HenryPenfold said:


> I named the composer that I don't mesh with, but I just got a message telling me my post is too short. I'll try again later.


Only long lists allowed.


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

I don't know about meshing, but one certainly doesn't mess with Gesualdo


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

VoiceFromTheEther said:


> I don't know about meshing, but one certainly doesn't mess with Gesualdo


Or his wife.....


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

VoiceFromTheEther said:


> one certainly doesn't mess with Gesualdo


"One of the more unruly musicians was a bassoonist named Geyersbach. He was three years older than Bach and made a point of being offensive. One dark night he confronted Bach on the street and began hitting him with a stick and calling him a "dirty dog." Bach was not altogether blameless. He had poked fun of Geyersbach and called him a "nanny goat bassoonist." Not one to take a beating lightly, Bach drew his sword and the fight was on. Dodging the stick, Bach made several thrusts that pierced Geyersbach's jacket before passers-by rushed in to prevent bloodshed."


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I think, Handel and Mattheson who were actually friends also got to the point of swordplay at some stage over an argument. It was just what hotheaded young blokes did in the 17th/18th century  There was neither gangsta rap nor football hooligans, so someone else had to provide a bit of violent fun...


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