"Leave me cold"

[burstroman]

Who are some composers that leave you cold?  Their music just doesn't communicate with you, although you realize it may be your own "problem".  Two composers difficult for me to enjoy are Mahler and Rimsky-Korsakov.

[beethoven2]

if i had to pick one, it would probably be debussy.  i just don't "get into" his music like i do beethoven and mozart, and so forth.  it just kind of....'happens'.

[thalbergmad]

The compost heap created by the "New Complexity" composers has no effect on me other than reduce me to laughter.

Since they are probably all still alive, i will not mention one in particular, not wishing to give offence.

Thal

[quantum]

Some of Liszt's music, not all. 

[ramseytheii]

For me I think it is minimalist music, even with the best composers of that style, John Adams and Steve Reich, their music just sounds like background or soundtrack music, not the main thing to focus on!

Walter Ramsey

[sharon_f]

Scriabin. I've never been able to "get" him.

[jre58591]

id have to agree with reich and adams, although i really enjoyed adams' phrygian gates and century rolls. also, some of he serialist music doesnt quite speak to me, particularly by schoenberg and webern, although i do enjoy some of their pieces. i do enjoy the more modern serialism of boulez and "post-serialism" of berio though. in that field, its hit or miss, basically. also, i just cant get some of the music of the classical and baroque period. it jsut bores me sometimes or its too monotonous. but, like serialism, its hit or misss, but most likely a miss. my heart lies in basically most music written from the year 1800 to today.

[pianistimo]

tcherpnin.

[kempff1234]

Music of Webern I will never get. Although i am beginning to understand Schoenberg.

[jre58591]

tcherpnin.

you do mean alexander tcherepnin, right? or nikolai tcherepnin?

[pianistimo]

i always misspell that guy.  sorry.  alexander.

[ahinton]

i always misspell that guy.  sorry.  alexander.

But why him in particular? Just curious!

Best,

Alistair

[nanabush]

Haydn, Mozart, Satie,

<<cuts wrists>>

[pianistimo]

don't go that far.  just use it for warm ups instead of hanon.  but tcherepnin - whew - where should i start?  perhaps mao tse tung.  it's like you have stalin waiting to say 'next.'  like on the show 'next.'  these gorgeous guys or girls are 'nexted' before they can express their talents.  tcherepnin did the best he could under the circumstances. 

the buffalo boy looks like someone chained to the tail of a pig.  can you explain the art and music.  it's like - see - i'm chained up.  wheeee.

[sharon_f]

where should i start?  perhaps mao tse tung.  it's like you have stalin waiting to say 'next.'  like on the show 'next.'  these gorgeous guys or girls are 'nexted' before they can express their talents.  tcherepnin did the best he could under the circumstances. 

the buffalo boy looks like someone chained to the tail of a pig.  can you explain the art and music.  it's like - see - i'm chained up.  wheeee.

            

[pianowolfi]

           

Haha hilarious, all these confusies! Yes i'm confused too

[infectedmushroom]

Beethoven, Bach and Mozart leave me cold... Yes, I know it's "me", cause those 3 are probably the most famous Piano composers that made great music.

Still, it doesn't "touch" me in any particular way. I find a lot of pieces just plain boring of these composers and yes: I gave their music a lot of chances! I bought a lot of CD's of these composers, played by different kinda Pianists, but my opinion about these 3 composers didn't change.


Some people might not understand me, but it's interesting to see all the different in tastes. I saw a reply about Scriabin in this topic... Well, I personally can't understand why his music leaves someone cold, cause Scriabin is my favorite composer, but that keeps the world interesting, doesn't it. 

[preludium]

Satie

...would probably have died laughing if someone had called him a composer. He was a clown and probably didn't want to be anything else. Just look at these remarks in the scores:

Enfouissez le son (Bury the tone)
Ouvrez la tête (Open the head)
Conseillez-vous soigneusement (Question yourself carefully)

I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be funny, but the audience will never know about this kind of communication between "composer" and pianist, unless it is read out loud, which would make the weirdest performance mankind has witnessed. But it's definitely funny when someone counts Satie to their favorite composers.

[ahinton]

don't go that far.  just use it for warm ups instead of hanon.

Please don't ever show me your "warm ups".

but tcherepnin - whew - where should i start?

You mean you don't actually know?! How's about Matthew, chapter...

perhaps mao tse tung.

What? Who?  I am profoundly shocked!

it's like you have stalin waiting to say 'next.'

Him a well? This gets worse (contextually as well as in other respects)...

like on the show 'next.'  these gorgeous guys or girls are 'nexted' before they can express their talents.

What a relief it so often is not to be able to receive - and therefore comment upon - American TV shows...

tcherepnin did the best he could under the circumstances.

Didn't realise that he was ever on that show. Seriously, most of us composers try our darnedest to do that anyway...

the buffalo boy looks like someone chained to the tail of a pig.  can you explain the art and music.  it's like - see - i'm chained up.  wheeee.

