Classical

[cheerful_deviant]

As in Music.

So I'm looking to broaden my horizons. I have the usual smattering of Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky(sp?) and Beethoven that everyone aquires, but I'm looking to improve my collection of classical music, both modern and old. Instrumental only please, I'm not really into opera and the like.

So does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[cloudy]

I love Prokofiev's piano pieces. They're extraordinarily hard to play, but wonderful to listen to.

 

[tolyk]

One that I've always liked is "Into the Storm" by Robert W. Smith

 

[Liar]

Rachmaninov and Sibelius are my main sources of classical inspiration. First one for melodic splendour secone one for brash pompoussness.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Don't forget the Yanks - Copland and Gershwin.

 

[amicus]

Chopin, Liszt and again Rachmaninoff, (Variations of a theme of Paganini) you will recognize that, Mozart...Ayn Rand's favorite, Magic Flute? and a Spanish Composer, Aranjuez....the piece...but for the moment the composer escapes me...

But should you like to really expand...dabble with some old Jazz, like the Modern Jazz Quartet/quintet, MJQ Dave Brubeck,(paul desmond, alto sax) Gerry Mulligan(baritone sax), Paul Winters (Soprano sax), Herbie Mann (Nirvana... flute)...there was a period in the 50's called, 'Cerebral Jazz', which all as fine as most classical music....bon appetite!


amicus...

 

[neonlyte]

Don't forget the Yanks - Copland and Gershwin.

I'd echo that - Copland ougtht be a National Hero.

Arvo Part - Alina, wonderful to write with (piano and violin)
Schubert - look out for piano only renditions by Maria Joao Pires (the story of the pianist is almoat as compelling as the way the plays the piano)

 

[dr_mabeuse]

What do you like? Do you like pretty and ethereal and relaxing like impressionist paintings? Then try Debussy and Ravel or Sate.

If you like heavy and dramatic and tragic, Shostokovich, Mahler (he's kind of hard to take - very intense), Samuel Barber. (Shostokovich has a story you might be interested in. He was anti-Stalin but wrote during Stalin's reign, and so hid all these anti-Stalinist messages in his music.)

If you like Bach then you should try Vivaldi and Haydn and Handel too.

You should have some early Stravinsky too, just for color and exhuberance - The Firebird, Petroushka, and especially the Rite of Spring, which caused violent riots when it debuted in Paris in the 20's as being too wild and pagan.

Prokofiev, Borodin, Mussorgsky - they're good too. The movies steal from them all the time.

You might find there's a particular type of music you like, or an instrument. Some years ago for after seeing a documentary on Pinchas Zuckerman, I suddenly went wild for violin music. That led me from Bach through concertos to string quartets and all sorts of things, including an interesting piece called "The Devil's Trill" by some Italian guy who supposedly learned the technique of this trill from Old Nick himself. An eerie little tune.

 

[Munachi]

you said you already have things by bach, but you can always get more. everything by bach will be a lot of music to listen to. you say no singing as you are not into opera - but then there are songs, cantates, oratorios, all that stuff... but i suppose you will already have some, like the st. matthews passion etc. ...

um... i sometimes like shostakovich... also sometimes like bela bartok... but i guess a lot of my music taste has more to do with the coincidence of what i have at home...

hm, schönberg is also important of course, but i don't know that much by him, except for some things i heard in concerts...

not sure if that sounds as classical music, but something i love is "missa zingarica" by milos stedron, sung by iva bitova.

 

[arienette]

I know nothing, so I am also taking these recommendations.
I do know that Moonlight Sonata makes me cry...That is all.

 

[Guest]

Wonderful suggestions -

I would also add a few of my favorites -

Liszt - Les Preludes
Holst - The Planets Suite
Rossini - (operas, but -) Overtures to William Tell, the Barber of Seville
Barber's Adagio for Strings - amazingly beautiful, painfully sad

And anything with a terrific part for a French Horn - that includes most things by Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Schubert, Verdi, Wagner . . .

 

[neonflux]

Just for fun:
Trilogy - if you can get them where you live (it's almost impossible to get most of their recordings in the U.S.)

In a modern vein:
Alan Berg
Phillip Glass
Tan Dun
Steve Reich
.
.
.
Nigel Kennedy somehow manages to turn Vivaldi's 4 Seasons into an utterly modern work

Atonal / 12-tone (not everyone's cup of tea, I know):
Messiaen (big big plug)
Schönberg (big plug, already mentioned)
John Cage

Turn of the (last) century:
Janá?ek (love his String Quartet #2)

Pre-Baroque:
Anything by the Anonymous 4

Have fun!
Neon

P.S., sorry that you don't like opera
but if you ever change your mind...

 

[SophiaY]

A few others:

Ralph Vaughn Williams -- especially his famous Fantasias: Greensleeves and a Theme on Thomas Tallis, and The Lark Ascending.

Heitor Villa-Lobos -- particularly his Bachianas brasileiras
(the #5, for Soprano and 8 cellos is one of the most haunting pieces of music)

Carl Orff -- his masterpiece Carmina Burana (Great piece to have sex by, said casually, -- don't laugh! It beats Ravel's Bolero!)

For a contemporary, Nancy Galbraith is a tremendous talent. You can listen to some samples of her work here: http://www.nancygalbraith.com/

 

[Guest]

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Thanks so much for all the responses. *taking furious notes* Actually I bookmarked this so I don't lose it.

