Pieces everyone else likes but you

Pretty self-explanatory. Are there any pieces that it seems everyone you know is raving about, but you can't stand.

I don't generally dislike much music, but I can't stand Dave Matthews Band. My roommate played it and something about the music and performers annoyed me to no end.

the Bach solo violin sonatas. I enjoy the partidas, but not the sonatas.

Most of the standards:

Fur Elise
Chopin's 2nd Nocturne

Oh, don't get me started...

The White Stripes (if you've heard of them) ... and also most mainstream music.

The Barber Adagio...

Mozart Sonata "alla turca" or "Turkish March"

Mozart's piano concertos (for the most part... they put me to sleep out of sheer boredom)

Cage's music... most modern/postmodern stuff that people rave about. Some of Ravel's music.

Those are just a few that come to mind.

Originally Posted by EnigmusJ4

Some of Ravel's music.

You bitch!


Bah.

Well, for me, there is plenty of music that everyone seems to rave about but I have no care for. Pretty much anything Mahler ever wrote, for example. It's not that it's bad but just doesn't do anything for me.

Let's see, what else...

Beethoven's 5th.

Pretty much anything Mozart wrote ever (with a few exceptions).

The majority of Beethoven's piano sonatas.

Debussy's Clair de Lune. Well, I don't hate it but it's prolly one of the worst pieces Debussy has ever written and I can't seem to see why everyone makes such a big deal about it.

Ravel's Bolero. Again, don't hate it but it gets tiring fast.

Bartok's Allegro Barbaro. Don't see what the big deal he is, he wrote much better music.

There are plenty more but I can't read think of any. I'll prolly end up coming back to this list soon.

Mahler and Beethoven's piano sonatas are funny ones for me, as I disliked both before last year. I took an advanced theory course based entirely on Mahler's compositional approach, starting with his early music (which is mostly key-centered), and then his post-Wunderhorn symphonies, which show an increasing trend on linear polyphony, culminating in Das lied von der erde and the 9th and (unfinished) 10th symphony. I hated most of it at the time (which is strange, since I'm all about post-romantic and expressionist music), but now that I can see the broad forms and the nuances used, I appreciate it much more, but it took a great deal of time.

The same professor taught our Form and Analysis class, and we used Volume I of Beethoven's piano sonatas as our text and material. Since then, I've come to see the piano sonatas as the way that Beethoven experimented with the variations of form and compositional idioms that he later used (with great success) in his symphonic writing.

I've got a couple more to add to my list, though:
--------symphonic/chamber music-------------
Berlioz - "Symphonie Fantastique" - You should have heard how crazy my school got when someone announced the CSO was doing Symphonie Fantastique. I don't see what's so great about it. Wahoo, it's a program symphony. Yay, the musical represents characters and ideas. Do "don Quixote" instead.

Tchikowsky - Marche Slav - I understand the orchestration and voicing is meant to be very sarcastic, but so much of it is done in completely stark, 2 or 3 part writing with excessive doublings and triplings.

Pachabel's Canon - play some weddings, and you'll understand why.

Handel - The Messiah - Every year I can count on some group in my community doing the Messiah. Handel wrote GREAT oratorios; why can't someone use one of those for a change?
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As a violist in a studio of nearly all violinists, I also have a special place in my hate-bag for a lot of the showpieces and trademarks of the repertoire.

Paganini's Caprices - Played well, I'm sure these can be wonderful. I, however, get to hear wave after wave of students play these like etudes or technical studies, just butchering them. Kills it for me.

Weinawski - Polonaise - As a rule, Weinawski is one of my favorite composers of incidental violin music. This piece, however, irks me to no end. It's schmaltzy and devoid of the feeling characteristic of the composer's work.

Bach - Prelude to Suite in G Major (cello) - I've been asked to play this at weddings, nearly every year at Christmas, and if I do the G major (as opposed to d minor) suite on my recital, I'll be doing it again. grrrr.

Faure - Elegy - I need to start being careful with what I'm listing here, or people are going to crucify me. I don't like Faure, and I'm sick of being asked to play this piece. There are plenty of great "mourning" pieces for the viola (or playable on viola), including the 2nd and 5th movements from Sitt's Albumblatter, Hindemith's Trauermusik, and others.

Wozzeck. Blech.

no wai! wozzeck's brilliant. true that it's flawed.

i find that I can't stand any form of 12-bar blues. It's a sickness.

Stravinsky..Rite of Spring.

I respect and appreciate it..but..It's not my cup of tea..nor my piece of pie..or my cut of steak.

I'm listening to that right now.

Actually, I have been since Friday.

I can't think of anything that I dislike. I don't listen to any Mozart whatsoever, so I can't say I don't like it.