Discovering Classical Music: Suggestions Welcome!

[zoobyshoe]

IMO:
Classical music is at its best with J.S. Bach.

Most people who appreciate and understand serious music would agree with this. He is more often ranked as the greatest composer who ever lived than any other composer.
However, huge amounts of Bach's music are not accessible to people who are switching over from a previous orientation in pop music. I think the Romantic composers are the best ones by which to make the transition.

J.S. Bach is at his best at the piano (Klavier).

Yes, provided you mention that he never actually wrote anything for the piano. It wasn't invented till he was an old man. He got to play one once and pronounced it seemed to have possibilities. The pieces by Bach that are commonly played on the piano nowadays were written for the harpsichord and clavichord. "Klavier" technically refers to any keyboard instrument, and technically includes the pipe organ, but a separation between the music he wrote for the "klavier" and the pipe organ is generally maintained. There is the issue of the pedal part, among other things.

No one ever played bach on the piano better than Glen Gould.

It might be better to say no one ever played Bach more brilliantly. He was a dazzling pianist. Critics and listeners alike sometimes took exception to some of his stranger interpretations.

You will not be disappointed by getting "The Goldberg Variations" as performed by Mr. Gould. He recorded it twice, 1955 and 1981. A real snob will insist the first recording was more masterful, although I am fond of the latter. I understand it has recently been remastered so that Mr. Gould's annoying habit to "sing along" has been removed.

I also like the second recording alot. The main trouble with it is that he was competing against no one but himself, and he had already blown everyone away with the first recording which was unbelievable. The 1955 Goldberg recording made Glen Gould, and it also made the Goldbergs what they are today. Before Glen Gould the Goldbergs were a part of harpsichord literature, and hence, relatively obscure. People certainly didn't play them as much as the Well Tempered Claver. Glen Gould made them part of piano literature.

I have exactly 20 different recordings of the Goldbergs. My favorite, after Glen Gould's, is by Charles Rosen. He takes all the repeats, in addition to giving an excellent performance, and I enjoy hearing them with the repeats.

I wouldn't reccomend them to anyone just starting out listening to serious music, though. They're too subtle. (Then there is that one slow, long, bleak, endless variation that brings everything to a halt for a while with it's cold, anxiety filled, winter.) I was quite bored with them the first time I heard them. Now, as you can probably tell, they are my favorite Bach. Maybe some other people will look into them on our reccomendation, but I wouldn't suggest them to Dooga.

Also you could try "The Well-tempered Klavier, Book1"

Overall, I actually like Book II better.

 

[Dooga Blackrazor]

What age did you guys all start to enjoy Classical Music? I'm curious. ;) An amazing turnout for the thread. I've got many songs to download yet. :)

So far my favorites are Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Symphony #6-5th Movement Allegreto. The name is long enough heh. But it could be the wrong name since downloading is weird that way.

Also, I have very low music knowledge. I get basic themes and messages from it. Like the Requiem delivers a powerful mood and such. I'm just wondering if there are other messages in the songs. Does each note symbolize a feeling for different composers or something. Are there any sites on this if that's the case?

 

[Math Is Hard]

My mother played classical music for me when I was in the womb. I guess that's why I have always loved it. Also I started playing piano when I was very young, so a lot of my appreciation of classical comes from pieces I learned to play. I would never have cared much for Bach if I hadn't actually worked through some of the inventios. The technical difficulty of the pieces made them exciting.
Do you play any instruments, Dooga?

 

[Robert Zaleski]

Peer Gynt-Suite 1, Op 46 and Suite 2, Op 55 by Edvard Grieg

 

[zoobyshoe]

What age did you guys all start to enjoy Classical Music? I'm curious.

I was about 14 before I got into it.

Beethoven's Symphony #6-5th Movement Allegreto. The name is long enough heh. But it could be the wrong name since downloading is weird that way.

No, you got it right. Strange, though. You picked the 5th movement of one of the only symphonies by anyone that has more than 4 movements. 4 movements is pretty standard for symphonys.

I'm just wondering if there are other messages in the songs. Does each note symbolize a feeling for different composers or something. Are there any sites on this if that's the case?

In serious music everything isn't called a "song". Everything is called a "piece", short for "piece of music." This is because that term covers everything, whereas "song" really only applies to individual pieces where there is singing. The Mozart requiem, for instance, wouldn't becalled a "song" because it is more than just one isolated piece of singing. Shubert and Brahms wrote a lot of just plain songs. All the songs they wrote are still referred to as "pieces".

No, each note by itself has no meaning. It is only when they are put together in relation to other notes when you start to get signifigance.

 

[S = k log w]

Brahms, Mendelsohn, Wagner

 

[Adam]

Mendelsohn? Are you joking? He's a freakin hack. :P

 

[Dooga Blackrazor]

My mother played classical music for me when I was in the womb. I guess that's why I have always loved it. Also I started playing piano when I was very young, so a lot of my appreciation of classical comes from pieces I learned to play. I would never have cared much for Bach if I hadn't actually worked through some of the inventios. The technical difficulty of the pieces made them exciting.
Do you play any instruments, Dooga?

