Anyone else dislike the Classical period?

[redbaron]

I seem to be in a minority of people who dislike the Classical Period. I just don't see the appeal. Aside from a few Beethoven pieces (Pathetique, Cello Sonata Op 69) I just don't get what the attraction is to Haydn, Mozart, Schubert... I love all other eras but this one just does nothing for me. Mozart's piano music in particular I just find twinkly and dull. Anyone else feel the same?

[ponken]

I don't dislike it but I like the later periods better.

[blackenedjustice]

I share the same dislike for the Classical period. I do love pretty much everything else, from Baroque, to Romantic and contemporary.

[ollymuxworthy]

Definitely - Mozart's music was just mass-produced drivel with poor range of harmony. I know we're spoilt for choice today, but Mozart could have developed a little further. The Baroque period was even worse.

I personally prefer Romantic and onwards - Impressionist in particular. I also like a bit of Rachmaninoff here and there; composers like Ravel and Rachmaninoff use difficult technique to give thick, brilliant harmony (unlike Liszt, who just used it because he could), which the Classical period lacked so sorely.

[thalbergmad]

I am beginning to move away from it, but Clementi, Woelfl & Eberl are likely to keep me interested for a little longer.

I use my book of Mozart sonatas to prop up an uneven piano stool and they aint even very good at doing that.

Thal

[orangesodaking]

Classical era is my favorite. Romantic music is wonderful, but it becomes "too much" after a while. I guess that's one of the reasons I like Alkan, hehe. And Ravel, for that matter.

How many Beethoven sonatas have you played? They have greatened my appreciation of Mozart and Haydn (and Schubert too), and are just FUN (but difficult).

[fifthelegy]

I'm afraid I'll have to slightly agree with you here (much to my music teacher's dismay!)
Sure Beethoven's a marvellous composer, Mozart's a genius, along with Schubert and all those other wonderful people, but their music just does not appeal to me like Chopin's or Debussy's does.

Olly, romantic and impressionist are definitely my favourite periods also. :D

[ramseytheii]

The classics are considered classics partly because they were the first core repertoire of the wave of famous soloists following the death and times of Beethoven, soloists who capitalized on new sources of income, new venues for performance, and new sources of patronage.

They are obviously also considered classics for their organic quality which places them out of time and place.

I think what we may be seeing these days is a reaction against a long tradition of concert-making that used the classics as the essential backbone.  During the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, there was a hitherto unexplored "lexicon of musical invective" that was invoked to insult his music and memory.  That surely helped along those who believed the time for the classics has passed.

But I rather think that this will be the passing fad.  Decades from now, it will start to be reported that pianists and musicians are "discovering" the works of Mozart and Haydn and C.P.E. Bach, as if nobody had known them before.  Those of us who kept them close to the heart during those barren decades will roll our eyes and grimly shake our heads, because for us, there was never anything lost, and nothing to discover, and because our devotion to the classics is not based on trend or fad but pure love and joy.

Walter Ramsey

[vviola]

Nice post, Walter. I'm already shaking my head, hah!

[stevebob]

Is this discussion about music in general of various historical periods?  Or music for piano (and its predecessors) in particular?  Would opinions about various stylistic eras differ in either case?

If the "best" piano music seems to be from the Romantic period forward, perhaps that's due to the coincidental evolution of the piano itself into the modern instrument that we know today.

The textures and sonorities used to such notable effect by Liszt, Ravel and subsequent composers couldn't have been realized without the technological advances that made them possible.  If "piano" music written through the Classical period feels plinky and dry, maybe it's because the instruments weren't capable of producing more.

[keyboardclass]

You have to know how to approach it.  Remember Beethoven said Mozart's playing was choppy (i.e. legato wasn't standard and the use of the pedal still evolving).  I don't see a lot of point playing early classical with a Chopin hand - relaxed with middle fingers on the black notes.  The early classical was still baroque in it's hand shape.  When you play with curled fingers and no arm weight it'a a very different, if unhealthy, experience.   

[weissenberg2]

I love Haydn and Clementi. I like Mozart although it can get generic, I also like Beethoven, but sometimes it gets a little too... bombastic? I kinda like Dittersdorf