15 regrettable compositions

If you want an easy life, free of creative tension, neurosis and anxiety, don’t become a composer. You spend half the time waiting for the phone to ring, then when a commission finally arrives, reality kicks in: ‘Will my inspiration dry up?’; ‘Will they like what

I produce?’; ‘Will I like it?’. And that is the $64,000 question. Once a new piece is ‘out there’, anything can – and often does – have play a part in the curious love-hate relationship that exists between composers and their own work.

There are many reasons for a composer wishing he or she hadn’t written a piece. In some cases they decide they simply don’t like it, but there are also sad examples of over-popularity, political hi-jacking and even fatal performances. It’s all here…

1 Rachmaninov Symphony No. 1

Powered along by an ominous ‘fate’ motive and searing emotional thrust, Rachmaninov’s First Symphony seemed to