The point about Bolero is that Ravel himself did not look on it as a serious
work of art. It was something to dance to that he turned into a personal
exercise.
As such, it is beyond criticism, or at least cannot be used as a stick with
which to beat the composer or, as I have seen, classical music and classical
music-lovers in general.
Keith Edgerley
The traditional answer would be the complete works of Auber and von
Suppe, the William Tell Overture, and some bleeding chunks torn out of
Wagner.
--
John W. Kennedy
Read the remains of Shakespeare's lost play, now annotated!
http://pws.prserv.net/jwkennedy/Double%20Falshood/index.html
How about, what Arthur Fiedler would program for the Boston Pops?
(Not what John Williams would program. He, at least in the TV version,
mostly did movie music, so I stopped tuning in.)
Stuff you find in the mall music store under Classical . . .
1. Pavarotti Greatest Hits
2. Vivaldi Four Seasons
3. Pachelbel Canon
4. Rhapsody in Blue
Pavarotti, depends on which arias. 4 Seasons, yes, overplayed, but
brilliant, as is Gershwin's RIB. Pachelbel, very good piece, but also
overplayed.
Overplayed doesn't mean "middle-brow".
Fire away y'all!
Andrew
No, but "middle-brow" means "overplayed," i.e. the vast, unwashed
middle class will find their icons under "Classical" in the FYE's.
By the way, I love the pieces I submitted as "middle brow."