# About Face!



## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Are there composers whom you have hated that you eventually came to love? Have you loved a composer whom you ended up hating? What are your musical about-faces?

I used to like Grieg, but over the years, I've come to be bored by his music in general. I used to find it colorful and tuneful. Nowadays, after hearing so much other good music, I can see that Grieg was actually a fairly mediocre composer who could write a nice tune here and there, but in terms of substance, I just don't see it anymore. (Sorry to any Grieg fans out there!)

(I'm still waiting to warm of to Dvorak and Bruckner, by the way!)

I used to not care fro Tchaikovsy, but in the past year or so, I have suddenly warmed up to his sound immensely. I know enjoy him quite a bit, save for stinkers like Romeo and Juliet and the Nutcracker.

I feel that I am also experiencing an about-face with FJ Haydn. Can't put my finger on it, but there is something in his music I just cannot find in Mozart's. Can Haydn be my guide through the Classical period?


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## kg4fxg (May 24, 2009)

*Shostakovich*

For one I can think of is Shostakovich.

I know many many disagree, but it helps me appreciate the composer much more after I have read his biography or maybe some of his correspondence. The music does not change but I have a greater appreciation and respect knowing more about the composer.

I was reading about how he composed the Leningrad.

I just got another book I ordered for a penny off amazon called:
Evenings With The Orchestra
A Norton Companion For Concertgoers
D. Kern Holoman - Hardback 735 pages

You can look it up on amazon, my point, you don't have to spend a fortune to read about the composers.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

mayhaps you do not listen 'the right way', assuming that exists 
i listen to grieg as a guy who could compose short pieces very well and am satisfied.

dj


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## bdelykleon (May 21, 2009)

I started loving Wagner as the greatest composer of all only to soon finding him, mainly due to Stravinsky's influence, the greatest pretender in music, composer of formless rhapsodies. But just lately I started to enjoy him again and understand his sloooooooooow transitions and sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow long form. I still don't like most of his librettos, just bad philosophy with some chauvinism in it, but the music most of the time is sublime.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

david johnson said:


> mayhaps you do not listen 'the right way', assuming that exists
> i listen to grieg as a guy who could compose short pieces very well and am satisfied.
> 
> dj


Well, I must have been listening "the right way" at one point, because I did like Grieg. But he was one of the first composers I encountered at the start f mys classical journey and, I think as my tastes broadened, I find myself less attracted to his idiom.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Around 2002, I bought a Naxos cd of Edgard Varese's music. After listening to it a few times, I took it back to the store to exchange it for something else. I couldn't stand the high pitched sounds and found the whole thing quite annoying.

Last year I decided to buy the same cd and give Varese another go. I immediately liked it, especially _Deserts_ which is one of my favourite pieces now. I even got the second volume of Varese on Naxos. I think Varese is a genius...

Something must have changed. I think that I'm now looking out for something new & different. I'm just tired of all the same cliches in classical music. That's probably why I'm more receptive to experimental composers like Varese. I'm more flexible. Unfortunately they're not all available cheaply like on Naxos, but I get what I can.


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

Andre said:


> Around 2002, I bought a Naxos cd of Edgard Varese's music. After listening to it a few times, I took it back to the store to exchange it for something else. I couldn't stand the high pitched sounds and found the whole thing quite annoying.
> 
> Last year I decided to buy the same cd and give Varese another go. I immediately liked it, especially _Deserts_ which is one of my favourite pieces now. I even got the second volume of Varese on Naxos. I think Varese is a genius...


He was a big influence on Frank Zappa- if you don't listen to Zappa already, give him a "hearing".

I've done a couple about-faces: one for Mendelssohn and one for Saint-Saens. I used to think both composed very light, unrewarding music; now, after following the scores to some of their pieces, I've started to appreciate some of the clever (and sometimes brilliant) details in their oeuvres.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

BuddhaBandit said:


> He was a big influence on Frank Zappa- if you don't listen to Zappa already, give him a "hearing".
> 
> I've done a couple about-faces: one for Mendelssohn and one for Saint-Saens. I used to think both composed very light, unrewarding music; now, after following the scores to some of their pieces, I've started to appreciate some of the clever (and sometimes brilliant) details in their oeuvres.


I heard that Zappa was in the process of recording Varese's works before he died. I'll have to check Zappa out, if I get the chance...

Funny you should also mention Mendelssohn & Saint-Saens. I'm not a big fan of either exactly because of what you say, they're too light.

I suppose there are exceptions, like Mendelssohn's excellent _Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)_ Overture, which is a masterpiece. & Saint-Saens' _Organ Symphony _was one of the first works I saw performed live as a teenager. I thought it was great then but now I have moved on, I like Poulenc's _Concerto for Organ, Strings & Timpani _much better.

I think that I also don't like composers like Saint-Saens & Glazunov, who were rather suspicious of new trends in music & rubbished the efforts of younger composers. I mean if you compare Saint-Saens to Debussy or Glazunov to Prokofiev, it's not difficult to come to the conclusion as to who composed better music...


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## Mirror Image (Apr 20, 2009)

As many of you know, I was not a big fan of Bruckner even though I had bought an entire cycle of Eugen Jochum on Deutsche Grammophon. His music was just such a challenging listen. Totally unlike any Romantic composer I had heard at that point.

Fast forward a month later, I decided to give Jochum's cycle another listen and suddenly it all just made perfect sense. Here is the absolutely powerful music that I had missed all this time.

Needless to say, I bought more recordings....a whole lot more.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

No about faces for me. 

I used to abhor Mozart's music, but I am beginning to warm to it. Some of the symphonies are fantastic as is the Requiem. I wouldn't exactly call it a complete about face though.

I think most of my taste changes have been gradual. It's probably because I never really settled on loving or hating any one period or composer. I like bits and pieces of them all.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I don't think I've done about faces in the sense of liking some of a composer's music and then later thinking he is rubbish. There are probably some who I haven't fully understood but I won't say I categorically hate them at this point. As Weston probably implies the famous composers do good music somewhere anyway, it's just a matter of how much you like rather than if you like.


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## JoeGreen (Nov 17, 2008)

I only expand I never collapse. I pretty much like all the ones I've come to know so far.

Once I get familiar, and start enjoying a composers works, they're pretty much lock in for life. The more I explorer I realize that each composer had they're weakness and strenghts,but that it, I realy don't like to compare on to the other, when I listen I never compare and just appreciate the strenghts of a composer.


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