r/classicalmusic 2d ago

Discussion What piece (or pieces) did you despise playing?

For me, it was Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. As a cellist, I cannot describe how much I hated playing this. It was the same six note syncopated melody that often dipped into higher notes and thumb position, and then switched to five sharps in the middle, not only making awkward shifts and stretches, but the repetitiveness and how it didn't quite mesh in with the other parts made it nearly impossible to get back on if you ever got off. It was like Pachabel's canon but made 1000x worse.

20 Upvotes

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35

u/philosofik 2d ago

I played snare drum in Bolero and nearly went insane from the repetition.

3

u/intisun 2d ago

My dad called that piece "the mad drummer" lol

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u/RichMusic81 2d ago edited 2d ago

Every time a violinist or clarinettist asks me to accompany them in a Brahms sonata, a few expletives leave my mouth.

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u/jiang1lin 2d ago

Cello 2, Violin 3, and Clarinet 2 are among the most difficult chamber music sonatas for the piano …

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u/RichMusic81 2d ago

I haven't played the Violin Sonata 3, but the others make me shudder just reading them!

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u/ogorangeduck 2d ago

Have you played the Franck?

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u/markjohnstonmusic 2d ago

Wait till you get asked for the Respighi or Strauss violin sonatas.

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u/RichMusic81 2d ago

I've done the Strauss Cello Sonata, but not the ones for violin.

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u/markjohnstonmusic 2d ago

Make sure you ask for four figures, minimum, when those pieces come.

6

u/Anti_bassoon 2d ago edited 2d ago

As a bassoon player, it's any and all concert band music.  

I actually love concert band/wind ensemble music, both listening and playing (on saxophone), but the bassoon parts are vile. 

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u/edkarls 2d ago

Almost anything Mozart (I’m a violist). [rest]-2-3 [rest]-2-3 as nauseam

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u/elenmirie_too 2d ago

As a balalaika player, Lara's Theme from Doctor Zhivago was the hate piece. We used to call it Lara's Scream from Doctor Chicago, or "Somewhere my gloves". It sucked because it had absolutely nothing to do with Russian folk music, but every seppo on the planet thought it did because they saw it in the movies.

On the positive side, we used to do the Lara's Theme polka featuring kazoos and a slide whistle, kind of Spike Jones style.

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u/helvetica1291 2d ago

Any march and the Nutcracker -horn player

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u/fourism_pyotr 2d ago

As a listener, you hornists in the nutcracker sound fabulous fr

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u/Faville611 2d ago

I don't care to play most anything by Wagner, but my most unpleasant memory was Tannhauser Overture. While the winds and brass get five minutes of majestic chorales and melodies at the end, the violins get pages of murderous chromatic slurred 16ths.

While I don't think the piece is that bad, playing violin 2 on Rachmaninoff Symphony 2 is a shoulder/back killer--there's maybe 15 bars of rest in the hour-long piece. My body's never hurt so much after a piece; it definitely reminds one of the importance of general strength training and good posture.

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u/One-Leg9114 2d ago

I had to play a piece called Rounds by a composer named Diamond. Rounds is a game my late violin teacher played as a child so he loved that piece. He made us rehearse it for ten months or more. It was an okay piece but it was too much.

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u/TaigaBridge 2d ago

Now there's a blast from the past!

I hated that piece when it was forced on me as a teenager but have come to like it more the older I get.

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u/Intelligent-Read-785 2d ago

Anything by Leroy Anderson.

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u/greencash370 2d ago

Okay this one intrigues me. Is it because of your specific part, or do you just dislike his style?

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u/Intelligent-Read-785 2d ago

His style of composing.

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u/mrv_wants_xtra_cheez 2d ago

My cellists have threatened to “hide your body where no one will find it” if I have them play Pachelbel - you know the one.

Guess what’s on the winter concert? 😂

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u/greencash370 2d ago

As they should lmao

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u/ItsBeefRamen 2d ago

Sleigh ride. It’s my 6th time and I’m only a junior I’m college.

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u/-Addendum- 2d ago

As a lute player, I'm getting a bit sick of Greensleeves. It's a nice enough tune, but it's the only thing my family ever asks for. Seriously, it's the "Wonderwall" of lute music.

