# Composers You Don't Care For Much



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

For Me: (There are still some works I like by all of them, but very few).

Liszt 
Rachmaninoff
Gershwin


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Pirro Albergati. Haven't even listened to him.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'll add Copland.


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## dillonp2020 (May 6, 2017)

I'll stick to better known ones.

Gershwin
Copland
Cage
Glass
Villa-Lobos
Scarlatti


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Most composers of name would end up with at least one CD in my collection if I had to start all over again, but not Handel, Corelli, Telemann, the Scarlatti's, Gesualdo, Lully, Purcell, Wolf.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Rachman'ff
Delius

can do fine without either.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

I would say John Cage, but I'd rather listen to 4'33" than hear anything from Vaughan Williams or Benjamin Britten. There's others, but that's a start!


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

I assume you mean pretty decent and well-known composers because of course, I don't care about obscure composers I have never heard of. 

The top on in the list is Liszt. I can't stand most of the things he composed, especially the piano stuff that has been heavily abused in major piano competitions. So far the only two works of him that I found indispensable are the Dante Sonata (_"Après une lecture du Dante"_) and the Faust Symphony.

Scarlatti, Boccherini, Spohr, Paganini, Pergolesi, Reger, Chabrier, Honegger, and Milhaud too, but unlike in Liszt case, the reason is probably that I haven't listened to them much to recognize the attraction in their music.

I also tend to ignore most of the minimalists and neo-romanticists.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Whenever I am asked this question (and it has been asked many times) and the answer is still the same: Verdi.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Probably the only major composer I tend to shy from (meaning I hardly ever take up one of the discs with his music on it, or I generally turn the radio station to another when his music comes on) is _Richard Strauss_. Yet, I recognize the man's genius, and I count _Electra_ and _Salome_ as two of my favorite operas. And I do on occasion turn to the _Also Sprach Zarathustra _music which I have in several interpretations on both LP and CD. But my entire distaste for Strauss may be linked to that infernal _Til Eulenspiegel _work which is ubiquitous on radio play and just a piece I simply don't care for.

So, if I'd only have heard the Strauss of _Zarathustra_, _Electra_ and _Salome_, I might have greater favor for the man's music. But off hand I can't think of another Strauss piece I'm interested in hearing again. Which is probably my loss.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Prokofiev. Also, there are many avant-garde composers (Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ligeti, Cage, Varese*) whose work I don't particularly like, even though I find some of their aesthetic concepts to be interesting.

*Apologies to our wonderful TC member Eddie for my betrayal of his namesake!


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Klassik said:


> I would say John Cage, but I'd rather listen to 4'33" than hear anything from Vaughan Williams or Benjamin Britten. There's others, but that's a start!


_Anything_ from Vaughan Williams? Not even "The Lark Ascending" or "Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis?" (Or perhaps you don't like the gentler Williams.)


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

JAS said:


> _Anything_ from Vaughan Williams? Not even "The Lark Ascending" or "Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis?" (Or perhaps you don't like the gentler Williams.)


Those works, like most things from Vaughan Williams, leave me very cold. Ironically, his Sinfonia antartica is probably my favorite piece from him. That's not saying much though!


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Of the biggest names, Brahms I used to really like when I first got into Classical, but fell out of love. Handel I just could never get into, as all other Italian opera composers (excluding Albinoni's and Vivaldi's non-operatic music) after c.1650 and before Gluck. Give me French Baroque opera any day.

Others just make me chuckle whenever they're brought up as "great" like Telemann or Alkan, though they do have some nice music.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Liszt, Bruckner, Chopin, Vivaldi, Scarlatti.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

The more I think about this question, the more I'm in two minds. There are composers whose works I used to listen to (like Chopin), but now rarely listen to and even grimace when I hear them on the off-chance. Yet I also hear the odd piece and remember why I liked it so much.

In general though I don't much care for Bruckner, some of Mahler, some of Stravinsky and...Wagner *_runs off_*.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

hpowders said:


> Liszt, Bruckner, Chopin, Vivaldi, Scarlatti.


Chopin!!!!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.


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## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

Most Mahler, though I enjoy some of the later parts of the fifth and sixth symphonies (see guys, progress, for those who remember an earlier thread of mine...), Shostakovich, Bach, Haydn, Shoenberg, Cage


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Chopin!!!!


Copland??


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.


The three stooges of composing incompetency.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Adolf Barjansky--if I passed him on the street, I might just give him a polite nod, but that would be the end of it.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I don't like this game much. Doesn't bring out the best in people. IMO.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Except Blancrocher.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm rarely in a mood for Debussy, Mahler, or R. Strauss. They all wrote stuff I like a lot, but on the whole I feel either indifference or some dislike. Of course there are lots of less important composers I don't care about, but I assume that that isn't the question.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Blancrocher said:


> Adolf Barjansky--if I passed him on the street, I might just give him a polite nod, but that would be the end of it.


Who??  If I passed him on the street, I wouldn't recognize him!


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

Bettina said:


> Who??  If I passed him on the street, I wouldn't recognize him!


Jeez! you had never heard of Barjansky?????

Well, neither had I


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> I'm rarely in a mood for Debussy, Mahler, or R. Strauss. They all wrote stuff I like a lot, but on the whole I feel either indifference or some dislike. Of course there are lots of less important composers I don't care about, but I assume that that isn't the question.


*cough* Schoenberg? *cough*


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Schoenberg, Xenaxis and the whole shebang from that time.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Pugg said:


> Schoenberg, Xenaxis and the whole shebang from that time.


Ah come on, without them you would have nothing to talk and complain about


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Some baroque like Rameau, Lully,
21st century composers like Ades, Chin

Otherwise I can find something to like from just about any other composer.


