Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner What's a piece you just can't stand?

The note in question is definitely in the lower staff. At least Chopin wrote it and published it so. The Henle urtext, as mentioned, keeps it that way.

Another vote for Gaspard. And, whereas I really love other Ravel's works,
every time I listen to that I am thinking - what is this thing about???
For me, it's one of the longest and most demanding pieces writen without sense and aim.
Among the best known pieces it's the one.

Also - tons of infantile music of Mozart.
Many of Beethoven Sonatas.
90% of Ludovico Einaudi
Clair de Lune - not because of the piece itself, but because wherever you look it's there. You open refrigirator - Debussy


I don't understand your hatred about the Islamey (and I remember the old topic about it also).

D minor Chaccone is great. If you want to have an ultimate performance - listen to the Jorge Bolet. Never hear it better. It's mind blowig.

There goes your PW reputation down the drain right there.

Kapelli's not disliking of 10% of Einaudi is much worse than that!

That's been already done, in a way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bezWp0O0vB8

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't even know it existed. It's the kind of thing a Godowsky study might do.

Well....a few things:

-- There can't be any "definitely" about it. That's wishful thinking.

-- Many people (well, some people....OK, at least I anyway) view the term "urtext" as being meaningless about Chopin. The term implies that there's a single version that represents the "real" and "pure" manuscript. That exists with many classical composers; it doesn't really with Chopin, including because of:
-- multiple manuscripts
-- errors
-- the fact (well, 'many' people regard it as a fact) ....that Chopin just didn't view his music that way.

BTW and FWIW, most of the scores on IMSLP -- about 3/4 of them; I was sort of trying to do an exact count but lost count a little....anyway it's about 3/4 -- have it in the upper clef.

Schumann Impromptus opus 5.
The theme from Clara is really weak, and Robert's genius can't really save it in his variations.
I had to play it once in an audition, and this did not change my mind about it. Quite the contrary...

Haha

It's just because this remaining 10% are good for romantic evening with your girlfirend and wine

That reminds me... everything be Ludovico Einaudi. I'd elaborate but I don't want to insult anyone here who may like him.

Sometimes it just amazes me that there is any agreement at all about how music affects people or what people think is good music.

This thread definitely reminds me that in a forum like this, it is best to try to avoid assuming that anyone commenting about any music actually hears what I hear when I listen to the same music. Obviously, we don't. But, then, again, sometimes we may. There's no easy way to figure it out. What's surprising to me sometimes is that we can communicate anything through classical music at all, much less have any discussions about any of it.

I think Gaspard de la nuit is Ravel's finest piano work, whereas I can't really get into a number of other pieces of his.

I personally dislike hackneyed pieces, some of which are undoubtedly masterpieces of music. Chopin's B-flat minor scherzo is something I've just had my fill for a lifetime, I feel. Für Elise is another one..

Also nice one about Clair de lune, today's refrigerators, eh?

From a purely aesthetic standpoint I dislike a lot of XX century and contemporary music.

I learned the first 2 pages of Chopin 25/12 in Fmin. It sounds great this way.

As for a piece I can't stand, Liszt Ballade no 2 would probably get my top vote.

Another vote for Ravel's Bolero. I though I was the only one hating that one, feels good to see that's not true.

BTW, I recently had the "pleasure" to "enjoy" it again and again and again whilst waiting to get through a customer service phone line. Don't companies check what music they torture their clients with???

Oh... and I'll add to the list the "Toreador Song" from Bizet's Carmen. Another one from which it's quite difficult to scape.

Helloooo? Fur Elise, anyone?

Three other choices:

- Chopin Op 40 #1, the "Military Polonaise", is exhausting for me to listen to. It's relentlessly loud, doesn't have any "down" moments- there's no "whisper" to contrast the with the "storm", and its rhythms are so mercilessly square. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.

- Any piano music by Michael Nyman- for exactly the opposite reason to the Chopin, that is, there's no "Storm". The music's about as deep as a puddle.

- There are vast stretches of the music of Wagner and Bruckner that bore me. I think the key reason is, in fact, illustrated in the words "vast stretches."

I must be masochistic, I actually quite like it. But only when played complete, not only the first part. It was one of my first to learn and I have made a point to keep it in my repertoire.. but I think it's impossible to forget even if I wanted to.

It's one of those pieces that absolutely everybody knows well, as opposed to some lovely pieces that most people simply will not have a clue about and even feel ignorant not to know. I see it as a good ice breaker to start with.

The fact that it is often not played complete may be part of the reason (though the "B" section is not all that thrilling to me, either.)

I lived for a time in Brazil. Once a day, almost every day, the "gas truck"- a vehicle that drifted slowly up and down the streets, selling propane gas for use in stoves the way Ice Cream trucks do in the USA- would circle around where I was staying. The traditional song of the gas truck in this region of Brazil was "Fur Elise."- and a soul-less, truncated, timbirally grating, inescapable, and incessant version it was.

I'd like to think that there's something inherent in the piece that makes me dislike it, but, perhaps, it's simply its ubiquity and association with grating performances of it.

Whilst I wouldn't go so far as to say I 'can't stand' it, I generally share your sentiments. OTH, no one would claim it's one of Chopin's more difficult pieces, and it makes a nice showpiece for a young student.

Indirectly Chopin (through no fault of his own) is responsible for a piece I truly detest: Glazunov's Les Sylphides. I gag when it comes up on the radio, and what a horrid thing to do to Chopin's music! (Just goes to show how perfectly Chopin works on the piano, and how frightfully awkward it is when orchestrated.)

Yeah, I kind of like it. It's an upbeat, fluttery, delightful little bon-bon.