Modern music

When I say "modern music" I don't mean music of today but music starting about 1900 - Strauss, Richard that is, not one of the waltz kings, Stravinski, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Webern, Berg, Schonberg, Ruggles (never heard of him; well, he was an American composer who was deeply insulted when he discovered that a lot of people had turned up to hear one of his works!); and now, among this group of variably talented composers, I've discovered Oliver Messiaen. Of course I had heard of him and I actually went to a concert where a piece of music by him was played - can't say I liked it but it was tolerable enough to let me give him a second chance (as if cares, or would if he was still alive). So there's a concert in a few weeks time where a piece by Messiaen is to be played.
Now, I have to say I am getting a little tired of spending good money on concerts of "modern music" which send me away in a state of near anger. It wasn't the fault of The Welsh National Youth Orchestra that I came away from their concert a few weeks ago feeling peeved rather than uplifted. They played two big works: a tone poem by Liszt which was utterly boring and Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony which I used to like but now think is, at times, ugly.
I am surprised to discover that there are a couple of music critics who have the same aversion to certain pieces of music that I have. Michael Tanner of The Spectator says "Mahler 8 has long been a work I detest." So do I. Then there's Norman Lebrecht who dislikes Messiaen: "Messiaen lodges in my critical faculty like a bone in the throat: a composer of great consequence whom I could neither ingest nor ignore."
So off to the concert to hear a piece by Messiaen - give him a second chance! But there are pieces by Ravel (I like Ravel), Saint-Seans (I like him too) and Debussy (some of whose music I like). A cello concert by Saint-seans and La Mer by Debussy - which I love. Apparently he composed it when he was at Eastbourne. No, I don't believe it. Eastbourne isn't the sort of place that inspires creative processes I would have thought. But there you have it - there's no accounting for tastes.