Your "Never to be Sung Again" selections

[Amphissa]

 
Are there symphonies so bad that you wish you could have the time you spent listening back again? Here is your opportunity to rant about music that is on your personal "never to be sung again" list.

I'll start.

I've half-way listened to Paderewski's Symphony in B minor a few times over the past couple of years, but never really paid much attention to it. But Sunday evening, during a long drive home in a rental car that had Sirius satellite radio service, this was played on the "Symphony Hall" channel. So I had the opportunity to give it attention.

I must say, this is the most unrelentingly bombastic, vapid and interminably tiresome composition I've sat through in a long time. A MusicWeb reviewer compared it to Scriabin, Myaskovsky, Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff and Strauss. I'm not sure if he was listening to the same symphony, because there is not a single melody in this symphony. It is just an endless sequence of episodic fanfares, marches, anthems and blustery riffs with occasional interludes in transition.

I enjoy Paderewski's piano concerto on rare occasions. It's so over the top that the fun outweighs the superficiality. But I'm really disappointed to have wasted an hour of my life on this tripe. I mean, I could have been listening to the "Classic Vinyl" channel instead, singing along with rock hits from the 60s and 70s. I fail to find any fun in the "Polonia" symphony. It is, for me, unbearably pompous and boring. And it will remain forevermore "unsung" through the remainder of my listening lifetime.

There -- I feel better now that I've gotten that out of my system.

Do any of you have music on your personal "Never to be Sung Again" list?

[eschiss1]

I think we had this thread and decided against it and it was locked?

[Mark Thomas]

I'm relaxed provided people remain civil, Eric.

[Amphissa]

 
This is not a rant against any particular recording or performer. I do not want to go in that direction. I'm just curious whether there is some piece of music that you just don't like -- dislike enough that you don't want to hear it again.

Now that I think of it, I do seem to remember that we had a thread about this not too long ago. My choice was Carmina Burana. I've heard that so much I'm very tired of it. But that thread got off track.

Sorry to bring this up again, but I'm curious about your choice of music that you don't want to hear anymore. It's not a condemnation of the composer, and fact is, others may love the piece. I'm sure a lot of people like Paderewski's Polonia symphony, and I'm okay with that ----- as long as they don't strap me in a chair and make me listen to it. 

[Delicious Manager]

I had exactly this feeling when I came across the old Marco Polo recording (now reissued on Naxos) of the Romantic Symphony by the Italian composer Carlo Giorgio Garofalo (1886—1962). Apparently, Tullio Serafin, Arturo Toscanini and Arthur Nikisch were admirers of his music, although it is hard to understand why. I have never encountered a less inspired, more flabby, more meandering and utterly unmemorable work as this (and I've encountered a few!). This is possibly the worst (and most pointless) symphony I wasted my time on. The Violin Concerto which accompanies the Symphony on the CD is barely (but only just) more listenable than the truly awful Romantic Symphony.

[John H White]

Ah, but you haven't heard any of my symphonies yet!

[Syrelius]

I've half-way listened to Paderewski's Symphony in B minor a few times over the past couple of years, but never really paid much attention to it. But Sunday evening, during a long drive home in a rental car that had Sirius satellite radio service, this was played on the "Symphony Hall" channel. So I had the opportunity to give it attention.

I must say, this is the most unrelentingly bombastic, vapid and interminably tiresome composition I've sat through in a long time. A MusicWeb reviewer compared it to Scriabin, Myaskovsky, Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff and Strauss. I'm not sure if he was listening to the same symphony, because there is not a single melody in this symphony. It is just an endless sequence of episodic fanfares, marches, anthems and blustery riffs with occasional interludes in transition.

Hello Amphissa,

glad to hear that someone else feels the same about the "Polonia" as I do. Having read a number of positive reviews, I thought it was just me who felt that way about it...

Another example of music that I find completely boring is the music of Augusta Holmes - at least the symphonic poems that Marco Polo released a number of years ago. 

[eschiss1]

not apropos to this forum- semi-modern really (not all that modern I think)- I received music by van Rossum as a gift awhile back and while I don't know about 'never again', my enthusiasm for it is really low. Likewise for a CD I bought at a booksale of the much more modern (though not automatically outside of my tastes) Marcel Landowski (symphonies 1,3,4 on Erato). ... well... was worth a go, and was cheap. 
... still, that was one gift and one cheap music purchase... I don't complain too loudly, I just circumscribe them in my collection and consider turning  on the switch in iTunes that says 'do not have these appear during shuffle', since i use album shuffle a whole lot with my much-beloved birthday-present iPod. (Or keep them in iTunes and remove them from the iPod folder altogether, since I do have things set up so that only a subfolder actually gets synched, but anyway.)
Eric
(there are quite a lot of works that if they appear on the radio or classical TV I will turn them off for now most of the time. Maybe Hamelin performing Tchaikovsky 1 might draw me in, or I might be curious about the new Hough performance, once. Lovely piece though it really is, and deserving (just not uniquely) of its fame. (Goodness, for awhile I was curious about Tchaikovsky concerto -2-. At least now, recordings of that are much more common, most of them in the uncut form.)

[Alan Howe]

I agree. The Garofalo Symphony is absolutely dire. The VC is OK, but the Symphony is just awful.

[Steve B]

The Paderewski "Polonia" is a truly great, epic piece of carefully worked out, motivically-developed music.

The Garafalo is under-served by a scatch orchestra's scrappy performance(on Marco Polo), and whilst it has its longeurs, has some memorable themes.

But then this is all subjective, except for the OBJECTIVE fact of the Garafalo performance; and I know, Amphissa you are recognising that its subjective; but I had to step in and defend the Paderewski.

I am not a great supporter of these kinds of threads, because they CAN, inadvertently(I stress) hurt people's feeling re works which they feel have undeserved unpopularity anyway; unless, olf course, the piece in question is just so bad its GOOD, ie.in Sontag's sense of "camp"... and that is altogether a different matter.

I think recommending pieces we actually LIKE is more productive(unless its a "guilty pleasures" so bad-its-good thread is in progress:)
Steve

[chill319]

There's no shortage of classical forums with threads for those inclined to bash either particular classical composers or their consumers. This forum is different, and I'm most grateful for that. I've learned so much here. Thank you, Mark, Alan, and everyone.

[Alan Howe]

I'll defend Paderewski's Symphony - despite its longueurs, it is an entertaining piece. But the Garofalo, badly presented though it is, is really third-rate stuff. However, there's plenty of third-rate stuff which I enjoy. Tolga Kashif anyone?

[Steve B]

thanks, Alan; you have just said it all-so succintly! Steve

[Ilja]

Allow me just to drop a name here: Perosi.

[Alan Howe]

I thought I was the only one, Ilja. For me, sickly and excruciatingly boring all at the same time. However, I'll defend anyone's right....