No instruments here. I might take up the piano someday. I found it was fairly easy to get the hang of when I played it in music class. I never bothered to take music this year or in the next two years. Unless your going into a musical career I feel it's more beneficial to take other subjects such as Physics. It just doesn't fit into my schedule. Perhaps if I need a hobby sometime I can look into it.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Unless your going into a musical career I feel it's more beneficial to take other subjects such as Physics. It just doesn't fit into my schedule. Perhaps if I need a hobby sometime I can look into it.

There is a whole physics to sound production in music that creates a great overlap between the two. I have lately been following this train of understanding, myself. Trying to grasp how musical instuments produce sound leads further and further into physics. Our own PF Administrator, Chroot, is a guitarist, and also quite adept at the physics of sound. The two disciplines support each other quite nicely.

 

[S = k log w]

I like Mendelsohn's Violin Concerto (I also like Tschaikovsky and Brahm's).

 

[Chi Meson]

I have exactly 20 different recordings of the Goldbergs. My favorite, after Glen Gould's, is by Charles Rosen. He takes all the repeats, in addition to giving an excellent performance, and I enjoy hearing them with the repeats.

I wouldn't reccomend them to anyone just starting out listening to serious music, though. They're too subtle. (Then there is that one slow, long, bleak, endless variation that brings everything to a halt for a while with it's cold, anxiety filled, winter.) I was quite bored with them the first time I heard them. Now, as you can probably tell, they are my favorite Bach. Maybe some other people will look into them on our reccomendation, but I wouldn't suggest them to Dooga.

I agree with your asessment of the "middle" part of Goldberg; I often hit the skip button if I'm feeling impatient. But I think that anyone can be quickly pulled in by the Aria and the first 10 variations. The segue from Aria to variation 1 is without a doubt one of my favorite moments in Classical music.

 

[Chi Meson]

What age did you guys all start to enjoy Classical Music? I'm curious. ;) An amazing turnout for the thread. I've got many songs to download yet. :)
...
Also, I have very low music knowledge. I get basic themes and messages from it. Like the Requiem delivers a powerful mood and such. I'm just wondering if there are other messages in the songs. Does each note symbolize a feeling for different composers or something. Are there any sites on this if that's the case?

I started classical piano training at the age of FIVE. Stopped abruptly at high school and went straight to punk rock (imagine the shocked parents). I have now grown tolerant of all forms of music (except for "big hair" bands of the 80s, but they have all gone away now, and are but like a faint memory of a bad toothache).


Oh, and never let anyone tell you what mood you have to feel when listening to music. That's how you tell if it works for you.

THere are some "rules" to follow while listening (break 'em as you wish, of course): you never-ever "get it" on the first listen. IF you do, then you really didn't, or else the music is too simple. So give each piece three full-attention sittings. IF you listen to a sonata or concerto or symphony, listen to all the parts ("movements") in their proper order. Don't force your friends to "come in here and listen to this, it's amazing!" It never works.

 

[quddusaliquddus]

I don't know about the rest of y'all but...I say it's time to start downloading.

what is this 'downloading' you speak of? ...

 

[sandinmyears]

I can play Beethoven's "Fur Elise" on my mandolin.

 

[Njorl]

How do you reach the keys while sitting on your mandolin?

 

[jimmy p]

That Rachmaninov piano concerto thing. And Chopin's Raindrops.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I agree with your asessment of the "middle" part of Goldberg; I often hit the skip button if I'm feeling impatient. But I think that anyone can be quickly pulled in by the Aria and the first 10 variations. The segue from Aria to variation 1 is without a doubt one of my favorite moments in Classical music.

Variations # 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, and 26 are sometimes referred to as "arabesques". These are the very fast, lively, much ornamented ones that appeal to the listener the most on the first hearing, almost regardless of the performer.

The segue from the aria to the 1st variation you are referring to must be in Gould's second recording. I have to agree that the way he did this blew me away.

The "bleak" variation is # 25, sometimes called "adagio". Of course it has the same number of bars as all the others, but the tempo is so slow and the mood so desolate, that it seems to go on forever. It took me a long time to get used to this variation. Now, I listen to it by itself sometimes, as if it were a self-contained piece.

 

[wasteofo2]

Paganini's 24th caprice is amazing, so is this little girl's rendition of it: http://www.nathan.webrats.com/Paganini_Caprice_no_24.wmv

 

[honestrosewater]

How am I just now discovering this? OMG. Some are familiar, but I've never heard them like this before. Have a listen if you like Bach or the cello or being moved. Bach's Cello Suites peformed by . They're only snippets, but just listen.

 

[The Bob]

Right now I have four songs: The Requiem by Mozart, Fur Elise by Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven and Allegro Concerto #3 by Bach. My favorite is The Requiem if that helps determine my listening style any.

