New interest in classical music

[1MileCrash]

After taking an intersession music appreciation course, I have a new interest in music from the classical era.

Mozart's Symphony #40 in G minor is the best sound I've ever heard - period. Anyone have any recommendations for other things I should check out?

I hear it's great to have in the background while reading!

 

[ThomasT]

I was thinking 'classical' music in general, and had a list posted.
But you're interested in the 'classical era'. Not my favorite.
Anyway, good luck.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

There are lots. If you particularly like that, the next symphony, no. 41 (Jupiter), perhaps?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Skip the aria from Turandot. I slept through it.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Skip the aria from Turandot. I slept through it.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

None shall!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

What you should do is listen to a radio station that plays the classics. That way you will get a broad selection and can note the ones you like the best. Then you tell us what's good.

Edit: I was only joking about Turandot. The aria is called Nessun Dorma (no one sleeps) and is one of the finest pieces of music ever. It was a favorite of Pavarotti.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Edit: I was only joking about Turandot. The aria is called Nessun Dorma (no one sleeps) and is one of the finest pieces of music ever. It was a favorite of Pavarotti.

I think the translation I thought of uses the imperative, which seems to work, too.
http://lindalenc.com/videos/pavarotti.htm

 

[jtbell]

Mozart's Symphony #40 in G minor is the best sound I've ever heard - period. Anyone have any recommendations for other things I should check out?

If you want to stick with Mozart, try some of his concertos. My favorite is his clarinet concerto, which is truly sublime. Next would come some of the piano concertos, maybe #24 or #21. But it's hard to go really wrong with Mozart. I like the rest of his wind concertos a lot, too: horn, flute, oboe, bassoon. Oh, and the Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra (sort of a double concerto). When I get the opening bars in my head, I can't get it out for hours.

For someone similar to Mozart, try his contemporary Joseph Martin Kraus, the "Swedish Mozart." You can find a bunch of his stuff on the Naxos label.

When I started listening to classical music years ago (referring to the whole genre now, not just the Mozart/Haydn/Beethoven era), I started from a few different "centers" and worked my way outward to related composers that were mentioned in the notes on the backs of LPs (yes, I'm that old) and in books, magazine articles, etc.

For example, one place I started was with Beethoven, because it happened to be his bicentennial year (1970). He led me quickly to Haydn and Mozart, and then I went backward to Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, and forward to Mendelssohn, Schubert, Berlioz, etc.

Another place I started with was Sibelius, because a couple of my grandparents came from Finland. He led me to other Nordic composers from around 1900: Grieg, Nielsen, Stenhammar; and then backwards and forwards to earlier and (mostly) more contemporary composers from that region. This has always been my bigggest "specialty."

 

[Andre]

Talking about Nessun Dorma, of course the stunning performance of Paul Potts is a classic.

 

[Chi Meson]

Musical taste is, of course, a very personal and opinionated topic. I understand fully when people disagree with my musical preferences, because usually they are complete idiots who cannot see why my opinions are the only truly correct ones. Wait, did I type that? I meant only to think it, sorry. Dang, my delete button isn't working. Oh well.

My priceless two cents: despite being "Baroque," there is no classical music better than J.S. Bach. Look into the compositions for single instruments. A recent re-release of Gould playing the Goldberg Variations (with his "humming along" digitally edited out), and anything written for the cello as played by Casals or Ma are two things to consider.

These are all "safe" places to go, where you're sure to not be disappointed. One last thing, these are not good as "background" music.

 

[jtbell]

Gould playing the Goldberg Variations (with his "humming along" digitally edited out)

Sacrilege!

That's like editing out the coughs from the audience in the famous live recording of Sviatoslav Richter playing Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" at a concert in Sofia, Bulgaria during a flu epidemic.

 

[Jobrag]

If you are going to "listen" to great music really listen to it don't have it on as something nice in the background.
Try these with the volume turned up as much as you can (or with headphones on).
Handel Messiah
Beethoven Ninth (Choral)
Mazart Great Mass in C

 

[Vanadium 50]

That's like editing out the coughs from the audience in the famous live recording of Sviatoslav Richter playing Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" at a concert in Sofia, Bulgaria during a flu epidemic.

Ballet of the Unblown Noses?
Limgoes, le Mouchoirs?
The Cough of the Baba Yaga?
The Great Sneeze of Kiev?

