Truly one of your best and most inzeitful videos so far. I enjoyed it so much that I've made a diary note to play the whole video again in 106 days time 😉

Not that I agree with him half the time, but Hurwitz’s unbridled opinionation puts the fun back into music criticism. Bravo!

@fabiopaolobarbieri2286

7 ай бұрын

You took the words right out of my keyboard.

@timyork6150

7 ай бұрын

I too value most the discovery of unfamiliar composers and works which Dave brings. But the other stuff like this embarassement series is well argued and fun, even when I disagree.

@JamesCello

7 ай бұрын

@@frankpiccione8571 It’s a ‘for fun’ series. Why is that hard to understand?

@JamesCello

7 ай бұрын

@@frankpiccione8571 We’ll leave it at that, then, and I’ll be French today rather than my usual German. ‘Jokes are French, the explanation of jokes is German.’ -Ned Rorem

@evansercombe

5 ай бұрын

@@JamesCelloBest response ever

You're a comedic genius -- seriously! This was great, again. During my "day job" years ago where I was free to listen to music to my heart's content, this was where I was listening to the complete works of Bach when a fellow employee visited my office in order to loudly slam my door, I purchased the COMPLETE WEBERN (was it DGG) set. A more avant garde, younger employee -- an artist on the side -- came in, saw the box set, and expressed HIGH interest, and desired to hear it! Webern! Yes!!! Together, we opened the set and we began to listen. He didn't use the word "kitsch," (he MAY have) ... but it was something similar: "Oh, yeah... this sounds like the kind of 60's [find a word here] that they used to make..." That was the end of that. He was no longer interested. I listened to them all, ONCE. I would certainly listen to them again, but there is so much out there... As a young composition student, I remember studying little 6-second works by Webern, tearing them apart. Every little number meant something totally profound. We were all told his music was (even greater than) Schoenberg, Berg and the like. I did learn a lot from the CONCEPT, though -- turning notes into numbers -- so that it is easier to understand the relationships without the prejudice of the black and white keys on a piano. Anyway, maybe there is something overwhelmingly profound in SOMETHING he wrote. Do you know which little 8-second masterpiece that would be? (Which of all Webern's tidbits is his B Minor Mass?) Anyway, great video. I absolutely love these.

@DeflatingAtheism

7 ай бұрын

I assume you’re referring to the shortest of Six Bagatelles for String Quartet? I first encountered that on a vinyl album of Webern’s string quartet works, and basically tossed the record aside afterwards. It was all just too darn quiet for me! Obviously, I revised my opinion afterwards.

@owenbloomfield1177

7 ай бұрын

The Six Bagatelles had a profound impact on me as a young composer. In a good way, I should add.

That prompted an extremely real LOL

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Someone who gets it!

I adore Webern and all of his works but this gave me a good chuckle. :-)

Still, it's one of my guilty pleasures, one of those works that brings tears to my eyes. Should have suggested it for your video on music that makes you cry.

Hi David, thank you very much for your videos. Thanks to them I discovered tons of new music I'd never listened to! Recently I wrote about the Kubelik box and you made a video about it, but now I found one of your older videos about Julius Fucik's most beautiful melody (well I hontestly thought it's gonna be Florentiner march, but you spoke about Gladiator one instead). Last week I have just discovered a wonderful album of Fucik music on Supraphon 'Neznamy (unknown) Julius Fucik' played by Prague castle guard band - tunes like Na Lagune or Od brehu Dunaje are so wonderful, check them out ;) Keep on listening. Now let's listen to some Webern...

It's those hauntingly faint, smooth, clarinet trills in the fourth piece the make it work for me.

I do have to say that when I saw the piece named in the tease text, I thought "Wait a minute, isn't it THAT one ... ?" Yep, it was. You got me good, Dave. :) And yes, I have that CD. Every time I put it on, my wife comes into the room and starts talking to me loudly. I think it's to prevent either of us from hearing it.

