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    22 of the best insults in classical music

    If you thought classical music was all about peaceful tunes and harmony, think again. The gloves are off and the claws are out as we explore some of the rudest, most insulting composer put-downs in the history of classical music.

    1. composer insults

      1. Rossini

      "What a good thing this isn't music." Rossini on Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique

    2. composer insults

      2. Copland

      "Listening to the fifth symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes." - Copland

    3. beethoven rossini insult

      3. Beethoven

      "Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on the backside." Beethoven on Rossini

    4. composer insults

      4. Beethoven

      "I like your opera - I think I will set it to music." Beethoven

    5. composer insults

      5. Rachmaninov

      "He was a six and a half foot scowl." Stravinsky on Rachmaninov

    6. composer insults

      6. Messiaen

      "All you need to write like him is a large bottle of ink." Stravinsky on Messiaen

    7. composer insults

      7. Tchaikovsky

      "It is the most insipid and base parody on music." Tchaikovsky on Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov

    8. composer insults

      8. Stravinsky

      "It's beautiful and boring. Too many pieces finish too long after the end." Stravinsky on Handel's Theodora

    9. composer insults

      9. Elgar

      "The musical equivalent of St Pancras Station." Sir Thomas Beecham on Elgar

    10. composer insults

      10. Wagner

      "Wagner has beautiful moments, but awful quarters of an hour." Rossini on Wagner

    11. composer insults

      11. Berlioz

      "A tub of pork and beer." Berlioz on Handel

    12. composer insults

      12. Debussy

      The audience expected the ocean. Something big, something colossal, but there were served instead with some agitated water in a saucer." Louis Schneider on La Mer

    13. composer insults

      13. Mussorgsky

      "He likes what is coarse, unpolished, and ugly." Tchaikovsky on Mussorgsky

    14. composer insults

      14. Chopin

      "A composer for one right hand." Wagner on Chopin

    15. composer insults

      15. Clara Schumann

      "He gives me the impression of being a spoilt child." Clara Schumann on Liszt.

    16. composer insults

      16. Bach

      "All Bach's last movements are like the running of a sewing machine." Bax on Bach

    17. composer insults

      17. Brahms

      "What a giftless bastard!" Tchaikovsky on Brahms

    18. composer insults

      18. Handel

      "Handel is only fourth rate. He is not even interesting." Tchaikovsky on Handel

    19. composer insults

      19. Saint-Saens

      "If he'd been making shell cases during the war it would have been better for music." Saint-Saëns on Ravel

    20. Composer insults Britten

      20. Britten

      "I liked the opera very much. Everything but the music." Britten on Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress

    21. Composer insults Strauss

      21. Strauss

      "He'd be better off shovelling snow than scribbling on manuscript paper." Richard Strauss on Schoenberg

    22. Composer insults Prokofiev

      22. Prokofiev

      "Bach on the wrong notes." Prokofiev on Stravinsky

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