The whole of Mozart's Requiem?? That is not a song, it is like movements in a piece. The best of the Requiem is the Confutatis, in my opinion.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[The Bob]

For beginners to Classical music I suggest:

Ludwig Van Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (All Movements)
Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart - Clarinet Concerto in A Major (All Movements)
Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart - Eine Kleinenacht Musik (All Movements); sorry about the spelling
Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No.21 (Movement 2)
Rachmaninov - Variations on a Theme by Paganini (Variation 18).

These are good for a start. Then you can move on to the Beethoven Symphonies and then it is wise to move onto Liszt or Bruch.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[tribdog]

Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart - Eine Kleinenacht Musik (All Movements); sorry about the spelling

that is the only piece of classical music i know, but I was in a job interview once and the boss was listening to it and i made a casual comment, mentioning it by name. Sometimes a little knowledge can make you look very impressive

 

[Astronuc]

Here is a nice sampler CD = Classic Dreams: Music to Inspire

Disc 1
1. Antiphon: Ecce Annuntio Vobis
2. Mahler: Symphony No.5 - Adagietto
3. Satie: Gymnopedie No.1 (Arr. Debussy)
4. Fauré: Pavane
5. Holst: The Planets - Venus
6. Picker: Old And Lost Rivers
7. Debussy: Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun
8. Honegger: Summer Pastorale
9. Fauré: Masques Et Bergamasques - Pastorale
10. Pärt: Summa
11. Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition - The Old Castle
12. Grieg: The Wounded Heart
13. Elgar: Serenade For Strings In E Minor - Larghetto

Disc 2
1. Stravinsky: Apollon Musagete - The Birth Of Apollo
2. Barber: Adagio For Strings
3. Sibelius: The Swan Of Tuonela
4. Elgar: Enigma Variations - Nimrod
5. Debussy: Petite Suite - En Bateau (Orch. Busser)
6. Grieg: Holberg Suite - Air
7. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia On 'Greensleeves'
8. Satie: Gymnopedie No.3 (Arr. Debussy)
9. Ravel: Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte
10. Grieg: The Last Spring
11. Massenet: Meditation (From Thais)
12. Rachmaninov: Vocalise
13. Ravel: Mother Goose - The Fairy Garden
14. Antiphon: Ecce Annuntio Vobis

Vocalise is my favorite piece in this CD, but they are all very good. Satie's Gymnopedie are great but very short.

Here is a good selection begin with:

Carl Orff - Carmina Burana (mentioned in an earlier post)

Ralph Vaughn Williams - The Lark Ascending

Franz Joseph Haydn - Symphonies 93-104

Maurice Ravel - Piano Concerto in G major; Piano Concerto in D major (for the left hand); Valses nobles et sentimentales for piano (or orchestra); Sonatine for piano

Camille Saint-Saëns - Piano Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 17; Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22; Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 29; Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44; Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Egyptian"), in F major, Op. 103; Wedding Cake, caprice-valse for piano & strings in A flat major, Op. 76; Africa, fantaisie for piano & orchestra in G minor, Op. 89

Claude Debussy - Suite bergamasque, for piano, L. 75; Children's Corner, suite for piano (or orchestra), L. 113; Images for piano, Set I, L. 110; Images for piano, Set II, L. 111; Arabesques for piano, L. 66; Préludes for piano, Book I, L. 117; Pour le piano, suite for piano, L. 95; Estampes, for piano, L. 100; L'isle joyeuse, for piano, L. 106; Rêverie, for piano, L. 68

Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1; Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18; Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30; Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Introduction and 24 Variations), in A minor for piano & orchestra, Op. 43

Gabriel Fauré - Ouverture; Pastorale; Tres Romances sans Patorles; Romance, Op. 28; Pavanes

Antonio Vivaldi - Four Seasons

Antonin Dvorak - Symphony No.8 In G Major, Op.88; Symphony No. 7 In D Minor, Op. 70; Symphony No. 9 In E Minor, Op. 95 'From The New World'

Felix Mendelssohn - The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)- Overture; Symphony No. 3 In A Minor 'Scottish'; Symphony No. 4 in A major ("Italian"), Op. 90

Joaquin Rodrigo (Guitar) - Concerto de Aranjuez

Johannes Brahms - Hungarian Dance No. 1; Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80,

Robert Schumann - Symphony No. 1 in B flat major ("Spring"), Op. 38; Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61; Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ("Rhenish"), Op. 97 ; Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120; Kinderszenen, Op. 15 - traumerei; Piano quintet In E Flat Major, Op.44; Fantasiestuke, Op. 73

Franz Schubert - Symphony No. 5 In B Flat Major; Rosamunde; Impromptu In E Flat Major; Impromptu In G Flat Major; Piano Quintet In A Major

Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 1, for orchestra in E minor Op. 39; Symphony No. 2, for orchestra in D major, Op. 43; Symphony No. 4, for orchestra in A minor, Op. 63; Symphony No. 5, for orchestra in E-flat major, Op. 82

All of these composers can be found on 'Best of name' CD, but you might search on "Composer Name","Symphony".