Er - um - ah, yes, I have it; DISCUSS, as the old university exam paper cliché has it (well, discuss all but the bit about pianistimo being "chained up", for, after all, quite what goes on and why in the Susanistimarital chambre is neither any of my business nor for general forum consumption, please God [yes, GOD!])...

Best,

Alistair

[jakev2.0]

Handel
Haydn
Mahler
Wagner
Stockhausen
Philip Glass

[pianistimo]

alistair - all i can say when i saw it was - yuk.  but if you like it - go right ahead.  look at it.  pet it.  make it part of the 'paper weight' that it was meant to be.  personally, if i had a choice of paper weights in my office - i'd have a remington - a buffalo or something.  wild pigs are ugly.  but, then again -considering that i have been attempting to feminize the house and all - perhaps i'd settle for a painting of degas.  do you have any of those?  hopeful as always.  susan

specifically the three russian dancers.  i have never found a copy of them since i saw the painting in the palmdale library.  i wished i could have ripped out the page and copied it - but that would have been dishonest.  i really want that painting.  the one that's circa 1895. the real one would be so much better than a fake.  *wonders how many million?

is it ok to ask a modern day artist to paint a masterpiece for you.  i have now printed out on my hp photosmart 'the three russian dancers' by degas.  i want to find a painter.  btw, the picture i found on the internet is not half the quality of the painting i saw 'half size' at the library.  more detail in it.  so don't go by the internet painting!

[ahinton]

alistair - all i can say when i saw it was - yuk.

What was? You've lost me (again!)...

perhaps i'd settle for a painting of dega.  do you have any of those?  hopeful as always.  susan

Hawking has no final "s"; Dégas does. You may be as hopeful as you like, but I can nevertheless assure you that I do not possess any original Dégas works...

Best,

Alistair

[pianistimo]

life is exceeding disappointing at times - and yet - i find a sort of bass relief with you.
www.steve-ackerman.com/page24.htm

ok.  explain buffalo boy so i can appreciate him.

[ahinton]

life is exceeding disappointing at times - and yet - i find a sort of bass relief with you.

What can I say to that? - ah, yes; "divided by a common langauge", as I said previously...

ok.  explain buffalo boy so i can appreciate him.

Pardon? You've lost me yet again! Anyway, Beim Schlafengehen; Gute Nacht, Pianischtimo...

Best,

Alistair

[pianistimo]

wait.  you're not german.  you're scottish.  you've gone mad.  what is happening.  just because i said i don't like the buffalo boy?  i will attempt to like him.  tell me what the real story behind the buffalo boy is before you go to sleep.

[ahinton]

wait.  you're not german.  you're scottish.

This is true - except that I do not have to "wait" to realise it...

you've gone mad.

Really? On what grounds do you make that accusation?

what is happening.

I was going to ask you that question...

just because i said i don't like the buffalo boy?  i will attempt to like him.  tell me what the real story behind the buffalo boy is before you go to sleep.

I am at a loss to understand what you are talking about. I have not said that I do, or don't, like this "buffalo boy" of whom you write; this fact, together my only other references to it/him, are all based upon the fact that I have no idea what you mean by it, which is why I cannot comment on it one way of the other. I think that you may just have been having a senior pianistimoment - or maybe I'm just being dense; either way, I don't know what you're on about here...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

life is exceeding disappointing at times - and yet - i find a sort of bass relief with you.
www.steve-ackerman.com/page24.htm

Having now looked briefly at the URL above (which I admit I hadn't when first I replied to this), I can say only that I am not sure what kind of "bass relief" you'd get with me were you to listen to my string quintet from first note to last - with its important part for double bass, but I suspect that it might not be especially welcome to you, given the sources of some of the texts sung by the high soprano in its finale, including two not especially Jewish ones by a Jew (Schönberg), an early 19th century English sonnet with some suspicious disparagement of certain aspects of churchgoing and others by those born-again atheists Delius and (Norman) Douglas - but then I could be wrong about this and we'll neither of us know in any case until and unless you put that to the test, if so you choose (I should perhaps warn you that listening to the entire work at a single sitting will mean that you'll be unable to post to this forum for at least three hours...).

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

You too are destroying this topic.

[ahinton]

You too are destroying this topic.

I'm not actually doing anything to the topic itself; I'm merely responding to another contributor to the thread as best I can.

The topic is not of especial interest to me, since it is yet another one where any direct answers must be entirely down to personal taste, which will, of course, vary from person to person - abit like threads of the "hardest piece", "greatest pianist", "greatest recording", etc. variety; it's hard to see what useful overall conclusions might be drawn from posts to this thread when each contribution, if on-topic, would have simply to name a composer and possibly give reasons for why his/her work happens to leave that contributor "cold"...

