Any classical music lovers?

[Horatio Parker]

I discovered classical music nearly 20 years ago and soon realised I liked 18th century music the best of all. All those Bach fugues and counterpoint. And Mozart, Haydn & Beethoven.

As for 20th century music... call me a Philistine but I often can't tell the difference between the tuning up at the start and the actual proper music. Some of it sounds like what you'd get if you threw an orchestra off a cliff. Give us a tune (please!!!)

That's what I like about Bartok, to be honest... but it's because every so often, after several frenzied minutes of angular dissonance, he slips in the most lyrical, tonal, and melodious passage you've ever heard, and it packs that much more of a punch because it's so unexpected. If the entire piece is an orchestra falling off a cliff, I'm with you, it's hard to get through it.

I like those contrasts, too. It's one of things I love about Ives. Sometimes complete sentimentalism, sometimes complete nihilism. He even at times combines the two. This movement from the first piano sonata is based on a hymn, What a Friend I Have In Jesus, but as played by a demented free jazz person like Cecil Taylor...only composed in 1910.

 

[Bomb#20]

... I've never heard any Smetana. ...

You probably have without knowing it. He's kind of a two-hit wonder -- The Bartered Bride and My Homeland -- and those get excerpted all the time. Most of his other works are rarely performed outside the Czech Republic.

 

[MarkW]

... I've never heard any Smetana. ...

You probably have without knowing it. He's kind of a two-hit wonder -- The Bartered Bride and My Homeland -- and those get excerpted all the time. Most of his other works are rarely performed outside the Czech Republic.

Just for example, the very first Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon, "Fast and Furry-ous," used the Dance of the Comedians from Smetana's The Bartered Bride as the main musical theme. It was also briefly quoted in some of the other Road Runner/Coyote cartoons.

 

[MarkW]

An excellent choice. Along with his operas, Mozart's last 8-10 piano concertos (out of about 27) are quite possibly his greatest musical accomplishments. Only a handful of other composers--Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, perhaps 2 or 3 others, have reached similar heights with the piano concerto.

 

[Thomas II]

An excellent choice. Along with his operas, Mozart's last 8-10 piano concertos (out of about 27) are quite possibly his greatest musical accomplishments. Only a handful of other composers--Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, perhaps 2 or 3 others, have reached similar heights with the piano concerto.

Yes, but also I picked this video in particular because of Yeol Eum Son. Her rendition is impeccable and her emotions sincere. She got me.

 

[Horatio Parker]

... I've never heard any Smetana. ...

You probably have without knowing it. He's kind of a two-hit wonder -- The Bartered Bride and My Homeland -- and those get excerpted all the time. Most of his other works are rarely performed outside the Czech Republic.

Ok, kinda like Khachaturians Sabre Dance.

And, come to think, I remember the Moldau from college. The title, anyway.

 

[Achwienichtig]

My favorite composers, in no particular order:

Johann Sebastian Bach (The granddaddy of them all. Literally, he had 20 children. 10 of them even survived.)
Sylvius Leopold Weiss (A baroque lutenist and friend of Bach)
John Hebdon (An obscure English Baroque composer. Only 12 of his works remain.)
Astor Piazzolla (The master of Tango Nuevo)
Andrew York (Classical guitarist with lots of jazz influence)
Antonio Vivaldi (So much more to his work than the four seasons. I enjoy his bassoon concerti the most)
Domenico Scarlatti (Italian baroque harpsichordist)
François Couperin (French baroque harpsichordist)
Philip Glass (Tied for the best minimalist)
John Adams (Tied for the best minimalist)
Jaen Sibelius (I never go to listen to his music, but if it comes on NPR I can't change the station till it's over.)
Maurice Ravel (Ditto)
Antonin Dvorak (Double ditto)
Camille Saint-Saens (Triple ditto)

My favorite classical performers, in order:

Glenn Gould (piano)
Hillary Hahn (violin)
John Williams (the guitarist, not the composer)
David Russell (guitar)
Yehudi Menuhin (violin)