I have a few iTunes gift certificates to spend, now my problem is which to download? Guess I'll have to buy them all. I hope I have enough hard drive space left.

Again, mucho thanks to all.

 

[Blackie Malone]

"The Moldau" by Smetana.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much for all the responses. *taking furious notes* Actually I bookmarked this so I don't lose it.

I have a few iTunes gift certificates to spend, now my problem is which to download? Guess I'll have to buy them all. I hope I have enough hard drive space left.

Again, mucho thanks to all.

hello lezboy,

you dont have to buy them. they give a short snippet so you can get a pseudo feel for it before you purchase.

unless youre suicidal, stay away from wagner. (pronounced vogner) dark stuff. everyone made excellent suggestions.
also, if you've a mind for something soothing, try maggie sansone, myst and stone. she was my instructor for the hammered dulcimer at one time. music is soothing, if that is what you're looking for.

 

[oggbashan]

Interpretation

Like all music, the interpretation of classical music is important to understanding and enjoying it.

Would you buy a Bruce Springsteen song sung by Sir Cliff Richard, or a Beach Boys standard by Diana Ross?

Compare recordings of the same piece by different orchestras and composers.

Rossini's overtures were mentioned. Try to find some recorded with Toscanini conducting. They will be in mono, not stereo, but the energy and drive of the performance should seem incredibly fast and staccato - yet if you use a stop watch the timing is the same as most other recordings. The difference is how the players attack the music.

Look for recommended recordings, not just the cheapest download. As with many other things, you get what you pay for.

Og

 

[Munachi]

eric satie - "vexations"... (don't know other things by him so i can only say this one... it is kind of a long piece though, hehe)

 

[Weird Harold]

So does anyone have any suggestions?

Mostly good suggestions so far.

My personal favorite classical piece is Symphony #9: From The New World by Antonin Dvorak.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

Anything I would have put forth has already been said, but just noting that women discussing classicla music is so hot!

About 7 of my crushes just got even crushier.

 

[scheherazade_79]

and a Spanish Composer, Aranjuez....the piece...but for the moment the composer escapes me...

amicus...

Rodrigo - Concerto de Aranjuez. It's the most wickedly Spanish guitar concerto there is. Definitely a must-buy.

Other suggestions.

Elgar - Symphony No. 1 - Buy a good recording and it has the potential to move you to tears.

Karl Jenkins - Welsh composer of Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary. He's also composed a lot of neo-classical and more modern string quartet pieces that are superb.

Tartini - The Devil's Trill - The most fiendishly difficult violin concerto in existence. He got the idea from a dream he had one night, where the devil appeared at the foot of his bed, ready to take Tartini's soul, and challenged him to a musical dual. Tartini was resident at a monastery at the time. When the devil whipped out his violin, he played music unlike anything that Tartini had heard before - insanely fast double-stopping passages, more notes than you think could be crammed into a beat, and the kind of music that makes you sit up and listen. The next morning Tartini sat down and tried to write down what he could remember of the music. The result was The Devil's Trill. Incidentally, Tartini left the monastery immediately after.

Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique - Real slushy Romantic orchestral music that has a mix of everything. It was written on an opium trip, and charts the composer's obsession with an Irish actress by the name of Henrietta Smithson, whom he'd seen playing the role of Ophelia.

The first movement is called "Dreams, Passions" and creates the effect that the title suggests. Very sweet, yearning, lyrical and with a recurring theme that gets passed around the entire orchestra.

The second movement is "At the Ball", where, in his opium-induced haze, Berlioz is imagining himself at a ball with the actress. It's a typical waltz, reminiscent of Strauss, but slightly more masterful - and the theme from the first movement is now elaborated upon and woven into the ballroom music.

The third movement is called "A Pastoral Scene" and features horns and bassoons calling out to each other. The represent a shepherd boy and girl shouting out to each other over the hillside.

And this... is where everything goes slightly pear-shaped. Because in real life, Berlioz suddenly summoned up the courage to ask this woman out... and she rejected him...

So he came home, took more opium and decided to finish the third movement in tragedy. Suddenly the timps are rolled out and he recreates a thunderstorm with the orchestra. The shepherd boy and girl continue to call out to each other, but their cries are getting fainter as they're drowned out by the din of the storm.

The fourth movement is subtitled "March to the Scaffold", where the conductor imagines himself being executed for this Henrietta Smith's murder. At the end, there's a loud bang, signalling the blade of the guillotine dropping, and then a pizzicato note to symbolise his head rolling into the basket.

Not content with four movements, Berlioz went on to write a fifth movement. This one's called "Witches' Sabbath". The main theme reappears, but this time it's hideously distorted, because in his mind Henrietta Smith has become a witch. Again, it's real dramatic, rousing music - clocks striking thirteen, special effects throughout the entire orchestra... Totally crazy tripped-out stuff that's actually pretty melodic.

Well worth a listen.


Sorry. I got carried away. This is one of my favourite topics. I'll post more as I think of them, but I'll try to keep it brief next time.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Sorry. I got carried away. This is one of my favourite topics. I'll post more as I think of them, but I'll try to keep it brief next time.

And you didn't even mention Rimsky-Korsakov...

 

[scheherazade_79]

And you didn't even mention Rimsky-Korsakov...

...yet Don't get me started on that one

 

[Equinoxe]

I'm working on an appropriate list of suggestions. In the mean time, you say that you don't care for Opera and would prefer instrumentals: how are you with Choral pieces (since, amongst other things, several of the suggestions thus far do include them)?