Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Piano pieces you despise

We've got so many threads about favorite piano concertos, favorite symphonies, favorite piano sonatas, and the like. Now why don't we talk about the piano pieces that we despise with every fiber of our beings? Here are mine...

Chopin Opus 72 (Posthumous E minor) Nocturne

Beethoven Opus 90 Piano Sonata

Grieg Piano Concerto

Beethoven Fur Elise

~jesu, joy of man's desiring
~pachabel's canon
~chopsticks, heart and soul, or anything that can be banged out on the piano by any second grader.
~mostly anyhting super-modern ( where you have no idea if they are even playing the right notes)

why do you hate beethoven's opus 90!? i'm working on it now...of course i don't mind that you dislike it, i'm just curious as to why.

i'm not familiar with all of chopin's waltzes, but as for waltzes in general, that's one thing i really dislike.

I know it's sacriledge, but there are a few Beethoven piano sonatas which don't do anything for me, such as Opp. 7, 22, and 49. I don't despise them, but they're not that memorable (to me).

Most of Chopin I enjoy, except a few of the earliest works.

But if hear that **** song from Titanic again, I swear my scream will be heard throughout the Midwest!

Bach: 2-part inventions
Bach: 3-part inventions
Bach: Well-tempered Clavier

Really, I got to play Bach ad nauseam. I can't hear or play it anymore.

@PianoMuse: Have you ever played tried Kurtag's "Jatekok"? It does sound like banging on the keys, but it's a lovely and witty banging.

I've only heard the Boulez Sonata No.2 once(in a live performance). I know that many consider it a masterpiece, but I'm of the opinion that music like that can only be understood and appreciated by professionals (or HIGHLY knowledgable people). During the performance I could only think that(1)what a shame it was to spend the time to learn such an incredibly difficult piece and (2) please end soon!

I despise all of the "popular" pieces of composers, because people won't give other pieces a chance, or simply don't know them.

Examples: Debussy: Clair de Lune, Arabesque no. 1 (Although I like the second one)

Chopin: Prelude in Db major, Nocturne no. 2 in Eb major, almost all of his posthumous works (excluding the waltzes)

Mozart: Rondo alla turca (spelling? URGHH!!!! I HATE THIS PIECE), the "easy" sonata in C major

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody (I think no. 2, you know, the popular one)

I could go on.

pianoloverus, at first when I head the 2nd Boulez Sonata, I thought the same thing. But it grows on you after a while, it is quite an interesting piece. Sure, no melody or nice sounds, but it is really a piece of work.
As for the other more popular pieces, I don't get too tired of them. If 60 pianists want to play the Moonlight Sonata, and if they play it well and with conviction, I will glady listen!

Much of Bach. To me it's either really good or really bad. Well, not really bad, just overrated. There are a few pieces from the WTC that I love, but most of it I hate. Specifically, the first 2 preludes--the most repetative pieces ever written for the keyboard (I love number 6 and 21, though).

Much of Beethoven's works that are "Without Opus" I don't like. There's a reason he kept them that way . Oh, and Haydn. It seems he was more in the "quantity" business. Shows what happens when you're employed by the aristocracy all your life . I had to learn one of his sonatas for a piano class a while ago. That sucked.

There are probably a few more, but I can't think of them right now.

Oh yeah, Scriabin's Etude for left hand. While a like his etudes overall, I wish he threw the right hand in there. It would have made it sound a lot better.

Mike

Why the hate against Bach! The Well Tempered Clavier might not be like the big romantic works, but it is much better music. When you really dig deeply, there is more emotional content in a Bach fugue than in many nocturnes or adagios of later periods. Once again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Now that somebody else has uttered good, solid sacrilege I shall too. None of Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn do much for me aside from the fugue from the Hammerklavier and the arietta from sonata 32. (Beethoven)

It's not that I haven't sincerely tried to understand - I have, believe me - for years. I don't really hate it, it just goes in one ear and out the other. On the other hand I am profoundly moved by Charles Ives' piano music, especially his first sonata.

A prominent musician here told me I was the first example he'd found of "a true musical pervert".

I omitted to add that I like the forty-eight. I disliked Bach for years for no other reason than mental association with images about Bach the man, reinforced by sanctimonious comments about him from devotees, who were usually people I disliked. I finally cracked my aversion to Bach by replacing the dried-up images with much racier ones of my own.

Regrettably, I can't repeat this process with those composers in my previous post because my dislike is not associative.

Do you mean the prelude and nocturne, op. 9? I don't know of a Scriabin Etude for left hand, but when I broke my right hand a couple years back I played the op. 9 and loved it. Maybe it takes the experience to really understand the left hand music, since that was my only option

As for pieces I despise, there really aren't too many. I am not a big fan of the Mozart C Major concertos or anything in C major written by Mozart or Haydn. Something about that key is way too bright for me! I've never felt a real love for Beethoven's "moonlight" sonata, 1st movement, though it's probably only because it is overplayed and the name only refers to the 1st movement. Why won't people listen to the rest???
I have to say, I love the WTC and the 2 and 3 part inventions are brilliant little pieces, and great learning pieces if nothing else.
Finally, the popular pieces can be irritating, but when playing the Chopin D-flat prelude as one of 24 preludes on a program or Debussy Clair de lune in the Suite Bergamasque, they make sense.

I used to not like Granados's Allegro de Concierto. But my teacher wanted me to play it anyway, and now I am beginning to like it!!

Sick and tired of Grieg concerto.

Sick and tired of people playing Gershwin preludes badly.

It's most likely because I've done that piece ad nauseum. It's the same thing with the Grieg; I would have liked these two pieces if I weren't so bloody sick of them.

Sorry I have to disagree with you about the Chopin Nocturne, that's a nice piece.

I do, however, agree with you about Fur Elise. That is FAR too overplayed and I hate it when people are around the piano and all they can play is the opening bar and then they don't play anything else that drives me crazy.

I'd like to add a few pieces to the "most despised" list:

1 - Bach's Two Part Inventions (ALL of them) I know it's good for building technique and everything but I just can't stand the counterpoint.

2 - Sonata C Major K 545 Mozart. Too many scales and far too repetitive. Also too overplayed.

The Happy Farmer (Schumann) and Chopin's minute waltz. I will tolerate the wigwam song but our piano teacher is absolutely forbidden to assign either of those other two pieces to any of my children. :p