Least favourite Chopin work?

[thorn]

I'm curious, is there anything Chopin wrote that people don't like? I don't personally feel you can describe any composer as never putting a foot wrong, but people really seem to idolise Chopin. I'll post my response later.

[sonata_5]

Mine is probably prelude no 2, it’s not bad but I just don’t like it.

[transitional]

1. Torrent Etude - overplayed to death and so many arpeggios and never strays away from the key signatures, also in a minor key

2. Ocean Etude - overplayed to death and so many arpeggios and never strays away from the key signatures, also in a minor key

3. Chromatic Etude - overplayed to death and so many arpeggios and never strays away from the key signatures, also in a minor key, but for some reason not as annoying as the ones above

4. Winter Wind Etude - overplayed to death and so many arpeggios and never strays away from the key signatures, also in a minor key. But at least it has a kind of cool theme.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

3. Chromatic Etude - overplayed to death and so many arpeggios and never strays away from the key signatures, also in a minor key, but for some reason not as annoying as the ones above

Chromatic is fun to listen to and doesn't have many arpeggios?
In terms of Chopin works that I dislike, probably the 9/2 Nocturne. Like transitional said of the Etudes, it's overplayed to death.

[transitional]

Chromatic is fun to listen to and doesn't have many arpeggios?

Whoops, cut the part about the arpeggios. I think I was trying to be consistent, but ended up conflating my point with things it doesn't have. I still just don't love how grounded it is, and how unnecessarily difficult it is.

[lelle]

Don't particularly care for the "Military" polonaise. It's got some nice themes but mostly it's just noisy and repetitive.

[thorn]

The concertos are poor examples of the genre because the orchestra doesn't add anything. They sound like pieces conceived for piano duet and the 2nd piano part was orchestrated later. This is more a positive reflection on Chopin's synthesis with the piano than a criticism of the composition itself though, if that makes sense.

But my least favourite is the Berceuse. I was made to learn it many years ago and my initial opinion- trite background music compared to his Nocturnes- never changed. Why I was given that instead of a Nocturne I'll never understand.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

It just recently occured to me, but I kind of dislike Ballades 1 and 4 because of how much I hear them. I almost always skip them on my music playlists. And yet, they're also some of my favorite Chopin works and have been for ages. The same is true for other pieces from other composers, as well.
Has anyone else experienced a similar thing?

[bryfarr]

I listened to a lot of Chopin as a teenager.  I rarely seek out Chopin for listening.  I hear Chopin in live concerts of course, it's always interesting to hear a novel approach, but I dread a whole program or even half program on Chopin.  I recently heard the Rondo, which I haven't heard much at all, and that was interesting - a wonderful piece.

[transitional]

It just recently occured to me, but I kind of dislike Ballades 1 and 4 because of how much I hear them. I almost always skip them on my music playlists. And yet, they're also some of my favorite Chopin works and have been for ages. The same is true for other pieces from other composers, as well.
Has anyone else experienced a similar thing?

When I'm angry, I avoid as much tonal music as possible. You might simply just be out of the mood for it. Or you could be growing less fond of those pieces. It happens to all of us.

[jaquet]

I dont dislike any chopin works , i would put Fantasie impromtu, because often its played very badly but i just heard Raoul Koczalski, and now i believe no piece by chopin is bad, it just depends on how its intpreted.

[earlgrey]

I’ve been studying piano for almost 20 years at this point. I liked Chopin when I was a teenager, but I pretty quickly fell off his music as I discovered other composers I like more. I’ve performed some small pieces and the third ballade. But other than a few random pieces like the Barcarolle and some of the less played stuff like Rondo à la mazur, I don’t look forward to hearing his music on a program, nor am I very interested in performing it.

Maybe at some point after I finish my doctoral program this year I’ll try to sit down with a Chopin piece and come to love it on my own terms. But yeah, my general feeling after performing anything by Chopin is “I never want to do that again.” It’s so difficult, he’s someone that you really need to fully get inside his head to do his music justice, and so often I feel like I’m too different from him to be able to do that. Idk if any of this makes sense. He’s obviously a brilliant composer who made huge contributions to the repertoire, but he just doesn’t excite me at this time in my life.

[bryfarr]

Maybe at some point after I finish my doctoral program this year ...
... my general feeling after performing anything by Chopin is “I never want to do that again.” It’s so difficult, he’s someone that you really need to fully get inside his head to do his music justice...

To play Beethoven well I think all you need is solid musical training and a dedicated practice - good technique and attention to detail should do it.  To play Chopin well you need this but something much more, almost a transcendental technique that is huge talent - that super supple wrist + agile independent fingers.  You also need to be able to walk the tight rope of intense passion combined with elegant restraint.  Yes, extremely difficult to achieve.  I think to be a good Chopin pianist you have to dedicate your whole pianistic life to his music, play little else, maybe some Scriabin. 

What is your PhD in?

[earlgrey]

It’s a DMA in piano performance. I just much prefer classical, baroque, and 20th c. music to romantic. I find a similar problem when I play Brahms and Schubert. But Chopin in particular I get the sense that as you say, you’d need to dedicate all of your time to his body of work. I’d much rather spend that time on Haydn or Beethoven or Ravel or Bartók, personally.

[pianistrick]

Polonaise-Fantaisie! Heard it hundreds of times, can't remember a note!

[droprenstein]

I don't love the first rondo Op. 1. There seems to be a huge gap in skill between this and Op. 2. Op. 2 is one of my favorite Chopin pieces.

[kaideedee17]

It just recently occured to me, but I kind of dislike Ballades 1 and 4 because of how much I hear them. I almost always skip them on my music playlists. And yet, they're also some of my favorite Chopin works and have been for ages. The same is true for other pieces from other composers, as well.
Has anyone else experienced a similar thing?

This happens to me a lot; specifically with many of Liszt's/Chopin's works. Now back to the question, I feel my least favorite peace is his "Ocean" etude. So overplayed and I still have yet to find an interpretation where I can enjoy the melody above the extremely muddy sounding arpeggios. Just an opinion tho. I do think some people could play it well, any recommendations of a good interpretation?

[thorn]

I'm not an expert in Chopin recordings but Perlemuter came to mind because the issues you mention in the 25/12 are the same as those in Liszt's Legend 2, and Perlemuter's recording of the Liszt is widely regarded as one of the best. So I just looked up his Ocean and was not disappointed (I'm sure people more familiar with the Etudes will have suggestions though)
 

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Polonaise-Fantaisie! Heard it hundreds of times, can't remember a note!

You're kidding, right?
It's one of Chopin's best pieces IMO, and I don't think it's very overplayed?

[transitional]

IMO the last 3 polonaises are all masterpieces and shouldn't be considered overplayed. Really the only categories of Chopin pieces that I'd consider overplayed are the Etudes and Nocturnes, with a few exceptions here and there in other categories.