Overrated, Overused, Overdone, underrated etc. - Page 3 (2024)

Overrated: STRAVINSKY. Just because you're new doesn't mean you're improved.

Rossini and Tchaikovsky are WAY overused.

Mahler is beginning to be overdone, not on the radio, but in Concert halls. Same with Shostakovich.

Well, I joined this forum to stand up for something, and hopefully I'll be supported. Glazunov is classical music's best kept secret. Remember I coined that term! He was actually rated higher than Schoenberg in a recent poll that asked perhaps thousands of people. How about that for a comeback?

Huilunsoittaja wrote:Mahler is beginning to be overdone, not on the radio

Only because all his symphonies are so damn long.

Huilunsoittaja wrote:Overrated: STRAVINSKY. Just because you're new doesn't mean you're improved.

Rossini and Tchaikovsky are WAY overused.

Mahler is beginning to be overdone, not on the radio, but in Concert halls. Same with Shostakovich.

Well, I joined this forum to stand up for something, and hopefully I'll be supported. Glazunov is classical music's best kept secret. Remember I coined that term! He was actually rated higher than Schoenberg in a recent poll that asked perhaps thousands of people. How about that for a comeback?

OK
Stravinsky: the overdone things are GOOD PIECES (the russian ballets and Symphony of Psalms). Unfortunately some of the really good stuff (Agon, Mass, the Flood, Symphony of Winds) lies in quasi or near total neglect.

Mahler has been overdone since the 1960s
Shostakovich is overdone in the same way as Stravinsky: only like 2 pieces, and Symphonies 4, 15, 9, 1, etc. aren't performed enough.

<flame>I HATE Glazunov. It's watery, unoriginal, mechanical, and wholly sterile (the Violin concerto is OK, I suppose)

And the comparison is hardly worth making with Schoenberg. Similarly, a poll of librarians (no offence, carolus!) found that, of all things, To Kill a Mockingbird was considered the best novel of the 20th century. Instead of Dr. Faustus, The Trial, A La recherche de temps perdu...
the point is that polls can be worthless</flame

[quote="perlnerd666" <flame>I HATE Glazunov. It's watery, unoriginal, mechanical, and wholly sterile (the Violin concerto is OK, I suppose)[/quote]

Au contraire! I see more than you do, much more. But it's no use talking about it.

perlnerd666 wrote:I'm open to talk...

Good place to start.

As for me, I have listened to almost his entire oeuvre, except for chamber music and some piano pieces. But it's hard to explain why I like Glazunov so much except I like his attitude toward his subject. Perhaps it's because I lacked prejudice to begin with (I ran into him by accident through the radio, and thought he was just a normal composer, which I still stand for). Or maybe when I learned how to understand his music by accident while listening to his stuff many times (that's the key).

But besides all that, I think it's because of his mindset. He believed in musical ideals, and believed music must be 2 things: beautiful, and self-sufficient (fully-satisfying). Something can be "innovative," but if it doesn't follow those priorities, I have trouble liking it.

Symphonies 4 and 5, the Seasons, Lyric Poem, and the Suite "From the Middle Ages" are some great works, just to name a few.

The only piece by Mahler that I find overdone is his First Symphony, which is programmed by nearly every orchestra. I don't find it satisfying to listen to, and I feel it is one of his least inspired works. His Seventh and Adagio from No. 10 I find are not played enough, and they really are fantastic works.

perlnerd666 wrote:And the comparison is hardly worth making with Schoenberg.

Could not agree with you more on this one. In my opinion, Schoenberg was a far better composer than Glazunov, even though his compositions can be less accessible. I get especially angry when people say that atonal and serial composers' music contains no emotion compared to more traditional composers. Listen to Dallapiccola, B. A. Zimmerman, and to Hartmann. If you find no emotion in their music you must be completely ignorant.

Underrated: Charles Villiers Stanford, EJ Moeran, Gade, Stenhammar

Underperformed: Piano Trio Op 17 by Paul Juon, Vincent D'Indy's string quartets, Jean Cras' chamber music

dwil9798 wrote:The only piece by Mahler that I find overdone is his First Symphony, which is programmed by nearly every orchestra. I don't find it satisfying to listen to, and I feel it is one of his least inspired works. His Seventh and Adagio from No. 10 I find are not played enough, and they really are fantastic works.

perlnerd666 wrote:And the comparison is hardly worth making with Schoenberg.

Could not agree with you more on this one. In my opinion, Schoenberg was a far better composer than Glazunov, even though his compositions can be less accessible. I get especially angry when people say that atonal and serial composers' music contains no emotion compared to more traditional composers. Listen to Dallapiccola, B. A. Zimmerman, and to Hartmann. If you find no emotion in their music you must be completely ignorant.

I don't believe Mahler's First Symphony is overdone at all. It is probably played most often because it is the most straight-forward of all his works, which does not say very much because it is quite a difficult piece to pull off.

"played most often" means "overdone."

Not just Mahler No. 1, but also Schubert's "Great," Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka, and Rite of Spring, Orff's Carmina Burana, and Mozart's/Verdi's/Faure's Requiems.

I don't often mind music being overdone if they're honestly very good pieces. For instance, Tchaikovsky's final three symphonies (especially the Fifth) are programmed by nearly every orchestra each year, but they are actually great pieces and I don't mind listening to them over and over. In my opinion, Mahler's First is the least refined (bare with me on that one) and least interesting/most boring of all his symphonies.

I wish orchestras would challenge their audience more. Even though I don't particularly like him as a conductor, Alan Gilbert has the right idea and is really challenging the conservative New Yorkers. I hear "Le Grand Macabre" is going to be pretty sweet this weekend.