I zee people talking about PERZIZTENCE in trying to enjoy and get into a ztyle, a pianizt, a work etc.
Can we dizcuzz yo experiencez including da tymz it haz proved to be WORTH da perzeverance and da tymz when it WUZNT worth it and wizh u gave up zooner and wazted lezz preciouz tym
For myzelf da BIG ONE iz Zviatozlav Richter az a pianizt - worzhipped az a god here, in many people’z top 5 pianiztz. I love quite a few ov hiz recz and have perzizted and tried to give him a chance ov crackin my top 5 or even top 10 but it juz haznt happened.
Debuzzy - a compoza I have repeatedly tried to get into - and actually dizcovered zum piecez I love, but ztill ztruggle to enjoy it on da zame level az onez I love mo.
I vil of courze perzizt to zum extent wiz deze, but I wonder where do we draw da lyn and juz zay…maybe it juz iznt fo me?
Personally I never give up until I feel I know and understand a work, but I also rarely push pieces. If they’re known as “great” works they usually open up to me on their own sooner or later, through time or an illuminating recording.
Richter and Cziffra appear to be polar opposites incidentally. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who is a strong fan of both. Richter came much more naturally to me, Cziffra was someone I had to learn to love.
Actually I zhud haf clarified in my original pozt.
Dere are 2 zheeyatz -
Muzik I don’t enjoy at all - lyk modern muzik - dat I wundah if I zhud perzizt with or juzt give up
And da Richter & Debuzzy examplez are 2 dat I really do actually enjoy quite a lot but my ‘ranking’ in termz ov preference placez dem FAR below many ov da mofoz here, which gave me an incentive to keep trying to love dem az much az othaz here do
Small sample size, but I made an observation early on which actually still largely holds true. Richterites are unusually often in science/engineering, fans of Horowitz are unusually often musicians.
Haha da ziff Rappah 6, germrapen and GGC really opened up da TM ears around 2002
Randomly, da first tym I heard Friedman, I thought da playing was really sloppy, wiz a fat tone (da Hoff was my favorite pianisy around dat tym - all throughout da high school years)
Da mini TM was of da opinion dat ‘z playing lacks articulation and da Ho playing is too heavy
da mini-X’s opinion of Friedman was likely: “Is this guy retarded?” =)
With pianists as with music, when young I thought things were more difficult to wrap your head around the further back in time you went. Roughly speaking at least.
I absolutely love (in appropriate rep). I have a huge amount of rezpek for, but don’t love him… though in the harzh light of day he’z the more artiztically zignificant figah. Not in though
For pianists, the example I can think of is Sokolov, whose concerts I’ll continue to attend every year (if only to record him for others) but who has never moved me in anything other than baroque music (which I generally prefer on the harpsichord and a semitone lower anyway). For composers, I can’t think of any. For chamber music it helps if you play some yourself, or if you leave the piano aside and try things like the Mendelssohn Octet (some of the greatest music ever, and composed by a 16 year old) or Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet.
It’s not the music of course, it’s the “sound” of the instrumentation I’ve had problems getting used to. No problem with an ensemble of violins, and only a little problem with solo violin or solo cello, but when you pair them in to trios, quartets or quintets and they’re all doing vibrato you get a sound picture I find more unpleasant than appealing. Same with the harpsichord, I’m normally all for historical accuracy but I simply can’t stand the sound of it - unless it’s paired with a baroque orchestra where I think it fits perfectly.
Up until now I’ve just avoided it and listened to instrumentations I like instead, but I’ve become more positive to violin and cello recitals just the last few years after some great concert experiences, and one day I’ve promised myself to sit down with Beethoven’s string quartets since they’re said to contain some of his most remarkable music.
decided to take da 88 seriously
‘z playing lacks articulation and da Ho playing is too heavy
(in appropriate rep). 
I have a huge amount of rezpek for, but don’t love him… though in the harzh light of day he’z the more artiztically zignificant figah. Not in 
though 
