What classic is your classical music station beating to death?

[Gogi]

KFUO-FM (St. Louis) is currently over playing Rimsky-Korsakof's 'Sheherazade'. They used to flog 'Bolero' to death. Can there really be that many requests to hear 'Sheherazade'?

[jpgray]

1. Rite of Spring. Good piece but I'm sick of it already. :-)

[ChoralScholar]

3. already? I remember when it first came out on the radio...

it was freaking rite of spring on every station... it went straight to the Billboard top 10... and on TV, it was even worse... all they could talk about on E! and MTV was Stravinsky this, Stravinsky that... but then the drugs and the gay sex allegations....

<evil grin>

no.. but seriously I hear way too much of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony on our local NPR affiliate.

[Misunderestimator]

2. Don't you just hate Classical Pops

Sheherazade has been overdone everywhere.... along with Pachelbel's Cannon, Bolero, and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor. And even more irritating is when opera companies stoop to performing Broadway musicals (not that I have a problem with musicals, but it's the WRONG venue). They are only doing it for sales. A shame that no one cares about opera anymore or classical music that isn't "familiar."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. What I really hate is when they play

the first 5 minutes of a Mahler Symphony, then announce that "That was Symphony number 5 by Mahler."

Or when they proudly declare that they've just played another 20 minutes of uninterrupted music. :(

[Gogi]

6. PS, Goddess, waht is that critter?

An anteater?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. A giant anteater

from South America. :)

[Gogi]

9. Glad we don't have those here!

My cat would freak (and so would I !).

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. I need one in my kitchen...

My cats wouldn't mind!

[WindRavenX]

13. Pachelbel's Cannon can NEVER be overplayed

Love, love, love that piece.
Never gets tired.

[curse10]

15. oh yeah it can

when you have every single bride wanting to play that horrible song over and over again? I've played that piece more than any other. It's not even very good. It's a halfway decent example of a canon. And that's it.

[Gogi]

5. Another piece they overplay is 'The New World Symphony'.

I like it but, please, play something new! 'Rodeo', 'Appalachian Spring' and 'An American in Paris' can use a rest, too.

[catzies]

8. Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain"

and "Pictures At An Exhibition," but whenever I hear "Bald Mountain" I always think of Fantasia.

[bif]

10. Sadly, Detroit lost its only classical station several years ago.

Now, the only classical music we get is from the CBC from Canada, which is a gret radio station. God Bless Canada! I think we may be moving there.

[leftofthedial]

11. I don't know what it's called

but it's the one with all the violins and cellos and shit.

[curse10]

16. LoL

I know that one! It also has some french horns and flute! I'm so sick of it!

[leftofthedial]

19. It must be a really long song too

They're still playing it every time I turn the station on.

[TrogL]

12. Beethoven

There is more music than that composed in the early 19th century.

Ever heard of the 20th?

[Speck Tater]

17. My local Classical station is GREAT and it's on the web

so if you want good classical variety that doesn't beat any one song to death try it out. http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~kwax/">KWAX 91.1 FM

[Obamarama]

18. My FAVORITE classical station in London (UK) - I listen via Internet

It's a GREAT station. Wonderful selection of music, and they do "Top Ten" lists based on listener input. They even take requests. Wonderful station, far better than most US classical stations I have listened to. Link below. ENJOY!

http://www.classicfm.com/index.cfm?nodeId=35&sw=800

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. Another good one is KBPS-FM in Portland (89.9)

I used to volunteer for them, and with respect to overplayed pieces, listener surveys consistently indicated that whatever the station did, about half the listeners would love it and the other half would hate it.

"Too many old warhorses" vs. "Too much unfamiliar and esoteric music."
"Love the Metropolitan Opera." vs. "Why so much opera on Saturdays?"
"Too much old music" vs. "Don't play anything written after 1910."
"I'd like more choral music." vs. "I can't work to any music that has words."
"Your announcers talk too much" vs. "I'd like more information about each piece."

It was consistent year after year.

[Gogi]

21. I hear you, Lydia!

My beef though is why do they have to play 'Sheherazade' once, sometimes twice, a day? Another thing KFUO does that gets old with me is all the band music on their show 'Classic Tracks'. One of the DJ's is a British expat trumpeter and they play British brass band versions of classics a lot on that show. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about brass bands and brass band competitions!