Maybe 209 cantatas is enough.
BBC Music magazine has dared to ask some critics in the UK which works bore them the most – and the critics have dared to answer. Richard Morrison, at the Times of London doesn’t care for Vivaldi’s Gloria; John Allison, who edits Opera magazine, thinks Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream goes on too long. (You can see the whole list here.)
This is a brave thing for these critics to do. For some reason, many people expect music critics to be entirely lacking in the human capacity for personal taste. Rather, we’re supposed to be walking, talking, music-appreciation textbooks, utterly orthodox in our views and spewing truisms about enduring greatness and organic unity. And if a critic dares to speak unkindly of an “acknowledged masterpiece,” then that critic is clearly an idiot. This makes some critics reluctant to voice their contrarian opinions – which then acquire the status of professional “dirty secrets.”
This is a brave thing for these critics to do. For some reason, many people expect music critics to be entirely lacking in the human capacity for personal taste. Rather, we’re supposed to be walking, talking, music-appreciation textbooks, utterly orthodox in our views and spewing truisms about enduring greatness and organic unity. And if a critic dares to speak unkindly of an “acknowledged masterpiece,” then that critic is clearly an idiot. This makes some critics reluctant to voice their contrarian opinions – which then acquire the status of professional “dirty secrets.”
So I commend BBC Music for its boldness of vision, and those honest critics who are prepared to speak their minds. Not to be outdone, here are a few personal opinions of my own.
It’s no great tragedy that “only” 209 Bach cantatas have survived to the present day.
Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge is a much finer work than it sounds.
Much of Richard Strauss’s music makes me feel like I’m being force-fed rich Viennese pastries ad nauseum.
After Symphony of Psalms (composed in 1930), it was all downhill for Stravinsky.
Any questions?
© Colin Eatock 2011
It’s no great tragedy that “only” 209 Bach cantatas have survived to the present day.
Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge is a much finer work than it sounds.
Much of Richard Strauss’s music makes me feel like I’m being force-fed rich Viennese pastries ad nauseum.
After Symphony of Psalms (composed in 1930), it was all downhill for Stravinsky.
Any questions?
© Colin Eatock 2011
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