Lists may be updated as I think of others

 

[Horatio Parker]

My favorite composers, in no particular order:

Johann Sebastian Bach (The granddaddy of them all. Literally, he had 20 children. 10 of them even survived.)
Sylvius Leopold Weiss (A baroque lutenist and friend of Bach)
John Hebdon (An obscure English Baroque composer. Only 12 of his works remain.)
Astor Piazzolla (The master of Tango Nuevo)
Andrew York (Classical guitarist with lots of jazz influence)
Antonio Vivaldi (So much more to his work than the four seasons. I enjoy his bassoon concerti the most)
Domenico Scarlatti (Italian baroque harpsichordist)
François Couperin (French baroque harpsichordist)
Philip Glass (Tied for the best minimalist)
John Adams (Tied for the best minimalist)
Jaen Sibelius (I never go to listen to his music, but if it comes on NPR I can't change the station till it's over.)
Maurice Ravel (Ditto)
Antonin Dvorak (Double ditto)
Camille Saint-Saens (Triple ditto)

My favorite classical performers, in order:

Glenn Gould (piano)
Hillary Hahn (violin)
John Williams (the guitarist, not the composer)
David Russell (guitar)
Yehudi Menuhin (violin)



Lists may be updated as I think of others

We saw Hilary Hahn at Town Hall a couple of years ago. Amazing performance.

If you like Glenn Gould playing Bach, you might want to try Rosalyn Tureck. She was one of the predominant Bach players before GG came along. Lots of her stuff on YouTube.

 

[Achwienichtig]

We saw Hilary Hahn at Town Hall a couple of years ago. Amazing performance.

If you like Glenn Gould playing Bach, you might want to try Rosalyn Tureck. She was one of the predominant Bach players before GG came along. Lots of her stuff on YouTube.

I will have to look Rosalyn Tureck up. Can't say I've heard of her.

I got to see Hilary Hahn myself last year. She's such an amazing player. She even made Schoenberg sound good! There's really no comparing the sound of a live performance with an audio file. Live is so much better. She can make that violin sing!

 

[Thomas II]

 

[Thomas II]

 

[Horatio Parker]

We saw Hilary Hahn at Town Hall a couple of years ago. Amazing performance.

If you like Glenn Gould playing Bach, you might want to try Rosalyn Tureck. She was one of the predominant Bach players before GG came along. Lots of her stuff on YouTube.

I will have to look Rosalyn Tureck up. Can't say I've heard of her.

I got to see Hilary Hahn myself last year. She's such an amazing player. She even made Schoenberg sound good! There's really no comparing the sound of a live performance with an audio file. Live is so much better. She can make that violin sing!

I think Schoenberg is among the more approachable modern composers, more so than say Elliott Carter(I do like Carter's Concerto for Orchestra), certainly more than Stockhausen or Boulez. Schoenberg never lost his romantic streak. Webern was more modern in certain ways.

I agree live is far better. I was curious about Orfeo, the oldest opera in the standard repertoire. After we bought tickets, I looked at some YouTube clips and was prepared to be disappointed. But the concert was amazing. Some things just don't translate to video well.

 

[PyramidHead]

Philip Glass (Tied for the best minimalist)
John Adams (Tied for the best minimalist)

Any love for Steve Reich? I've always found Glass too repetitive and emotionless (though I love his Symphony No. 3), and Adams too meandering and emotional (though I love his Phrygian Gates).

 

[Achwienichtig]

Any love for Steve Reich? I've always found Glass too repetitive and emotionless (though I love his Symphony No. 3), and Adams too meandering and emotional (though I love his Phrygian Gates).

I haven't heard a lot of Reich's music. Any particular pieces you would recommend?

Yes, Glass can be repetitive, but he's great to listen to while doing repetitive work, like cleaning the kitchen (which is usually when I listen to him). I'm a huge fan of Adam's Chairman Dances, but that's probably because I was brainwashed with years of playing Civ IV.

