The 17 best insults in classical music
A compendium of the most entertaining insults from composers, conductors and musicians - thoroughly entertaining stuff.
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1. Beethoven on a critic
“Oh you arch-ass - you double-barrelled ass!” Ludwig van Beethoven on critic Gottfried Weber
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2. Strauss on Schoenberg
“He’d be better off shovelling snow than scribbling on manuscript paper.” Richard Strauss on Arnold Schoenberg
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3. Wagner on Rossini
"After Rossini dies, who will there be to promote his music?” - Richard Wagner
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4. Hanslick on Tchaikovsky
“It gives us, for the first time, the hideous notion that there can be music which stinks to the ear.” - Eduardo Hanslick on Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto
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5. Berlioz on Handel
“A tub of pork and beer.” Hector Berlioz on Georg Frideric Handel
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6. Toscanini on his orchestra
“After I die, I shall return to earth as a gatekeeper of a bordello and I won't let any of you enter.” - Arturo Toscanini to the NBC Orchestra
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7. Nietzsche on Wagner
“Is Wagner actually a man? Is he not rather a disease? Everything he touches falls ill; he has made music sick.” Friedrich Nietzsche
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8. Berlioz
Berlioz, musically speaking, is a lunatic.” Dramatic and Musical Review, 1843
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9. Stravinsky on Villa-Lobos
“Why is it that whenever i hear a piece of music i don't like, it's always by Villa-Lobos?” Igor Stravinsky
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10. Ravel on Saint-Saëns
“If he'd been making shell-cases during the war it might have been better for music.” - Maurice Ravel on Camille Saint-Saëns
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11. Tchaikovsky on Borodin
He can’t compose a single note without someone’s help.” - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on Alexander Borodin
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12. The Times on Verdi
“The impersonation of all that is most foul and hideous in human nature.” - The Times on Verdi’s La Traviata
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13. Beecham on Beethoven
“Beethoven’s last quartets were written by a deaf man and should only be listened to by a deaf man.” - Sir Thomas Beecham
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14. Vaughan Williams on Mahler
"A very tolerable imitation of a composer.” Ralph Vaughan Williams on Gustav Mahler
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15. Wagner on Chopin
“A composer for one right hand.” Richard Wagner on Frederic Chopin
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16. Satie on Debussy
“I liked the bit about quarter to eleven.” Erik Satie on Claude Debussy’s ‘La Mer’
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17. Oscar Wilde on Wagner
“It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without people hearing what one says. That is a great advantage.” Oscar Wilde on Richard Wagner
