M_is_D

Hmm... that was almost two years ago.

K first of all, Kondo is rly unique and has some of the most memorable melodies ever (part of me liking him a lot comes from childhood nostalgia as well), but what he's done just can't compare to other 'serious' works.

I like over the top, melodramatic, bittersweet, italian and hungarian/gypsy influenced music, and I don't care if people call my musical tastes simplistic. Give me Italian opera any time - Traviata's dramatic, heartwrenching second act, Butterfly's suicide scene, all the scenes with Iago in Verdi's Otello. Throw all your Wieniawski and Sarasate at me with their awesome violin portamento ear candy. If those guys are shallow, you can start calling me Blond Teenage Bimbo. Even Brahms can sometimes sound cold to me next to those guys.

And of course, Paganini. The second concerto blows (except the third movement) but the fourth is decent (especially the second movement) and the first and fifth concertos are awesome pieces of melodrama (the fifth only in the orchestration that comes with the Accardo version). 'oooh, it sucks, it's simplistic non-polyphonic music.' I'll be taking a dump on the carpet the day I care about stuff like that.

Achrom's Hebrew Melody, as performed by Josef Hassid, is about as far as feeling can go in music, to my ears. Screw Mahler and his pompous orchestrations - I only really like it in the concert hall for the aural effect. I'd rather just take his Adagietto from the 5th symphony. Wagner would be better if he understood the concept of pace, and decent libretto writing. The Tanhäuser Overture, the Prelude and Liebestod from 'Tristan'... those are amazing.

Brahms... I won't say I dislike the violin concerto, because there's some cool stuff in it, but it sounds rigid and austere next to others. There are some amazing moments in the 1st symphony, and others which make me lose interest. His chamber music, above all the piano quartets, might be the very best I've heard from him. I wasn't particularly struck by the German Requiem either - when I saw it live I just kept wishing for Lakatos to walk in and play the first Hungarian Dance. Overall I like Beethoven's violin concerto better, and would rather listen to Paganini 1 or 5, or Wieniawski 2, or Tchaikovsky's, or Sibelius', any day.

Ah yes, Sibelius. The 7th symphony is très cool but makes me feel little. However, Sibelius violin concerto + Christian Ferras = divine. Yeah, that's my kind of violin playing. Everything over the top. Same reason I adore Du Pré's reading of the Elgar Cello Concerto (listen to those pain-filled groans and weeps!) Believe it or not, that kind of stuff touches me more than even works like Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony. Beety is King of Symphonic Music to me, though I also like, besides Tchaikovsky's and Brahms', the symphonies of Dvorak.

Anyway, that's me when it comes to favorite composers and, above all, favorite kind of music. Music isn't all about emotion. But I don't listen to the one that isn't. I am deeply enchanted by Bach's fugues and religious music, but it doesn't give chills, it doesn't make me dream, it doesn't fuel my imagination. Mozart is often gorgeous to no end, but there's a reason I like his operas above all the other works. Beethoven's heroism already speaks closer to me, and even when it isn't heroism he always has a very special touch. I consider the 9th symphony the best of its kind and one of the greatest works ever - and few things manage to be as amazingly fiery as the Egmont Overture.

Still, if I'm home, bored, and want to give myself a treat, I just go listen to Menuhin play Sarasate's Habanera, or Perlman play Zigeunerweisen, and let my heart strings be struck repeatedly. That's me.