# What gave you cause to review a piece of music?



## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

I am just listening to the Dvorak cello concerto - something I until a few years ago wouldn’t have wasted my time at. Until I came across Rostropovitch/ Boult; the drive, the rhythm, the intensity, the reluctance to “milk” Dvorak’s big tunes, are what made me change my view on this music. I’ve had many eureka moments like that. A particular recording, a concert, some new insight made me review pre-conceived ideas. Which leads to my question. I’m interested in experiences which made other fellow contributors change their view on a piece of music. What was the music? What made you change your view?


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I never much cared for Stravinsky's Violin Concerto because I thought it sounded too tightly wound and stiff until I heard it on an analog recording by Arthur Gramiaux and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, who played it with an endearing charm, relaxed sense of play, and delight. Now the Stravinsky Concerto is one of my favorites and its manner of performance made all the difference in the world:


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

For a long while most opera singing all sounded the same to me, but I started to form some preferences when I discovered Karajan's Wagner. A lot of the performances sounded more human to me than other recordings. A good example would be this:






I like how his voice sounds tender and subdued here, as it should considering the romantic context of the scene. In most versions the singers seem to just belt out every line with the same inflection, power, and volume, not doing much to affect the accents or subtle cues of real human speech at all. It became a real sticking point for me, and it's a problem I unfortunately still have with 90 percent of the opera I listen to. So little of it sounds like real human beings to me.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I wrote more than 1,000 reviews on Amazon early in the century through 2010 or so. I started because I thought I had something to say about the recording others didn't, or perhaps didn't say. It became addictive, however, and I think it had more to do with my ego and identity afterward. I found I was buying music for no reason other than to review it. At one time I was in the top 300 Amazon reviewers based on the famous "helpful" votes and I was offered three jobs reviewing on websites and in magazines but that came after I began to burn out. I guess I got what I wanted from it but the lesson for me was the reason I started and the reason(s) I continued doing it were very different.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

I'd say it varies piece to piece. Oftentimes I think it's nothing more than my mood that day, how receptive I am to the particular aesthetic of this piece at that time. Of course, certain performances can make me perk up my ears in a way they weren't previously perked by other recordings, but I find that thing difficult to put a finger on because even then I'm not sure how much of the connection is due to the different recording VS me being in a more receptive mood. As for specific examples, I think when I was first starting out with classical, even though I loved Mozart I didn't immediately warm to his operas. I think part of that was because my first experience of opera--Bizet's Carmen--and several after were more... I don't know what the right word is, but Mozart's felt more restrained, and prevented me from connecting to the drama. But I inevitably revisited them, if only because of my love of Mozart, and they all eventually clicked with me, and not just that, but clicked to such a degree that no operas outside of Wagner's have moved me as much since. What changed? I don't know, but I'm sure a good part of it was my becoming more accustomed to the classical style of opera as opposed to the romantic-and-later styles.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I never got on with Mahler's 3rd until I heard Honeck's 3rd and especially Haitink's Mahlerfeest performance. There's still lots of performances of the 3rd that leave me cold but I love Haitink's recording especially.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

It just takes time and some magic. Hard to explain. For decades I resisted any Sibelius symphony other than the 2nd. Then suddenly one day I heard the 7th and was changed forever. His symphonies are treasured now - I've probably bought 20 sets. Same thing happened with Elgar. I bought the Solti recordings on LP 50 years ago and never really got into it. Then some 20 years ago, the lights came on and those two symphonies are among my favorite things in all music. Some works I liked from the beginning and still do - almost everything Dvorak wrote, for example. Then there are the things I once thought were great and then over time my appreciation has diminished: Hanson 2nd, Beethoven 9th, Tchaikovsky 5th among that crowd. If I live long enough, maybe I'll hear what makes so many people worship Mozart, Handel, Bach, Vivaldi...after 6 decades I still don't like it.

Another aspect of this is being a performing musician (bassoon, contrabassoon). When you sit through rehearsals and hear everything going on around you, you get a perspective and appreciation that no recording, concert, or score study can compare to. I've known the Brahms 1st for decades. Been to some great performances. But it was the first time I actually played it - the contra part - that I began to realize just how extraordinarily great this music is. I played in the orchestra for Tosca several years ago. I'd seen the opera many times, but sitting in that pit actually playing it gave me an appreciation I never would have had otherwise.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

^ Strange. I had the opposite experience. Back in late 1998-99 I had a summer season working with a Ballet company playing the 2nd trumpet. We were playing things I liked so I was enjoying it. 

However, just after this I played in a temp spot (not a permanent job, but an 'opportunity') with a Manchester orchestra and they were playing afternoon concerts that included symphonic works I found unutterably boring and where being in the middle of it did not help. The works in question were Bruckner 5 and Beethoven's Eroica. It put me off Bruckner for years.

What I think was happening was that I was doing the work, but not listening to the entire thing as an outside listener. Since (re)discovering Bruckner as a listener I have much more success with his music and he's now in my regular listening roster. Time and a broadening of taste may also have played a part.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Like many of us my listening has involved regular reassessment of music that I didn't much like at first. This happened in many different ways but only rarely as a result of listening to a particular performance that suddenly led to my getting a piece. I suppose Celibiache's Bruckner recordings with the Munich Phil are an example.


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

Nevermind. Misinterpreted the question. (Deleted my post.)


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

A long time ago - I was probably still a child - I couldn't get on with the Brahms symphonies. It was Klemperer's craggy recordings that changed my mind. Strangely, though, I am not so keen on Klemperer's Brahms. He seems to miss so much of what I have come to love in Brahms.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

larold said:


> I wrote more than 1,000 reviews on Amazon early in the century through 2010 or so. I started because I thought I had something to say about the recording others didn't, or perhaps didn't say. It became addictive, however, and I think it had more to do with my ego and identity afterward. I found I was buying music for no reason other than to review it. At one time I was in the top 300 Amazon reviewers based on the famous "helpful" votes and I was offered three jobs reviewing on websites and in magazines but that came after I began to burn out. I guess I got what I wanted from it but the lesson for me was the reason I started and the reason(s) I continued doing it were very different.


Like Larold, I too wrote reviews on Amazon, not as many, but about 200. I did so, not so much for the sake ego, but because I loved sharing knowledge and information, and still do. Also, I sincerely felt that certain composers were deserving of attention, and felt that I could contribute in bringing them (more) to the forefront. I'm glad that I was able to make a difference.

The burning desire to continue to write kind of faded (at least for the time being). Hopefully, that spark will come back to me again. But for right now, I'm fine. 
:tiphat:


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