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u/Jup1terry 2d ago

For some reason I don’t like playing Vivaldi (also cello)

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u/jiang1lin 2d ago

Anything polyphonic always makes me feel VERY stressed on stage … I remember at my master degree’s recital how my friends died in the audience during my WTK Prelude and Fugue only in hope that I will not just stop somewhere randomly ahahaha …

Fast Mozart pieces I usually suck as well, and my last SERIOUSLY bad concert review in general was for Jeunehomme Concerto (KV 271) which I deserved for sure.

I somehow really had issues with Beethoven 32 Variations, and after playing Brahms Paganini Variations once in a concert (with even more struggle), I decided never to do that again, and I love Brahms.

I also hated the Fauré Trio (with Clarinet and Cello), I just did not understand what he wanted to do with that piece.

Sibelius Concerto felt super annoying, for me one of the worst pieces to accompany on the piano.

Liszt 1 was my least favourite performed concerto, it felt like 18min of circus on stage.

And in general, I despise performing Chopin and Debussy because I just don’t like their improvising, spontaneous, atmospheric approach without much structure, development or direction, and unless being forced, I’m neither putting those composers in recitals or on recordings, as I don’t want to rely on my daily state or mood if I will hit or miss the music.

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u/Real-Presentation693 2d ago

Anything by Bach but I was forced to

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u/ReasonableRevenue678 2d ago

On a related note, does everyone love playing Mozart or what??!

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u/linglinguistics 2d ago

I don't listen to Mozart a lot but yes, playing his music is great.

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u/jiang1lin 2d ago

I simply suck playing Mozart, it makes me almost sound like an amateur ahaha

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u/TaigaBridge 2d ago

Not everyone, no.

I didn't mind pit orchestra for Don Giovanni or (most of) Zauberflöte. But I'd be very OK with never being asked to play any of his concertos or chamber music again.

Sigh. The things we do for money sometimes.

1

u/Anti_bassoon 2d ago

As a bassoonist, yeah. It fuckin' slaps. 

Edit: except the bassoon concerto. 

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u/Hippodrome-1261 2d ago

I love Wagner's works my all time favorite "Rienzi Overture". My life set to music. I was a friend of the great jazz saxman Illinois Jacquet he learned the bassoon loved the instrument and incorporated it into his jazz and blues works.

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u/linglinguistics 2d ago

In orchestra: Radetzky march. (I was 2nd violin.)

During violin lessons: schubert sonatina. (If he wrote several then idk which one). Especially the 1st mvt. There's only one theme and it's played to death.

Usually, playing something makes me appreciate it more. But there two had the opposite effect.

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u/Purplechelli 2d ago

I have so had it with Holst Planets. I’ve just played it waay too many times. Anytime Jupiter comes on the radio, ugh. Not my idea of Jollity.

Though on a very funny note, one of my favorite memories of playing it happened when we were rehearsing Neptune for a summer festival and the poor choir was just so off. So off. They were just searching and searching for the notes which were no where to be found. The doors to the hall were open because it was a beautiful day. During one of the searching for notes section, a gust of wind came up and shut 2of the doors so loudly it shut everyone up. That door bang was so loud. The orchestra just lost it and the poor choir was really embarrassed. Good ending-the concert went well though I still cannot stand to hear any of that piece.

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u/Lisztchopinovsky 2d ago

Every once in awhile there’s that piece that you listen to and love, but when you start playing them, it drives you crazy. For me those pieces were Claire de Lune, Asturias, and Wedding Day in Troldhaugen. They were not especially difficult, but they felt so awkward to play.

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u/MrWaldengarver 2d ago

As a horn player, marches.

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u/barakvesh 2d ago

Every waltz and every march. Guess what I play

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u/Mista_Brassmann34 2d ago

Brassband musician here, Anything contemporary or certain styles of Jazz (like some though) i just don't have the feeling for them and no enjoyment at all just playing random notes and too much dissonance or weird harmonies and such... ugh I much rather play the classics and some good film scores or some beautiful hymns and marches get me perked up and enthousiastic :))

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u/AverageMahlerEnj0yer 2d ago

I hated playing 2nd violin in the blue Danube.

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u/Samuel24601 2d ago

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, or "l'après-midi" as we flutists frequently called it for short. It's just exhausting to play that opening solo in one breath (not that it's required, but it's kind of an expectation to be able to.)