Thanks for keeping us on our toes, hurwitz. Nothing says saccharine quite like that spindly mandolin introduction.

As great-grandma used to say: siç thonë në shqip: shumë qesharake, tani më jep vetëm qoftet.

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

Smart lady.

This is the single most hilarious review you've ever posted.

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

Phew! Thank you!

I won't make up my mind untilI hear a vibrato-less performance of this thing.

Odd: judging from the posting date, this doesn't appear to be an April Fool's Day video.

Webern must have been in love when he wrote that. Now, I challenge you to find a work by Ernst Krenek that reeks of wanton sentimentality and shameless, uninhibited tastelessness.

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

Piece of cake!

I was sure it was going to be that over-lush orchestral In Sommerwind.

@stefanhorlitz

7 ай бұрын

hey I love Im Sommerwind

@DeflatingAtheism

7 ай бұрын

The beginning of In Sommerwind, just like the beginning of Gurreleider, shows that the Second Viennese could wring a lot out of a major chord!

At least it's short!

I have to admit, this is extremely funny! (Including some of the very serious comments 😊). Thanks Dave!

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

Yes, the comments do add to the humor, don't they?

Schmaltzy, corny, sickly sweet music. Truly horrifying!

Throughout today, I laughed just thinking back to this video and the hilariously staid and serious comments that followed. Bravo Dave!

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

Thank you. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, unfortunately!

Has Andre Rieu performed this yet? Seems like an obvious choice for him?

Gosh, when you put it that way, thank God for 12 tone! *Anything* but that hyper-romantic dreck. Saved by Schoenberg. But too bad Arnold didn't make it in time to save us from Webern's Op. 10.

It reminds me a lot of Walk Away Renee.

Ugh, you're so right. Utter hogslop. Makes Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto sound like Anton Webern!

Proponents of Webern tended to play only his later works which gave the impression that Webern's music was just atonal. It turns out that much of his music is very approachable such as the works without opus number as the Boulez box shows.

I don't see the problem - that is exactly what Viennese people understand as "zart".

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

😜

Puccini would have disowned anything as sentimental and kitschy as that.

I suppose it's his farewell to the Viennese operetta tradition. I'd go for the Drei Lieder op. 18 for its inept combination of players. In every live performance I've heard the naturally bright sounds of the E flat clarinet and soprano have rendered the poor guitarist completely inaudible.

@marknewkirk4322

7 ай бұрын

Yes. That piece is a dog. And the Op. 2 choral piece - it's almost always embarrassing to hear choirs struggle with that kind of thing. I've only ever head one recording that didn't induce projectile vomiting. That is on BIS with the Norwegian Soloists' Choir. They make it sound tolerable. In fact, almost pretty. But for most choirs, certainly not worth the effort.

That recording is more or less accurate, but it is nowhere as beautiful as Dorati's much older recording. The "tastelessness" is just a compression of the same kinds of gestures found in the fourth movement of Mahler's Seventh Symphony (Nachtmusik II). But of course, every time Mahler does something "tasteless", he gets a pass because it is "ironic" or "humorous". Webern, like me, knows nothing whatsoever about irony, of course. 😁

@DavesClassicalGuide

7 ай бұрын

Of course.

I can't quite tell if Dave is being ironic in this particular one or not. I didn't think he's intended irony in the other installments of this series. Admittedly, I need to listen to Webern more, or more Webern, but as I'm not that big of a fan of what I've heard so far, that's a little difficult for me, particularly since there is so much else to explore. But, again, relative to what else I've heard, it doesn't seem all that much worse than the other pieces. In fact, it might be better than others, as it IS so short. Sort of like how my favorite artwork by DeKooning is actually a piece by Rauschenberg - the "Erased DeKooning Drawing" - as I'm not a great fan of DeKooning. Just comes down to personal taste, like a lot of this.