 

[arildno]

Personally, I have a fondness for Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

Here's the opening passage from Concerto 2:


Piano Concerto 21 by Mozart is also a well-known classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKZr3ExeXUc&feature=fvw

 

[Insanity]

Recently got the complete works of Mozart and some of his early symphonies are great.
Beethoven 9th works for me too.

Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite #1 Op 46., specifically "In the Hall of the Mountain King"

Not classical, but romantic opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata (The Drinking Song) has stuck with ever since the professor from my classical appreciation class mockingly stumbled around as a drunk while playing it for the class.

There are some specific movements from various compositions that I enjoy, mostly from that class.

Joseph Haydn's Symphony #94, I think it is the 2nd movement, also called the "surprise" movement as occasionally throughout it, there are sudden chords that create the surprise. My professor explained that back during the composer's days, it would not be unusual for people to pay the admittance fee, then sleep during the performance, and Haydn's wrote the second movement to wake them up. Apparently Haydn was known for having many jokes in his works.

 

[Antiphon]

Check out Bach's organ fuges. You will be blown away. Look for Baroque stations on the net or search for
Ivan Sokol
J.S. Bach, Preludes and Fuges. 17 songs

 

[fss]

You cannot appreciate the genre without listening to Beethoven and Brahms. Period!

Mozart is the rosé of classical music

 

[OmCheeto]

The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi.

 

[jtbell]

The Great Sneeze of Kiev?

Reminds me of Kodaly's "Hary Janos" suite starting with a loud orchestral "sneeze," which supposedly comes from a Hungarian maxim: you can tell that a tale is going to be a "tall" one when the narrator starts out by sneezing.

 

[arildno]

Here's a few Norwegian pieces:
Duration given in (minutes:seconds)

Ole Bull (1810-80)
(A dairy maid's Sunday) (2:59)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXqnLooMLO0&feature=related
Christian Sinding (1856-1941)
"Rustle in Spring" (2:24)


Rikard Nordraak (1842-66)
"Purpose" (1:39)

Nordraak was the composer of the Norwegian National Anthem.

Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935):
"Entry March of the Boyars" (5:31)


Edvard Fliflet Bræin (1924-1976)
"Out towards the Sea" (2:45)


Harald Sæverud (1897-1992)
"Rondo Amoroso" (5:27) (originally composed for solo piano)

"Ballad of Revolt" (4:22) (originally for solo piano, arranged for His Majesty's Guard, by Alf Blyverket)

The Ballad of Revolt was written in 1942, born of the frustration of the German occupation of Norway, and is Sæverud's tribute to those who were fighting them.Johan Svendsen (1840-1911)
Festival Polonaise

This is the polonaise of choice for Norwegians at parties supposed to do polonaises.

Fartein Valen (1887-1952)
"Churchyard by the sea" (9:55)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YeJa_TnB0M&feature=related
"Ave Maria" (6:58)

Fartein Valen is ranked as one of the pioneering modernists, along with SchoenbergGeirr Tveitt (1908-82)
"Welcome with Honor" (3:35)

 

[SW VandeCarr]

Here's a few Norwegian pieces:
Duration given in (minutes:seconds)

You list eight Norwegian composers and leave out Edvard Grieg?

 

[arildno]

You list eight Norwegian composers and leave out Edvard Grieg?

Yes.
Because everybody has heard of him, and probably heard music by him.
I wanted to present a few others.

But here's one by him as well, since you ask for it.

His "Funeral March" tribute to his cousin and fellow composer Rikard Nordraak:

 

[SW VandeCarr]

Yes.
Because everybody has heard of him, and probably heard music by him.
I wanted to present a few others.

The OP said he was new to classical music, so it's possible that he hasn't heard of him. Possibly he's heard the opening lines of the Piano Concerto in A Minor but doesn't know who wrote it. In any case, I won't report you to your king for this shocking omission.

 

[arildno]

The OP said he was new to classical music, so it's possible that he hasn't heard of him. Possibly he's heard the opening lines of Piano Concerto in A Minor but doesn't know who wrote it. In any case, I won't report you to your king for this shocking omission.

As a redemptive measure, I post one of his most characteristic folk music inspired songs, "Blueberry Slope":


It's about finding a hillside where a lot of blueberries grow.

 

[Radrook]

First I'm musician. I play the guitar and do enjoy playing some classical music such as Recuerdos de Alhambra and Romansa. However, as in the visual and all other arts, I like some and I hate some. Actually, to say that one likes a certain genre without reservations is hyperbole at best.

 

[books&music!]

if you like classical music try Ravel's Bolero. its kind of long, (14 minutes) but it is my favorite.