I applaud andre rieu........
- Thread starter ericwood992
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Corno Dolce
Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
Ericwood992,
You're lucky that your wife was became attracted to classical music through the efforts of Andre Rieu...
You're lucky that your wife was became attracted to classical music through the efforts of Andre Rieu...
Dorsetmike
Member
ericwood992
New member
ericwood992
New member
Oh dear, what a lot you are missing Mike!
JHC
Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Its not what you do it's the way that you do it, and I am sure he will continue entertaining the masses
Dorsetmike
Member
Please don't patronise me Eric, I don't think I'm missing anything, if anything I feel sorry for you for falling for the hype, I've had the misfortune to hear some of it on the radio; what if anything has he done which hundreds or more likely thousands done before, just taken a different arrangement or angle and had a lot of money thrown at it, every artist will put their own interpretation on a work. I get fed to the back teeth with Classic FM and other stations churning out the same works day after day with a "new" bright(?) star being hyped every other month.
I had Beethoven Mozart, Strauss et al assaulting me as a boy - my fathers records - that did not kill my liking for classical music, just made me a bit more selective, looking for and finding fresh works - to me anyway - and getting away from the stereotypes. How many times can the same piece be played before we get fed up with it? Having it dressed up with humour and other antics doesn't make it any better.
Corno Dolce
Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
And I love strict chant liturgical forms and post be-bop 13th major/minor chords:clap:
ericwood992
New member
Mike,
You say that you have "had the misfortune to hear some of it on the radio". At the risk of patronising you again, to appreciate Andre Rieu, you need to experience a concert. By this I mean either attend a concert, or watch one on DVD, preferably an outdoor concert. The ones in Maastricht are the best to get the full atmosphere and experience. He and his orchestra certainly cannot be appreciated by hearing bits of it on the radio. How do you know that the humour and "antics" as you call them don't add anything to the music; you can't hear these anyway on the radio!
You ask "what if anything has he done which hundreds or more likely thousands done before, just taken a different arrangement or angle and had a lot of money thrown at it," Again, without seeing a performance, you will never understand.
As for "Beethoven Mozart, Strauss et al assaulting me as a boy", I can't think of a better musical upbringing, except perhaps the additional assault of Wagner, Chopin, Elgar and a few more!
You say that you have "had the misfortune to hear some of it on the radio". At the risk of patronising you again, to appreciate Andre Rieu, you need to experience a concert. By this I mean either attend a concert, or watch one on DVD, preferably an outdoor concert. The ones in Maastricht are the best to get the full atmosphere and experience. He and his orchestra certainly cannot be appreciated by hearing bits of it on the radio. How do you know that the humour and "antics" as you call them don't add anything to the music; you can't hear these anyway on the radio!
You ask "what if anything has he done which hundreds or more likely thousands done before, just taken a different arrangement or angle and had a lot of money thrown at it," Again, without seeing a performance, you will never understand.
As for "Beethoven Mozart, Strauss et al assaulting me as a boy", I can't think of a better musical upbringing, except perhaps the additional assault of Wagner, Chopin, Elgar and a few more!
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ericwood992
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Mike v Eric............Watch this space!
Dorsetmike
Member
Music is primarily for listening not watching, a good piece of music is probably best enjoyed with the eyes closed to aid contemplation.
I fail to comprehend what can sensibly be done to rehash the same old works to make them "new" I find some of them pleasant to listen to from time to time as "background" music, but then I enjoy sausage and mash or fish and chips from time to time, but would not want a steady diet of them day after day, not even with different herbs and spices. Variety is the spice of life we are told, to me that means plenty of works I've not heard before or rarely heard, that need to be explored and savoured, or discarded in the case of many modern works, Gorecki and Einnaudi spring to mind in the latter category.
Why are some works "done to death" while others never get played, Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas, how many are played regularly apart from the Moonlight, Appasionata, Pastoral and Hammerklavier. We really need a lot of works dusting off and given a good airing before another rising star gets hyped for playing same old same old. There have been thousands of works written over the years, from listening to radio one would think maybe less than 500 still exist and browsing record catalogues would only reveal a few hundred more.
Might I suggest members try and listen to one or more work(s) either each day or each week that is new to them and maybe discover what they have really been missing. Say choose Beethoven try and work your way through all his compositions and ignore the overdone ones. Admittedly this would not be the case if you have a composers complete works on disc, in which case try a composer you are less familiar with. Report back if you find you agree or disagree, but give it a fair crack.
(Luckily Wagner was not among the works I was bombarded with, even my father found him a bit much, Chopin did feature but I suspect Elgar was a bit contemporary for my father.)
I fail to comprehend what can sensibly be done to rehash the same old works to make them "new" I find some of them pleasant to listen to from time to time as "background" music, but then I enjoy sausage and mash or fish and chips from time to time, but would not want a steady diet of them day after day, not even with different herbs and spices. Variety is the spice of life we are told, to me that means plenty of works I've not heard before or rarely heard, that need to be explored and savoured, or discarded in the case of many modern works, Gorecki and Einnaudi spring to mind in the latter category.
