Over the years - what have you had an initial love for and attraction to, then found it to fade now?
Also the opposite - what did you have a cool reaction to years ago and subsequently grew to enjoy more?
I feel that what is for me different about classical music compared to pop music is that I never loses the interessest in a composer the same way I do with pop artists. This means that I still enjoy Chopin/Liszt etc. the same or even more than when I was 14 years old.
When that is said: I now enjoy baroque and classical period music more than I did in the begininning. When I was 15 years old I enjoyed mostly romantic era music but now I enjoy Bach a lot more than I used to.
Of course there are individual pieces that I used to like more than I now do, but those are quite rare actually.
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Bach & Brahms - more.
Hm. Rach & Alkan less, but more in the sense that I simply haven’t been “in to” them in recent years.
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I tend to cycle around what I’m playing. Initially I loved Ravel more than Debussy but then I really enjoyed playing a selection of preludes, now they’re pretty much even.
Played the Berg Violin Concerto (reduction) a few years ago and loved some of it, but most of it was wtf. Have just started the Piano Sonata and today something clicked, there’s some good sheeyat there.
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I love the Berg Sonata. Incidentally Berg was born exactly a century before me, right down to the day.
But that’s the only work I’ve really been drawn to of his.
Have you heard the guitar transcription someone made of it? Very nice!
Chopin. Used to love him in my teens. Now, meh.
I blame 88st. More than ten mins there, and you’re left with the impression that he’s the most important artistic figure of all time 
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He isn’t? 
Haha.
My top three (for classical music, all-round) would actually be
Beethoven
Wagner
Bach
Chopin about 20
I’d better not get started on how much I dislike Mozart 
(it’s a running joke between me and a friend, he says what a master Mozart is and I reply with random invective, the best effort so far being “Hitler was only the second worst ever Austrian”)
I’ve never liked Mozart, btw. The first piece I played in public was K333 
Daim
Mozart is amazing but I have to be in a special mood for him, and that mood isn’t much of the time.
Haydn is one I’ve warmed to, Schubert also.
Schumann and Brahms felt clunky and unpianistic, but I’ve warmed to them hugely also.
I think that’s maybe the issue I have with Chopin; I played a lot of his pieces during my formative years. There are still many of his pieces I’ll never tire of, however. The same can be said of all the composers I currently don’t really need to hear (in their 88 rep), e.g. Schubert and Brahms. I never get sick of Schubert’s lieder or Brahms piano concerti.
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I think Haydn sonatas are much more interesting than Mozart’s.
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Yes the Haydn sonatas are great.
I always like to focus more on what I like rather than what I dislike, especially with respect to art
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Mozart is a conduit, Haydn a composer and prankster.
Mozart flows with genius but Haydn sounds more self aware - less natural but more dramatic, quirky, and a generally more appealing narrative to me.
I prefer the symphonies too.
I like to play Haydn sonatas more than I like to listen to them.
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I feel that way about Schubert, but Haydn I really enjoy as long as it’s done by a good pianist.
Mozart is randomly a bit of a question mark here. I recognize the quality of his works and wouldn’t object to anyone who feel he is the greatest ever, but personally prettiness is something I have difficulties with and that often creates some friction with me and some of his music, and some of his interpreters. I really do like him however, and listen to at least the piano concertos frequently.
I think Mozart is better in his symphonies and opera. Especially pieces in a minor key. I was just listening to Don Giovanni today, the commendatore scene is some seriously wikid sheeyat!
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Yes, I think I know what scene you mean. It’s so rare to hear composing like that from him for piano (which maybe is natural).
Mozart is mostly a quest for beauty for me, but one deviating aspect I have an odd fascination for is this diminutive state he put some of his music in. This might be abstract, but the 1st mvt of Sym 40 for instance strikes me as a clear scene from 18th C Vienna. There’s a good dose of real life in that movement. But the 2nd mvt of K.466 for instance… to my ears that’s not happening in the natural world. It’s almost as if he imagines it being played out in a miniature fairytale land. It’s very peculiar, but it sparks the imagination and gives the music this sweetness to it I find very touching.
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