Classical music preferences

[millymog11]

My ex husband could only listen to Bach or some kind of baroque.

I used to be of his view but listening to Piano Concerto No.5 in Eb major Opus 73 (2/3)
Ludwig van Beethoven on the radio how could anyone not get the subtle tones the beauty? I don't like rachmaninov but I think I am being converted.
Am I being unreasonable?

I'm going to really show myself up now and say the only way I could put my children to sleep was to play them John Rutter.

I wonder if it's a bloke thing...my DH is a big Bach fan too and often complains about me playing "that terrible modern stuff" (Rachmaninov, Mahler and he has a particular hatred for both Debussy and Ravel).
It's all fairly good natured though. I don't really loathe Bach and Handel and I did come home once and catch DH voluntarily listening to Chopin, though he tried to claim he was looking for something else and it just came on 😄
We have fairly wide ranging musical taste in this family though. You're as likely to hear Guns N Roses, Stevie Ray Vaughan or Glenn Miller as anything classical. I don't think liking any particular genre of musuc precludes you from enjoying another. Just listen to what you enjoy!

"I wonder if it's a bloke thing...my DH is a big Bach fan"
I also wonder this and I don't want to be sexist. My ex husband was very good at maths and slightly (I'm not sure) autistic. He gave me alot for which I will always be grateful.

"I wonder if it's a bloke thing...my DH is a big Bach fan"
Not convinced - I'm a bloke and love both Bach and Mahler 😊.
OP as a suggestion you might like to try the Sibelius symphonies, I'd recommend number 2 or number 5 as a starting pont.

My ex also is I think a little system driven and also a Bach obsessive. He then hates anything between Bach and 20th century French when they all started listening to jazz.

So maybe it is a bloke thing?

I like a lot of the radical post-serial stuff but I am also a sucker for a big old corny tune.

I like most music but there’s something about Beethoven that irks me. I find it annoying. I love Bach, and most other classical music from Byrd to Bartok, but I just can’t warm to Beethoven.

When we were on honeymoon he in a house in Pyrénées france he introduced me to the coffee cantata.

I don't think I can ever listen to that again.

My boss likes Dmitri Shostakovich.

I have no knowledge and don't really know much about this. Is this a more masculine or a more femine kind of music? Ive never worked it out.

Whereas I feel most emotionally connected to Beethoven out of all of them!

Weird how we're all different isn't it?

As a teen I thought that Mozart was the greatest genius who'd ever lived, and in a way he was - the way he constructed something out of nothing and managed to create a whole symphony or concerto in no time at all. He was composing by numbers to pay the bills. However nowadays a lot of it leaves me a bit cold, and it's only some of his stuff which really touches me to the core. His later music mainly.

Entitely coincidentally, today I've booked seats to see Cherry Town by Shostakovich in Cardiff in October.

The music is quite jazzy - very accessible.

It can be quite strident if that's what you mean by masculine?

However he could also compose the most beautiful, beautiful tunes. Listen to the Gadfly, or the second movement of his second piano concerto. I think that's one of the most heartbreakingly lovely things ever written!

I like heavy metal versions of classics, also the original Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 27 No. 2,

I only love classical music I've heard from adverts that I really liked, like the one for British Airways a couple of decades ago.

Also classical music from movie scores like Lord of the Rings and anything John Williams does.

My favourite Shostakovich is his 5th Symphony. I love listening to it and playing it. I'm not a massive fan of impressionist music at all (Debussy/Ravel); I prefer Rachmaninov and Mahler. I really dislike Elgar's Cello Concerto (sorry to whoever suggested it) but Dvorak, Schumann and Saint-Saens wrote brilliant ones. I also like the Haydn C major one. Vivaldi wrote a really good concerto for 2 cellos in G minor which I have played a few times.

If you have the time and are a fan of Romantic music, try some of Richard Strauss' symphonic poems. I like all of them, particularly Ein Heldenleben, Don Juan and Death & Transfiguration. I also love his Four Last Songs.

My favourite chamber music is probably by Schubert. I love the Octet and have happy memories of playing it a few years ago. I also love the Trout Quintet and his Quintet in C, the one for string quartet and an extra cello. The slow movement is sublime...

He also loved Borodin. Very of type. I'm going to branch out.

Agree that Shostakovich's output is really varied. He was active for a long time and worked with a lot of different styles.

Also is a fascinating person - loads written about him, with various motivations pinned on him by all sorts of people as he lived and worked right through the thick of all the Russian tumult of the twentieth century. Back in the 1980s it looked like we'd got the answers when a biography said to be dictated by him was published but that's since been said to be a fake, and now that the claims of fake are a double bluff ... Doesn't help that no one in charge in Russia has told the truth for over 100 years, about anything.

My favourite of his symphonies is number 11, and I like the cello concerto as well.

Was Shostakovich's Jazz Suite discovered posthumously?

For me it's Rachmaninov 4eva! Can't be dealing with the frilly baroque stuff.

Vikingur olaffson yes indeed. Fell in love with him slightly over lockdown.

What is about Shostakovich you love?

Well, Shostakovich at his most serious is very aggressive and hard-hitting; bare in mind he was living under Stalin after all but in his lighter moments he can be great fun. Try the Jazz Suites or the arrangement of Tea for Two which he calls Tahiti Trot and wrote in an hour in response to a challenge.

"Well, Shostakovich at his most serious is very aggressive and hard-hitting; bare in mind he was living under Stalin after all but in his lighter moments he can be great fun. Try the Jazz Suites or the arrangement of Tea for Two which he calls Tahiti Trot and wrote in an hour in response to a challenge."

This is really interesting about Shostakovich thank you. I'd not listened to him before, my boss who is really into Tai chi raves about Shostakovich I have no idea why.

A few already mentioned that I love. 'Danse Macabre' is a great tune, likewise Mozart's flute concerto, and Berlioz is also great, especially 'Symphony Fantastique' (the Dies Irae from Witches Sabbath is that creepy-as-sin opening score from 'The Shining'). Vivaldi wins the baroque competition for me.

Mendelssohn's string symphonies are a big favourite, haunting yet upbeat at the same time. The fact that he was a child when most were written blows my mind every time I hear them. His violin concerto is also sublime.

Favourite operas are 'La Traviata', 'Carmen', 'La Boheme', and 'The Marriage of Figaro'.

Love this thread!

I really dislike Elgar's Cello Concerto (sorry to whoever suggested it) but Dvorak, Schumann and Saint-Saens wrote brilliant ones.
Genuinely dislike, or just due to over-exposure to it? I can't really stand the lark ascending as it is everywhere, although I appreciate objectively it is an excellent piece.

I agree about the Lark Ascending and the way Classic FM promote it all year so it stays at the top of the Hall of Fame. I live Rachmaninov I tried to learn it on the piano but it’s difficult apparently he had really big hands I can’t even reach an octave. I have found my tastes have changed with age I now like organ and choral music especially Widor toccata