@DavesClassicalGuide

6 ай бұрын

Irony is in the ear of the beholder.

@stevenklimecky4918

6 ай бұрын

​@@DavesClassicalGuideIndeed.

@grafplaten

6 ай бұрын

@@DavesClassicalGuide That tastes like synaesthetic irony!

For me it's the songs for voice tiny clarinet and guitar, I find them very funny but they have to be the most embarrassing ones

For me it’s his orchestration of the Bach six part Ricercar from the musical offering. I really think it’s absolutely dreadful. There is no continuity in any of the voices because each line gets split up into a million diffferent instruments

My guess was Kinderstück.

@dennischiapello7243

7 ай бұрын

That was his funniest title.

@chenNwritin

7 ай бұрын

I know what you mean. I think he marks it 'lovely', encouraging those little kids to really lay on the schmaltz. And you can bet that's just what they do!

Ha. Humor as dry as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Hilarious!

That's 25 seconds I'll never get back.

😅😅

Like the other commenters I enjoyed your rant! But what fascinates me is that my own reaction to the piece is simply nothing. It makes no impression on me in any way. I’m sure it has a very tight structure that is completely unknown to me, so any of a million other sequences of notes would have exactly the same vague, atonal character as far as I could tell. Since the notes mean nothing to me, the “style” seems random and meaningless too. Oh, I have so much to learn (and I think I never will).

Typical music critic with a snobbish attitude towards sentimentality. This beautiful tune reminds me of my ex-wife.

Webern writing kitsch music... Well, it must be true, 'cause I've just seen a pig flying past my study window!

Hahahahahahahaha

Embarrassing from Webern, but it would be awesome from Ives.

@DeflatingAtheism

7 ай бұрын

Ives would have given it a title that would take longer to read than it would take to listen to the piece itself.

@FleuveAlphee

6 ай бұрын

"Lika a love-sick Eagle" @@DeflatingAtheism

So Webern actually wrote a tune?! Well, actually not, it's still what one cynical friend referred to as "squeaks and farts music". Concentrated sweetness like condensed milk?

We're waiting for Djabadary's Most Embarassing Work 😁😁... Anyway, none of the Second Viennese School actually had "per se" embarassing moments, rather it was Boulez and the Darmstadt School having the uttermost embarassing and destructive moment in the whole history of music in elevating them to absolute rule, thus completely ruining the whole Classical Music scene.

All serial music is pretentious and embarrassing. The technique is fine if you’re attempting to convey psychosis, or perhaps set a violent murder to music. Anything outside of that doesn’t really work. “Oh, but you don’t understand….” say the Lords of Pretension. Actually, I do. And it doesn’t compensate for how crappy and irritated this music makes me feel.

@canismajoris6733

7 ай бұрын

You thinks it's pretentious because you don't get it. The most common signifier of idiocy when it comes to music discussions.

@gregorystanton6150

7 ай бұрын

@@canismajoris6733 It's pretentious because of people like you who insult people who don't like it. I cannot tell you how many times your ilk says condescending things like, "you don't understand" or "you're obviously not intelligent engough to get it." No, I studied this crap in college, I know how to write serial music. I get it. I just don't like it. It's pretentious because people use it as a way of making themselves seem smarter than they really are.

@JarrettWalksOttawa

7 ай бұрын

@@canismajoris6733 Why can't serial music express joy, happiness, etc? Always seems stuck at the opposite emotional end. Where's my serial Beethoven #6? Seems serial composers are incapable of producing similar moving music.

@robkeeleycomposer

7 ай бұрын

Try the music of Roberto Gerhard or Luigi Dallapiccola, or Richard Rodney Bennett.@@JarrettWalksOttawa

@JarrettWalksOttawa

7 ай бұрын

@@robkeeleycomposer Thanks, I will! I've been on a kick of Dave's best 19/20th symphony cycles (Martinu, Honegger, Holmboe)