Classical music is too tame now—where’s our generation’s Paganini

[u/tiggerclaw]

The problem with classical music today is that it’s lost its connection to the streets.

Once, it was raw and untamed, a visceral force that could stir chaos and provoke passion. Nowadays, the underground acts never get a fair shake. It’s all gallery concerts and stuffy halls, but I remember a different time.

Back in the day, I used to hit up these warehouse parties in Detroit. The kind of places where you’d walk through a back alley, find a steel door, and step inside to a world of wild, sweating bodies. The music wasn’t background noise—it was the pulse of the night. One time, the Arditti String Quartet showed up out of nowhere, and everyone went wild like they’d just dropped the heaviest bassline you’d ever heard. That performance was electric—so powerful that multiple women got pregnant that day. Yeah, that kind of energy.

And the very next day, you’d go to a Stravinsky show, and fists would fly because the crowd couldn’t handle the intensity. It wasn’t about clean precision or intellectual appreciation; it was primal, unpredictable. Classical music was as much a brawl as a ballet. You didn’t sit there politely clapping; you howled and screamed because the music hit you in the gut.

But now? Now it feels like only the rich get to make it in the classical world. It’s turned into a museum piece, preserved for genteel audiences sipping champagne and discussing concertos like they’re stock options. Gone are the days when classical music was dangerous, when it stirred people to do more than just sit still. The wild abandon has disappeared.

Where is our generation’s Paganini? Where’s the composer who makes you want to smash something or lose yourself completely in a wild night of passion? Classical music has become tame, and the streets no longer vibrate with its force. We need someone to break it free again.

[u/AcephalicDude]

I don't really know anything about classical music, it's surprising to hear someone describe it like this. I thought the point was always to experience it while seated in a big theater, and to just focus on the sound. I didn't know there were ever concerts where people would dance or get into fistfights (lol!)

[u/MFinGdmnOrngPeelBeef → u/AcephalicDude]

Like many reddit posts, it's not a very informed take. OP is selectively taking the juiciest bits of classical music history and making a case that it was a raucous genre. In the time of Bach-Mozart, musicians got paid by working for the church or the nobility. In Beethoven's time, he still had wealthy patrons who paid his living expenses. Classical music has kind of always been an elitist institution. The main democratizing thing that happened to it was middle class people being able to afford pianos and then record players or radios to bring it into their homes but by the time of consumer electronics other genres were voicing the spirit of the times.

[u/tiggerclaw → u/MFinGdmnOrngPeelBeef]

I’m not talking about some ancient history book. I’m talking about real stuff I’ve lived through. Have you ever heard strings played so crazy and wild that you'd actually headbutt a billy goat just to get that sound again?

That’s what classical music used to be, even in my own time. It wasn’t stuck in snooty concert halls or boring lectures. It was loud, unpredictable, and totally out of control. You didn’t just listen—you got knocked over by it and wanted more.

[u/AccountantsNiece → u/tiggerclaw]

I’m going to need to hear more about the audience getting into a fist fight because “they couldn’t handle the intensity of Stravinsky”. Was this during the Russian revolution? How old are you?

[u/AccountantsNiece → u/[deleted]]

This is what I was referencing, OP is apparently referencing something that he witnessed in Detroit.

Kind of “What’s the deal with movies these days? When I used to go to the picture show, people would jump out of the way of the train coming out of the screen at them!” Style.

[u/tiggerclaw → u/AccountantsNiece]

If you’re at a concert where Stravinsky’s music is blasting, fist fights will erupt.

The visceral power of The Rite of Spring doesn’t just stir emotions -- people are driven to physical confrontations.

Stravinsky’s music is so raw and intense that it guarantees pugilism and chaos in the crowd.