Modern 'classical' music. Why must it be so crappe? A-rhythmic, dissonant cacophony*, beginning to end. At best, it's planned noise. Looking at the time, this premier of a piece by Gabriel Prokofiev will be over soon.
I try, I really do, but, but it does nothing for me - other than make me think 'why am I listening to this?'.
* Which, as my friends and I used to joke, is produced by an instrument called the kaka-phone.
I am very inclined to agree, Andrij. I haven't been to a prom lately, but I attended one a few years ago in which Beethoven's 9th followed the premier of some work by Harrison Birtwistle. I wonder if the Birtwistle piece will ever gain a second hearing?
Many pieces were panned by the audience on their first performance. I think Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" is one such but it is widely acclaimed these days. I'm not at all keen on it. I do, however, like most of the stuff that I have heard by Bela Bartok. I do think that some pieced of music grow on you with more listening. Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste" was one of my A level set works so I had to listen to it quite a few times. Even though the first run-through was, as you say, cacophonous and incomprehensible, the more I listened the more I liked it.
Actually, now I come to think of it, I also had Bartok at O level - one of the volumes of his piano pieces "Mikrokosmos". I grew to like those as well.
I would like to bet there was just as much rubbish around in the past as there is now. As with many things the good stuff rises to the top and we lose the bad stuff as noone wants to keep playing it.
You may be right, but the "modern" trend for completely tuneless stuff is something previous generations didn't have to put up with, I am sure. I think it's very difficult for us to imagine what music was available to ordinary people before the days of radio and the record industry. I suspect that there were a lot more good amateur musicians around than there are today, because there must have been a demand of some kind. Today we are fed a diet of non-stop radio and, whatever our musical tastes, there's never any need to go to a concert in order to hear stuff played.
There's also quite a bit of good stuff from years ago which just isn't fashionable any more. Composers go through phases of fashion - after all, J.S. Bach was pretty much unknown until Mendelssohn introduced a few of his works to the 19th century audiences. Apparently there was a family link - Mendelssohn's great aunt learned music with one of J.S.Bach's sons. Can you imagine a world without the Brandenburgs, the Orchestral Suites, the 48 preludes & fugues, the chorales, the Passions, the violin concerti etc? How many ordinary people would have ever had the chance to hear some of Bach's stuff before the days of braodcasting? Very few, I'm sure, but I'd be surprised if any British adult today didn't recognise the opening of the toccata & fugue in D minor (OK, experts think it wasn't one of Bach's after all) even if they couldn't put a name to it.
It's quite rare to hear performances of stuff by Tallis and Byrd, but I'd rate "Spem in Alium" up there with some of the best music ever composed - but you hardly ever hear it today.