"John G. Deacon" wrote:

>May I suggest that the opening of Janacek's Sinfonietta is one of the most
>irritating of introductions to a major piece of music.  It's not that I
>dislike the whole work, just the opening.
>
>Has anyone any other instances of opening passages which really "wind them
>up"?

The opening is my favorite part!  I USED to be irritated at the
beginning of the Brahms Second Piano Concerto, because you're just going
off to dreamland with the opening exchange between horn and piano, then
the strings ease in with an ingratiating melody, and then...WA-HA!  Where
is he going with this? As I said, I USED to be irritated.  Then I learned
more about how concertos work, and about Brahms.  Rather than say I am or
was irritated by beginnings, I should say there are some that I used to
not understand.  These would include:  Beethoven:  Symphonies 3 (What's
going on here?) and 9 (Give me a theme!!...oh wait, there it is) Mahler:
Symphony No. 1 (noodles and doodles forever while 1st violins are bored
with their harmonic) Tchaikovsky:  1st Piano concerto (big theme that never
comes back)

I'm sure there are more, but can't think right now.

Chris Bonds