Classical music

[MT323]

Anyone here into it?

[metroflip73]

Obvious ones:

Brandenburg Concertos-JS Bach
Music of the Royal Fireworks-GF Handel
The Four Seasons-Vivaldi

Those are just some that I have on my Nano. I grew up playing piano, so I am cool with it.

[DoctorD]

Search this thread for the likely suspects on this board.

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=410091&highlight=classical

[Claymore]

big time.

[Matt in the Hat]

More into romantic period myself, but classical is nice.

[royalstilton]

I have my favorites:

Vaughan Williams: "A Sea Symphony" and "Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis"
Liszt: "Les Preludes"
Gesualdo: "Madrigals" and "Tenebrae"
Tenebrae (http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1179065/a/Gesualdo+Tenebrae+%2F+Hilliard+Ensemble.htm)
Faure, Ravel, Debussy ( various )
Tchaikovsky: "Pathetique", "Romeo & Juliet Overture", "Song Without Words", etc )
Shostakovich: 5th and 8th Symphonies especially
Brahms: "German Requiem"
Elgar: "E minor Cello Concerto"
Prokofiev: "March from Love of Three Oranges", "Peter and the Wolf" ( sorry! ), "Symphony #7 in C sharp minor".
Most of Beethoven
Most of Rimsky-Korsakov
Bach: Goldberg Variations, but little else
Mozart: a thing or two, here and there:)

[ForeverRed]

I have my favorites:

Vaughan Williams: "A Sea Symphony" and "Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis"
Liszt: "Les Preludes"
Gesualdo: "Madrigals" and "Tenebrae"
Tenebrae (http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1179065/a/Gesualdo+Tenebrae+%2F+Hilliard+Ensemble.htm)
Faure, Ravel, Debussy ( various )
Tchaikovsky: "Pathetique", "Romeo & Juliet Overture", "Song Without Words", etc )
Shostakovich: 5th and 8th Symphonies especially
Brahms: "German Requiem"
Elgar: "E minor Cello Concerto"
Prokofiev: "March from Love of Three Oranges", "Peter and the Wolf" ( sorry! ), "Symphony #7 in C sharp minor".
Most of Beethoven
Most of Rimsky-Korsakov
Bach: Goldberg Variations, but little else
Mozart: a thing or two, here and there:)

My absolute favorite, paricularly the Second and Fourth Movements.

[MT323]

I'm one for #10 in e minor. The second movement is quite intense.

Has anyone heard the Chicago Symphony's recording of Respighi's Pines of Rome under Fritz Reiner? The brass is absolutely stellar, as expected from Chicago.

[royalstilton]

I'm one for #10 in e minor. The second movement is quite intense.

Has anyone heard the Chicago Symphony's recording of Respighi's Pines of Rome under Fritz Reiner? The brass is absolutely stellar, as expected from Chicago.
actually, yeah.

btw, i have 5 recordings of Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. only one on vinyl, the older Bernstein.

overkill, but what can i say?

(programme note: possibly cloying human interest story follows):

when my dad was alive, we used to watch a TV quiz show, College Bowl, on Sunday afternoons. one time, there was an audio question where they played the first few notes of a piece of music, Shostakovich's 5th Symphony, and i identified it in 2 notes. :) not that difficult, as you all know.

it was my dad's favorite, too. i enjoy remembering that moment.

[Sachsen]

I have my favorites:
Bach: Goldberg Variations, but little else

:eek:

Heresy!

I'm partial to baroque and late 19th/early 20th century. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, etc. are all great - for more modern I go with Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, Respighi, Copland, Hovhaness...

I do generally like the 19th century "classicists" - Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann...

Generally can't stand the bleeding heart liberalism of Liszt, Wagner, Berlioz, et al. Freakin' crybabies.

But in the end, I always go back to Bach. The cantatas, the organ music, the Brandenburgs, the solo string sonatas, the St Matthew Passion, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the list goes on and on and on...

[Norsk Troll]

Search this thread for the likely suspects on this board.

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=410091&highlight=classical


Good times.

[royalstilton]

:eek:

Heresy!

I'm partial to baroque and late 19th/early 20th century. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, etc. are all great - for more modern I go with Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, Respighi, Copland, Hovhaness...

I do generally like the 19th century "classicists" - Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann...

Generally can't stand the bleeding heart liberalism of Liszt, Wagner, Berlioz, et al. Freakin' crybabies.