 

[Achwienichtig]

I just found this. I think some of you will appreciate it.

 

[PyramidHead]

Any love for Steve Reich? I've always found Glass too repetitive and emotionless (though I love his Symphony No. 3), and Adams too meandering and emotional (though I love his Phrygian Gates).

I haven't heard a lot of Reich's music. Any particular pieces you would recommend?

Yes, Glass can be repetitive, but he's great to listen to while doing repetitive work, like cleaning the kitchen (which is usually when I listen to him). I'm a huge fan of Adam's Chairman Dances, but that's probably because I was brainwashed with years of playing Civ IV.

Minimalist composers all have their toolbox of techniques, and Steve Reich's initial claim to fame was his "phasing" idea. Basically, two solo instruments play the exact same melody over and over, with one playing it a millisecond slower or faster. As they drift in and out of sync they create new melodies.

Personally, Reich's phasing pieces do nothing for me. I prefer his later stuff. New York Counterpoint, Music for 18 Musicians, Eight Lines, all those are good.

One thing he does that I have never heard anybody do is transcribe conversation to pitch. So, he'll interview a bunch of people about their experiences growing up during World War II, take snippets of the dialogue, and use the natural up-and-down inflections of their speaking voices to create all the melodic and rhythmic material. This became a piece called Different Trains.



Reich later used the same technique in Three Tales, which includes a sampled Richard Dawkins saying "we and all other animals are machines created by our genes" over and over again... worth a listen for that reason alone.

 

[Horatio Parker]

Philip Glass (Tied for the best minimalist)
John Adams (Tied for the best minimalist)

Any love for Steve Reich? I've always found Glass too repetitive and emotionless (though I love his Symphony No. 3), and Adams too meandering and emotional (though I love his Phrygian Gates).

We saw "Two Boys" at the Met. Great music and orchestrations, uninteresting vocal writing.

Other than "New Sounds" on wnyc (highly recommend btw), I don't listen much to minimalists. I don't dislike it, I just don't feel the urge to revisit pieces, as if one were as good as another. Dunno why.

When I was studying music in college, Elliott Carter ruled the roost. Atonality, serialism, complex borrowed subdivisions or alternate notation were considered good. Minimalism would've been a breath of fresh air...

 

[4321lynx]

I'd still like to find a nice book that strings a narrative through classical music, because I don't feel like I've been able to get a handle on it yet.

That said, I especially like solo piano and string quartets, more solo piano recently. Have listened to many youtube videos of Martha Argerich lately. I really like this one:



And when a classical show comes to town, which is fairly often, I sometimes try to make it out.

Try Bacharach & Pearce Musical Companion for a comprehensive treatment (Last edition 1977 but so what?, the music is even older) And it is cheap at: -- http://www.amazon.ca/Musical-Companion-Alfred-Louis-Bacharach/dp/0575022639

For individual composers, if you're not a musician and want to know what is going on with each and how and why, you can't beat the Unlocking the Masters series. Look for those books authored by David Hurwitz. The most recent ones are by other writers, I have only read and used the Beethoven one by Bell Young and found it much more indigestible than the Hurwitz ones.

http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&key...qmt=p&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_19nte34u9x_p

 

[MarkW]

If you like Bartok, you might enjoy Smetena and Dvorak. If you like strings, I recommend Janos Starker playing Bach's solo Cello sonatas. He has multiple recordings of them over the years, but I like the latest one best.

Dvorak is one of my favorites; he had a tremendous gift for melody and wrote some of the most listenable music ever. I consistently find even his lesser works, like the Slavonic Rhapsodies that I am listening to this afternoon, to be the sort of music I can listen to repeatedly and never stop enjoying.

 

[Draconis]

I've been listening to late Haydn symphonies - Paris & London - and also Steve Reich. I wonder why nothing between them? There's quite a lot.