Why are some works "done to death" while others never get played, Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas, how many are played regularly apart from the Moonlight, Appasionata, Pastoral and Hammerklavier. We really need a lot of works dusting off and given a good airing before another rising star gets hyped for playing same old same old. There have been thousands of works written over the years, from listening to radio one would think maybe less than 500 still exist and browsing record catalogues would only reveal a few hundred more.
Might I suggest members try and listen to one or more work(s) either each day or each week that is new to them and maybe discover what they have really been missing. Say choose Beethoven try and work your way through all his compositions and ignore the overdone ones. Admittedly this would not be the case if you have a composers complete works on disc, in which case try a composer you are less familiar with. Report back if you find you agree or disagree, but give it a fair crack.
(Luckily Wagner was not among the works I was bombarded with, even my father found him a bit much, Chopin did feature but I suspect Elgar was a bit contemporary for my father.)
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ericwood992
New member
Mike,
It is all about different people having different opinions.
I personally enjoy music the most when attending a live concert. Why? Because I can both listen to the music and watch it's being played. To me, even with a normal classical music concert, the atmosphere of being there adds something to the music.
In the case of an Andre Rieu concert, the atmosphere is almost as important as the music and cannot possibly be appreciated by simply listening to it on the radio.
If you really want to comprehend what Andre Rieu adds to the music, you need to experience a concert by him; not simply listen to snip-its on the radio. By experience, I mean listen AND watch his concert, either live (preferable) or on DVD. His DVDs are of very high quality, so if you have a good wide flat screen TV, you will get the "feeling" of the atmosphere he creates and perhaps see why the thousands of people in his audience enjoy it so much. By the way, his repertoire includes many other composers in addition to Strauss. I think that if you watched a concert, you would realise that this could not possibly be categorised as "background" music!
I too believe in and enjoy variety in music. I would not want a steady diet of the same type day after day either. I am passionate about classics, jazz, early popular music, country, and folk music. This thread just happens to be about Andre Rieu who is a passion of mine for the reasons I have tried to elaborate, BUT YOU DO NEED TO WATCH A CONCERT OF HIS BEFORE EXPRESSING DEROGATORY COMMENTS ABOUT HIM.
I think that you may find that Wagner is quite popular with many music lovers also, even though you don't think so.
It is all about different people having different opinions.
I personally enjoy music the most when attending a live concert. Why? Because I can both listen to the music and watch it's being played. To me, even with a normal classical music concert, the atmosphere of being there adds something to the music.
In the case of an Andre Rieu concert, the atmosphere is almost as important as the music and cannot possibly be appreciated by simply listening to it on the radio.
If you really want to comprehend what Andre Rieu adds to the music, you need to experience a concert by him; not simply listen to snip-its on the radio. By experience, I mean listen AND watch his concert, either live (preferable) or on DVD. His DVDs are of very high quality, so if you have a good wide flat screen TV, you will get the "feeling" of the atmosphere he creates and perhaps see why the thousands of people in his audience enjoy it so much. By the way, his repertoire includes many other composers in addition to Strauss. I think that if you watched a concert, you would realise that this could not possibly be categorised as "background" music!
I too believe in and enjoy variety in music. I would not want a steady diet of the same type day after day either. I am passionate about classics, jazz, early popular music, country, and folk music. This thread just happens to be about Andre Rieu who is a passion of mine for the reasons I have tried to elaborate, BUT YOU DO NEED TO WATCH A CONCERT OF HIS BEFORE EXPRESSING DEROGATORY COMMENTS ABOUT HIM.
I think that you may find that Wagner is quite popular with many music lovers also, even though you don't think so.
Dorsetmike
Member
Yep, "atmosphere" and "experience" genuine hype terminology. As I said before, music is to listen to.
In the case of Strauss, it's dance music mostly from what I recall.
In the case of Strauss, it's dance music mostly from what I recall.
ericwood992
New member
ericwood992
New member
Yep, "atmosphere" and "experience" genuine hype terminology. As I said before, music is to listen to.
In the case of Strauss, it's dance music mostly from what I recall.
It's like banging your head against a brick wall trying to convince somebody who has never had an experience that it is a worthwhile one!
Mike, I guess that you are just too set in your negative ways to even contemplate that Andre Rieu might just have something.
Signing off now.
Eric.
Dorsetmike
Member
Probably the nearest I ever got to the atmosphere and experience thing was a concert by the MJQ at Birmingham town hall in the 1960s. I have enjoyed concerts by Basie, Ellington, Herman and Oscar Peterson with Joe Pass. I've also enjoyed classical concerts, by Birmingham and Bournemouth symphony orchestras. However Jazz concerts are an entirely different kettle of fish to classical and can evoke far greater feelings to my mind.
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