But in the end, I always go back to Bach. The cantatas, the organ music, the Brandenburgs, the solo string sonatas, the St Matthew Passion, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the list goes on and on and on...
i respect Bach's genius, but i don't enjoy the music that much. his music doesn't have the melodic appeal that many of my favorite composers develop. but, i like The Carpenters, so what does that tell you?

[Sachsen]

i respect Bach's genius, but i don't enjoy the music that much. his music doesn't have the melodic appeal that many of my favorite composers develop. but, i like The Carpenters, so what does that tell you?

I like the Carpenters too. ;)

You are correct that much of Bach's music is more... cerebral, for lack of a better word. But melodic appeal is there too! I suggest:

the Goldbergs, of course
the Brandenburg Concertos
the Orchestral Suites
lots of keyboard music including the French Overture and Italian Concerto
the arias, vocal chorales and choruses from the cantatas and passions
the organ trio sonatas
lots of chamber music like the gamba sonatas, the recorder sonatas, the cello suites, etc.
...

Seriously, try it again. Once you go Bach, everything else is just window dressing. :D

[Norsk Troll]

As royalstilton may recall - he and I part ways on the usual topics we discuss, but we're much closer when it comes to music (Carpenters aside): Bach is far down on my list as well.

[spejic]

I like orchestral music, but outside of medieval choral music I find anything not written in the 20th century boring. Even if it's the first time I heard it, older pieces sound cliché. I happen to like many modern film soundtracks.

Vaughn Williams' "Lark Ascending" is a particular favorite.

[royalstilton]

As royalstilton may recall - he and I part ways on the usual topics we discuss, but we're much closer when it comes to music (Carpenters aside): Bach is far down on my list as well.
we...part...company???:)

[Sachsen]

Vaughn Williams' "Lark Ascending" is a particular favorite.

Two thumbs WAY up.

The CD currently in my bedside alarm clock (which I've been waking up to the last week or two) is the London Symphony, the Tallis Fantasia, and the Norfolk Rhapsody.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tFuI8pclL._AA240_.jpg

[royalstilton]

I just spent about 20 minutes listening to snippets of Bach on youtube...admittedly not the best venue fer critical appraisal. Having said that, I think I have identified my principal aesthetic problem with Bach, and interestingly enough, it's the same thing I don't like about Whitney Houston. Maybe it's not Bach himself, but rather the way the baroque interpreters play his music, but it's frilly. There are little flourishes here and there that drive me crazy. OK, so you can play a little finger trill on the E string. Excellent! That may have been how it was written, but it's showing off, and I hate it.

Whitney Houston has absolutely amaaaaaazing pipes, but here she is singing TSSB:

qciWEufZ2xA

Listen to her reading of "o'er the ramparts..." and "banner yet wave". It's self-conscious. "Look what I can do," she is saying.

I know it's "raised in the choir" gospel-style riffing, but it turns the singing into a performance that is less about the song and more about Whitney. Ick.

I heard "Air on the G string" by Sarah Chang (w/ headphones ) which has none of this "goofing around" until the very end.

qOVwokQnV4M

Her opening attack is amazing. Simple. Understated. She loves this piece.

And while I was looking around I found Slava Kagan-Paley's "Air..."

wN0T4E9uDTI

Maybe I need to listen to more Bach. :)

[DoctorD]

I just spent about 20 minutes listening to snippets of Bach on youtube...admittedly not the best venue fer critical appraisal. Having said that, I think I have identified my principal aesthetic problem with Bach, and interestingly enough, it's the same thing I don't like about Whitney Houston. Maybe it's not Bach himself, but rather the way the baroque interpreters play his music, but it's frilly. There are little flourishes here and there that drive me crazy. OK, so you can play a little finger trill on the E string. Excellent! That may have been how it was written, but it's showing off, and I hate it.
Actually, it is Bach himself. JSB wrote in the ornamentation where he wanted it and supposedly did not like additional ornamentation added that he didn't write. This was in contrast to the performance standards of the day, in which there were unwritten rules for embellishment and augmentation.

Whatever you do, royalstilton, stay away from French baroque. That's so heavily ornamented that you can't tell what the actual melody is. :)

[royalstilton]

Actually, it is Bach himself. JSB wrote in the ornamentation where he wanted it and supposedly did not like additional ornamentation added that he didn't write. This was in contrast to the performance standards of the day, in which there were unwritten rules for embellishment and augmentation.

Whatever you do, royalstilton, stay away from French baroque. That's so heavily ornamented that you can't tell what the actual melody is. :)
i like some French cheese. it's relatively unornamented.

http://www.formaggiokitchen.com/shop/images/Laguiole2.jpg