A millennial's rant on classical music

[Brian Hall]

 

[Brian Hall]

 

[Brian Hall]

 

[Haskil]

Personally, I think that a lot of Western art music is boring beyond comprehension. Throughout different periods and styles, there are just a few standout composers, with the rest producing music that's repetitive and uninspired. While I can stomach some Mahler, Bach, Chopin, Shostakovich, or Lutoslawski, a big chunk of - say - 20th-century music is just noise. Recently, there's been a shift towards some sort of new age styled compositions, which I find even worse than the noise of the 20th century. The Hyperion gets credit for trying to record less popular stuff, but it ends up highlighting how mediocre a lot of non-mainstream music really is. And then there's this endless stream of 'me too' soloists, ensembles and orchestras playing the same old compositions over and over again. It's a dead end.

Mediocre? Really ? You are confusing your opinion with what is.

You don't like many works and composers and you have the right to do so, obviously. This does not mean that these works and these composers are mediocre... I don't like Reger's music, for example, which I find deadly boring, but I would never claim that it is mediocre: Reger is a great composer whose the music is of undeniable formal quality...

 

[MRC01]

"Classical music is just heavy metal before electricity"

I am reminded of this when I listen to certain works, like Ysaye's violin sonatas and Liszt's transcendental etudes.

 

[TonyJZX]

i'm not a millenial but i probably have their same attention span

one of my favorite pieces was Holst Planets and Vivaldi's Four Seasons - the reason is pretty clear

there's a distinct 'chapters' and each chapter is different but same same

and so you can listen to the lot and not feel like... you're bored

and then we come to something I also like...

but the thing is i think this thing is 30 mins long???

and this bit comes in at the 15 min mark?

and they say that Stairway to Heaven is long

but i'm trying... i just bought this online as 24/96 and i'll see how much i like it

Mirages | Warner Classics

www.warnerclassics.com

 

[jooc]

Want to know how my entry into classical music happened? It wasn't years of learned research, didn't involve acquiring a deep historical knowledge of the pieces or composers or music theory leading up to a wine-like appreciation for the nuances of the art -

No, I simply hit 'play' on the Spotify 'Modern Classical' playlist and started listening. Then, I hit 'like' on the stuff that really moved me.

Kinda lowbrow, I admit, but now I know how utterly great certain Scandinavian composers are, and I wouldn't have before streaming.

 

[Robin L]

Want to know how my entry into classical music happened? It wasn't years of learned research, didn't involve acquiring a deep historical knowledge of the pieces or composers or music theory leading up to a wine-like appreciation for the nuances of the art -

No, I simply hit 'play' on the Spotify 'Modern Classical' playlist and started listening. Then, I hit 'like' on the stuff that really moved me.

Kinda lowbrow, I admit, but now I know how utterly great certain Scandinavian composers are, and I wouldn't have before streaming.

I started out by playing the LPs in my local library. About 1970.