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    The 17 best insults in classical music

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    A compendium of the most entertaining insults from composers, conductors and musicians - thoroughly entertaining stuff.

    1. classical music insults

      1. Beethoven on a critic

      “Oh you arch-ass - you double-barrelled ass!” Ludwig van Beethoven on critic Gottfried Weber

    2. classical music insults

      2. Strauss on Schoenberg

      “He’d be better off shovelling snow than scribbling on manuscript paper.” Richard Strauss on Arnold Schoenberg

    3. classical music insults

      3. Wagner on Rossini

      "After Rossini dies, who will there be to promote his music?” - Richard Wagner

    4. classical music insults

      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

    5. classical music insults

      5. Berlioz on Handel

      “A tub of pork and beer.” Hector Berlioz on Georg Frideric Handel

    6. classical music insults

      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

    7. classical music insults

      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

    8. classical music insults

      8. Berlioz

      Berlioz, musically speaking, is a lunatic.” Dramatic and Musical Review, 1843

    9. classical music insults

      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

    10. classical music insults

      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

    11. classical music insults

      11. Tchaikovsky on Borodin

      He can’t compose a single note without someone’s help.” - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on Alexander Borodin

    12. classical music insults

      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

    13. classical music insults

      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

    14. classical music insults

      14. Vaughan Williams on Mahler

      "A very tolerable imitation of a composer.” Ralph Vaughan Williams on Gustav Mahler

    15. classical music insults

      15. Wagner on Chopin

      “A composer for one right hand.” Richard Wagner on Frederic Chopin

    16. classical music insults

      16. Satie on Debussy

      “I liked the bit about quarter to eleven.” Erik Satie on Claude Debussy’s ‘La Mer’

    17. classical music insults

      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

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