Posted on 11/30/2010 1:33:53 PM PST by mojito
A full century after Arnold Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern unleashed their harsh chords on the world, modern classical music remains an unattractive proposition for many concertgoers. Last season at the New York Philharmonic, several dozen people walked out of a performance of Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra; about the same number exited Carnegie Hall before the Vienna Philharmonic struck up Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra.
The mildest 20th-century fare can cause audible gnashing of teeth. Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is a more or less fully tonal score, yet in 2009 at Lincoln Centre, it failed to please a gentleman sitting behind me. When someone let out a "Bravo!" elsewhere in the hall, he growled: "I bet that was a plant." I resisted the temptation to swat him with my pocket score.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I do include Stravinsky's later compositions as wasteland material. Rotational arrays - give me a fudgeking break!
Berg is why nobody goes to listen to orchestras anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQYNIfxLqw8&feature=related
Who wants to feel like headachey shit coming out of a concert hall? It's only recently that composers have left this mess behind, but the damage is already done as it pertains to the greater listening public.
The Berg Violin Concerto is one of the most beautiful of the 20th century. The Lyric Suite is wonderful and an influence on Porgy and Bess.
Two words -— Philip Glass.
The first movement of one of his pieces was one of the worst decades of my life.
Strangely, after I walked out, less than an hour had passed.
Also, listen to Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles written several years before he died. Nothing of the wasteland there.
I had to sit through that mess TWICE! Just thinking about it makes me angry. I have such a fudgeking headache knowing I can never get my time or money back. The first time I had to endure it as one of the consequences of being a musician in college. The second time I only managed to survive thanks to the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet and Sibelius op. 47 that were also performed that evening.
Here's how 20th century violin concertos are done, son:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2IPbc9Z6dA
I promise you that in a hundred years, people will still know of Stravinsky based on a few ballet scores and that's about it. Sort of the way people think of Bruch now. Accept it. You know I'm right.
Unlike Bruch, Stravinsky was a massive innovator. His violin concerto is another work that will continue to be played. REquiem Canticles is beautiful. And the Berg concerto is utterly lyrical and is standard repertiore. I love the Barber as well btw.
look at the star wars theme
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