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## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

The fact that John Cage has only been mentioned once on the first page is a great victory for me.

Also, I can't stand any of the major Russian composers excluding Schnittke whom I love and Shostakovich whom I like. I love avant-garde classical but to me Iannis Xenakis's music sounds very uninspired and insipid, although I can see the appeal in some works (the percussion works, namely). He just sounds like a poor man's Stockhausen.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Phil loves classical said:


> Some baroque like Rameau, Lully,
> 21st century composers like Ades, Chin
> 
> Otherwise I can find something to like from just about any other composer.


Why Rameau?..................


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

All descendants of Bach, (most of) Mozart and Haydn, Händel, neoclassical Stravinsky, the Waltz King from Vienna and much more (neo)classical stuff.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Chronochromie said:


> Why Rameau?..................


Don't know. Just doesn't appeal to me.

The composer I most dislike is Cage, in spite of me posting quite a bit about him. He seems to me to be the shortest on musical talent. But presents his music in interestng ways, which I can't help but notice.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

I just realized I care so little about Tchaikovsky that I left him out in my original post! :lol:

I do enjoy his ballets occasionally though. It suits him better than trying to get serious as with the symphonies.


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## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

Dvorak, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Strauss Jr., and Dvorak.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

There aren't any I dislike but for some, their works can be challenging. Eg Shostakovich, Mahler and Barto, but in saying that, I do like a challenge!


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Even composers I dislike usually have some works I like, but to be more specific about the "why":

Much Dvorak is just too darn Slavonic.
Delius is pretty but uninteresting.
Bruckner is like watching Egyptian slaves haul huge blocks of stone from a barge on the Nile to the Great Pyramid.
Vivaldi is like watching hundreds of women working sewing machines at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.
Arvo Part is like listening to a golf match play-by-play on the radio.


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## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

Big names: Listz, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

I'd unfortunately give another vote to Rameau. I haven't listened to him as thoroughly as I should before saying this, but every time I've tried it's seemed like the music is too broken up by recitatives to really flow well. I've liked some of the music I've heard in between all of the excruciating pauses and (for me) awkward pacing, but it hasn't been enough to motivate me through an entire opera. I guess I'll never know if he really is Bach's equal or not.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Chronochromie said:


> *cough* Schoenberg? *cough*


Do you choke on him, or does he get you choked up?


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I am kind of shock that Rachmaninoff's name shows up quite a bit. He can be mawkish and sentimental for some (someone, somewhere, in this vastly world wide web likened his Second Symphony as soap music), but this composer is something else. Nothing shallow or cheap as far as his works are concerned, and it is easy why even Tchaikovsky admired this composer as he was emerging into a giant of a force he was to become. 

I kind of suspect that most of his works (piano and songs included) are not as known as they ought to be, which may color many of our (mis)perception of him. But they represent the true essence of this composer and his innate, unshakable Russianness. There's really nothing better than that.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

The only big-name composer I don't care for is Vivaldi. Years ago I would have included Mendelssohn, but when I got into his chamber music my opinion rose greatly.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Clairvoyance Enough said:


> I'd unfortunately give another vote to Rameau. I haven't listened to him as thoroughly as I should before saying this, but every time I've tried it's seemed like the music is too broken up by recitatives to really flow well. I've liked some of the music I've heard in between all of the excruciating pauses and (for me) awkward pacing, but it hasn't been enough to motivate me through an entire opera.


Just wanted to point out that Rameau didn't just write operas; his solo keyboard and chamber music are excellent.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Do you *choke on him*, or does he get you choked up?


Hey hold on, we are not in _that_ other thread, are we?  :lol:


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Clairvoyance Enough said:


> I'd unfortunately give another vote to Rameau. I haven't listened to him as thoroughly as I should before saying this, but every time I've tried it's seemed like the music is too broken up by recitatives to really flow well. I've liked some of the music I've heard in between all of the excruciating pauses and (for me) awkward pacing, but it hasn't been enough to motivate me through an entire opera. I guess I'll never know if he really is Bach's equal or not.


Wut? His operas flow better than those of any other Baroque composer I've heard except possibly Monteverdi.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

Chronochromie said:


> Wut? His operas flow better than those of any other Baroque composer I've heard except possibly Monteverdi.


I'm accusing myself more than the music. For instance I like Handel's operas because the divide between aria and recitative is so distinct that you can pretty much just listen to it as a song cycle and disregard the plot entirely (which I've always done). I've found it harder to do that with Rameau and Monteverdi too. My fault, I know.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Chronochromie said:


> Hey hold on, we are not in _that_ other thread, are we?  :lol:


Which Thread....................


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Which Thread....................


Guess..............It's the composers spouse thread!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Chronochromie said:


> Guess..............It's the composers spouse thread!


Super Intelligent Thread Ideas?


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Orfeo said:


> I am kind of shock that Rachmaninoff's name shows up quite a bit. He can be mawkish and sentimental for some (someone, somewhere, in this vastly world wide web likened his Second Symphony as soap music), but this composer is something else. .


I think that was me. The second movement of the 2nd symphony sounds like the theme from a daytime soap opera to me. However with that one exception I adore his entire output.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Super Intelligent Thread Ideas?


Well that's one way of looking at it, I guess...


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

My musical apathies change over time, so if I don't care much for a composer today, tomorrow I may embrace the music. Delius is an example. I spent years, decades finding his music a dull diluted Debussy. About a year ago it suddenly clicked. I have no idea why other than I was in the right frame of mind.

My current apathies: Frank Bridge, Berlioz (well, I do like his Requiem), Boccherini and Mozart are still hit and miss for me, and while I at first liked Alban Berg as the more accessible of the Second Viennese, he seems too subtle or even timid to me at the moment.

Again this is ever ephemeral.


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