Nothing destructive intended, to be sure...

Best,

Alistair

[pianistimo]

dear alistair,

remember (regarding the buffalo boy) that you said , 'aha, yes, I HAVE IT.'  i thought you meant that you had the literal figurine of buffalo boy.  i was about to cross the ocean and find out if you had the original - for the fact that i just might change my mind if you told me more about it's background.

as far as tcherepnin- alexander - i'm just not really much into it.  too much repetition.  it's sort of 'party line.'  but, that's taste.  and that is what this thread is about.  what makes you cold.  to have no real love of the music.

now, some say this about mozart - but if someone writes that here - they would have every right to express their opinion.  i think music and art is very synonymous.  you can tell much about a person's style (no judgement involved, btw) in music AND art.  in fact - it's kind of nice to go into some museums and art exibits and find out for yourself what you like.

i tend to like flowers.  painted really really huge.  i found out my teacher liked this one painter that painted leopards with half-killed prey in front of them.  after that - i started standing back from my teacher (more than six feet).  but, each to his/her own, right?!

[donjuan]

I admit I'm too stupid to enjoy most Bach.  The only thing I really liked from him was his D minor concerto.

I also have a hard time liking the ultra modern stuff like Finessy.  But tastes change.. I used to like Rock and couldnt stand any kind of classical.  Now, I am getting tired of listening to classical, so I'm coming back to my roots in rock.  wOOOT Queen 

[pianowolfi]

Pianischtimo...

Wow that's actually Swiss! Grüezi Herr Hinton!

[ahinton]

dear alistair,

remember (regarding the buffalo boy) that you said , 'aha, yes, I HAVE IT.'  i thought you meant that you had the literal figurine of buffalo boy.

OK, so now you presumably realise that this was not at all what I was referring to when I wrote "I HAVE IT" and, for the record, I had never heard of the buffalo boy until you mentioned him and am still pretty much in the dark on the subject now.

i was about to cross the ocean and find out if you had the original - for the fact that i just might change my mind if you told me more about it's background.

That's self-evidently more than you'd have done (or indeed did) to hear the première of my Sequentia Claviensis; I'll try not to construe any kind of comparative value judgement here, even if for no better rason than that I still know less than nothing of this wretched buffalo boy of whom you write apart from the fact of your having raised his spectre here...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

I also have a hard time liking the ultra modern stuff like Finessy.

The extent of your own "finesse" notwithstanding, "the name's Finnissy; Michael Finnissy" (to paraphrase a rather more well known utterance)...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Wow that's actually Swiss! Grüezi Herr Hinton!

You mean, as in "Suzanne from Lausanne"; but then again it could as easily be German - or even American or Britis(c)h if sufficient quantities of the alcoholic liquor of choice are imbibed firs(ch)t...

Bes(ch)t,

Alis(ch)tair

[pianistimo]

dear alistair,

must i remind you that i had been in the process of obtaining a passport - which is no small matter to get done in a short amount of time.  i went to get the pic - and was filling out paperwork - and getting ticket prices - when all of a sudden my son went 'aaahhhhhhhh...my tooth is hurting.'   then, a couple of days later - two teeth.  come to find out - he had three at the end attempting to erupt - but bone impacted and so all four had to come out.

you'll never know how close i was to coming.  excepting wondering about that ride from gatwick as i never got any straight answer as to how i'd arrive at the warehouse. 

aside from that - the buffalo boy is a figurine that apparently was held in high esteem by the composer and inspired him in naming a publishing company.  www.tcherepnin.com (scroll down) don't worry.  you don't have as bad of taste as i thought - when you said 'i have it.'  but, then again - considering it's worth?  it might be better judged by an antique seller. 

[mad_max2024]

prokofiev, stravinsky and the like
just too dissonant for me I guess...

[ahinton]

dear alistair,

must i remind you that i had been in the process of obtaining a passport - which is no small matter to get done in a short amount of time.  i went to get the pic - and was filling out paperwork - and getting ticket prices - when all of a sudden my son went 'aaahhhhhhhh...my tooth is hurting.'   then, a couple of days later - two teeth.  come to find out - he had three at the end attempting to erupt - but bone impacted and so all four had to come out.

you'll never know how close i was to coming.  excepting wondering about that ride from gatwick as i never got any straight answer as to how i'd arrive at the warehouse.

No, you do not need to remind me of that; of course I remember it well. I did give you very clear directions as to how to get to The Warehouse, though.

aside from that - the buffalo boy is a figurine that apparently was held in high esteem by the composer and inspired him in naming a publishing company.  www.tcherepnin.com (scroll down) don't worry.  you don't have as bad of taste as i thought - when you said 'i have it.'  but, then again - considering it's worth?  it might be better judged by an antique seller. 

Now I wasn't aware of that at all. At last you have explained! Thank you.

Best,

Alistair