# I don't like this composer but...



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

The opposite of the other thread going on here...
What are some composers you generally don't like, but there are one or two pieces that you do like by them?


Thanks for the idea, Nix


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Verdi's Requiem.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

1st Movement of Mahler's 9th


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

For me, it's always been Mozart's Requiem. Yeah, it's not even totally his.


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2011)

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I don't actually hate Wagner. If anything, I'm indifferent to him. But, I do like The Flying Dutchman.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

Rach's Vespers.


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

Hate Bruckner. But I like his string quartet and quintet.


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## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

Chopin's Preludes and Etudes.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I usually groan and roll my eyes at Mozart, but I love his later piano concertos and a handful of his late symphonies. 

I usually hate the Second Viennese school, but Berg's violin concerto is a monster! (I mean that in the jazz musician sense of the word.)


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## Vor Gott (Jan 26, 2011)

Mahler. His second and various portions of his other symphonies are phenomenal (e.g., fourth movement from the fifth, first movement from the ninth, and much of the fourth). 

And the Italians. All of them.


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## Jobe (May 28, 2011)

Hatred towards Verdi's requiem and Mozart's Clarinet concerto made me shed a tear. PLEASE, THEY'RE GREAT.

I do not like Brucker so much either :3 I've been to see 2 symphonies. I plan to hear more. Only when I hear more works, both live and on CD, will I be a competent judge. Likewise with Shostakovich.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Jobe said:


> Hatred towards Verdi's requiem and Mozart's Clarinet concerto made me shed a tear. PLEASE, THEY'RE GREAT.
> 
> I do not like Brucker so much either :3 I've been to see 2 symphonies. I plan to hear more. Only when I hear more works, both live and on CD, will I be a competent judge. Likewise with Shostakovich.


Re-read the first post: these people LIKE Verdi's requiem and Mozart's Clarinet concerto. They don't like Verdi or Mozart.


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Re-read the first post: these people LIKE Verdi's requiem and Mozart's Clarinet concerto. They don't like Verdi or Mozart.


Thank you very much Couchie you explained it extremely well and saved me from having to make a reply. Thanks again


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

I don't actively dislike Schubert, but nothing I've heard by him has done much for me, except Winterreise. And Winterreise is amazing. But then, I haven't heard his last sonatas, and I've been told I might like them. I should find out.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

I don't care for Bartok, but I love his Romanian Dances.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

The Goldberg Variations are the only thing by Bach that I have ever been able to enjoy.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

Polednice said:


> The Goldberg Variations are the only thing by Bach that I have ever been able to enjoy.


Have you heard them on harpsichord?


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

jalex said:


> Have you heard them on harpsichord?


If I listened to that, then there would be _no_ pieces by Bach that I'd enjoy.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

Righto.

String ensemble (sounds especially great in the lively variations)?


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht. I liked this work the first time I heard it. Unfortunately, I have been less successful with anything else by him.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

@jalex the string ensemble version is nice enough.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

These came to mind immediately -

*R. Strauss* - I really like his post-1945 works, esp. _*Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings*_ but also the _Oboe Concerto _& _Four Last Songs_. Works like that were the first time he dropped his mask, and actually wrote something speaking to his own emotions, his own experiences, stories, etc. not just telling other people's stories as he had done often before. I also like how these works are smaller scale & more intimate than his earlier things.

*Rued Langgaard* - Heard his _*Music of the Spheres *_on youtube, and I liked it better than his symphonies which come across to me as combination of all styles under the sun, not as coherent & unified. But I'm not in love with even the _Spheres_ piece, I just think it grabbed me more than other things I've heard by him.

*Wagner* - I like his _*Siegfried Idyll *_heaps more than anything else he wrote. I wish he had written more chamber works, but opera was his passion, so he concentrated on that, which I can understand.

*J.S. Bach* - I've found that I connect more with his instrumental works, not so much with his vocal/choral. In terms of his contemporary Handel, I like all I've heard by him, both the instrumental & vocal/choral (& probably the latter more, funnily enough).


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Vivaldi's _Gloria_ is actually well-crafted. Although the bass lines tend to be of his usual I-V-V-V-V-V-V-I monotony, the vocal parts are quite beautiful, and feature none of the gobble-gobble-gobble-gobble style of vocal writing that he used a few hundred times.


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## Guest (Sep 12, 2011)

Polednice said:


> The Goldberg Variations are the only thing by Bach that I have ever been able to enjoy.


Not even St Mats Passion ??


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Andante said:


> Not even St Mats Passion ??


Not even that.


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

jalex thanks for posting this video. Until now I have not listened to the Goldberg Variations because I do not like piano.


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## Llyranor (Dec 20, 2010)

Wow, thanks jalex. I might have to order the CD for that Goldberg strings transcription.


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## Guest (Sep 12, 2011)

Just personally I did not like the string version it lacked something, my preferred version is still Piano


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## frankentomato (Feb 3, 2012)

I generally don't care especially for Chopin (I know, kill me now), but I love his 24 preludes.


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## Hermanberntzen (Oct 17, 2011)

Johannes Brahms. 
I like hes Variation Opus.9 on a theme by Robert Schumann. And thats only a variation.
And i like hes Intermezzo in A Minor and that sounds like something Frederic Chopin wrote so you can imagine.


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## humanbean (Mar 5, 2011)

I can't really think of any classical composers I dislike. But, if you'll allow me to include former-rock/classical-wannabe composers, I'd have to say I enjoy this piece by Frank Zappa despite disliking his other orchestral works:






As you can see from the comments on this video, his fans don't get out much.



> I agree. Has the impact of a great symphony, in﻿ less than four minutes!


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Hermanberntzen said:


> Johannes Brahms.
> I like hes Variation Opus.9 on a theme by Robert Schumann. And thats only a variation.
> And i like hes Intermezzo in A Minor and that sounds like something Frederic Chopin wrote so you can imagine.


I always thought that intermezzo sounded like Chopin too, that is if you are talking about the same a minor intermezzo I'm thinking of.


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

Shostakovich's Jazz Suites.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

humanbean said:


> former-rock/classical-wannabe composers [...] Frank Zappa


Oh good, someone else who knows nothing about Zappa.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I'm gonna have to agree with Crudblud, Humanbean. Frank Zappa started out writing contemporary classical, went to experimental forms of rock and then near the end of his life went back to composing some classical again. One of his earliest musical influences was Varese and he was respected as a musician by the likes of Boulez and Xenakis.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Will have to correct violadude, but only slightly; by all accounts it seems Frank kept writing his classical material as a side activity during his touring career.

A few side notes; he brought international attention to Kent Nagano in the 1980s when he brought him in to conduct sessions with the London Symphony Orchestra. He has also done commissions for the Ensemble InterContemporain, California EAR Unit (who actually had to mime to a tape because they couldn't play the music), The Kronos Quartet and others, and of course we're already aware of his final tour with the Ensemble Modern. He also appeared on KFPA radio for several lengthy talks with Charles Amirkhanian, noted composer and founder of Other Minds.

I don't have a problem with someone not liking Zappa, but they should do a little research before they write him off as a wannabe _anything._


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