I am clueless when it comes to classical music. I know I like it, and can even name a few specific pieces that I like, but the whole 10,000+ different versions of the same piece kind of eludes me. How am I to know which version is to my liking? I really don't want to have to buy 10 versions of The Four Seasons before I find the best one.
So, if there's anybody around here who has a title or two that's dazzling, I want to hear about it.
Build my classical collection
Build my classical collection
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
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Who Shot Sam?
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martinfoyle
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Your best bet is to go old school and go to a record shop/store and ask advice from an asistant in the classical department. There are plenty of quality budget labels like Naxos that provide inexpensive sampler cds to whet your appetite before you go for the box sets. Keep an eye on remastering details for old recordings, they have gotten a lot better in recent years. Enjoy, there's a vast world of stuff waiting for you.
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Who Shot Sam?
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Here's a list of ten recordings/sets I think are pretty indispensable:
1. Bruno Walter's Beethoven Symphonies (Columbia) - you can't go wrong with any of them but #3, the Eroica, is my fave. These used to be available as a cheapie box set and still may be.
2. Any of Artur Rubinstein's Chopin recordings on RCA, maybe the Nocturnes first. Unsurpassed.
3. Bach's Cello Suites - Lots of great recordings here too - Rostropovich (RIP), Casals, Yo-Yo Ma
4. A bit of Mahler, maybe his Symphony #1, which is a nice way to dip your toe in the water. Bernstein's 1980s Deutsche Grammofon recording is pretty damn impressive. Sir John Barbirolli's recording of Symphony #5 with the Philharmonia Orchestra on EMI is also very special.
5. Mozart - Karl Böhm's set of the late symphonies on DG is excellent. I also love the Clarinet Concerto. David Shifrin's Delos recording is my favorite - includes the Clarinet Quintet as well.
6. Schubert - Winterreise is probably one of the most beautiful collections of songs ever written. Great stuff for a cold lonely day. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's old DG recording with Gerald Moore on piano is marvelous. More recently Ian Bostridge did a great rendition on EMI.
7. Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninov - The RCA disc with Van Cliburn playing Tchaikovsky's piano concerto #1 and Rachmaninov's #2 is pretty majestic. Fairly bombastic stuff, but there's a place for that.
8. Debussy - Preludes for Piano. The recording I have and love is by Paul Jacobs on Nonesuch, but that may be OOP. Pascal Rogé, the French pianist, is excellent with this sort of repertoire - Debussy, Fauré, Ravel.
9. Corelli - Concerti Grossi. From this era, Vivaldi's Four Seasons gets all the attention, but there's much more to chew on in Corelli's music and it's more satisfying over the long term. The Trevor Pinnock recording on DG Archiv is cheap and very good.
10. Brahms - His symphonies and concertos have never really done much for me, but I adore his chamber music, the string sextets especially. The Raphael Ensemble recording on Hyperion is sublime, and there are a couple of other good ones out there as well.
I'm sure I've left out something big. In any case, you can't go wrong with any of these IMO.
1. Bruno Walter's Beethoven Symphonies (Columbia) - you can't go wrong with any of them but #3, the Eroica, is my fave. These used to be available as a cheapie box set and still may be.
2. Any of Artur Rubinstein's Chopin recordings on RCA, maybe the Nocturnes first. Unsurpassed.
3. Bach's Cello Suites - Lots of great recordings here too - Rostropovich (RIP), Casals, Yo-Yo Ma
4. A bit of Mahler, maybe his Symphony #1, which is a nice way to dip your toe in the water. Bernstein's 1980s Deutsche Grammofon recording is pretty damn impressive. Sir John Barbirolli's recording of Symphony #5 with the Philharmonia Orchestra on EMI is also very special.
5. Mozart - Karl Böhm's set of the late symphonies on DG is excellent. I also love the Clarinet Concerto. David Shifrin's Delos recording is my favorite - includes the Clarinet Quintet as well.
6. Schubert - Winterreise is probably one of the most beautiful collections of songs ever written. Great stuff for a cold lonely day. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's old DG recording with Gerald Moore on piano is marvelous. More recently Ian Bostridge did a great rendition on EMI.
7. Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninov - The RCA disc with Van Cliburn playing Tchaikovsky's piano concerto #1 and Rachmaninov's #2 is pretty majestic. Fairly bombastic stuff, but there's a place for that.
8. Debussy - Preludes for Piano. The recording I have and love is by Paul Jacobs on Nonesuch, but that may be OOP. Pascal Rogé, the French pianist, is excellent with this sort of repertoire - Debussy, Fauré, Ravel.
9. Corelli - Concerti Grossi. From this era, Vivaldi's Four Seasons gets all the attention, but there's much more to chew on in Corelli's music and it's more satisfying over the long term. The Trevor Pinnock recording on DG Archiv is cheap and very good.
10. Brahms - His symphonies and concertos have never really done much for me, but I adore his chamber music, the string sextets especially. The Raphael Ensemble recording on Hyperion is sublime, and there are a couple of other good ones out there as well.
I'm sure I've left out something big. In any case, you can't go wrong with any of these IMO.
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Emotional Toothpaste
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I used to collect "CBS Great Performances" on tape. Basically, it was a series of noted symphonies/conductors and soloists doing popular works. Might be a good place to start. Not sure if these are still available. Local libraries usually have pretty decent collections. I used to ride my bike to the local university listening library and check out different things, listen to it in the lab with headphones and if I liked it, I'd slip a blank Maxell XLII 90 minute tape out of my pocket and dupe a copy right there on their own equipment. Yes, my misspent youth was as a geek.
WSS has a good suggestion -- decide what kind of classical you like helps to narrow it down a bit. You mentioned Vivaldi. If you like that -- explore other Baroque period composers, for example Bach has some great string quartet stuff. So you can break it down by periods: classical, baroque, romantic, and explore it that way too. Or maybe you prefer symphonic works over quieter string quartets, or concertos more than operas. It is a HUGE world of music waiting for you.
Mozart - you might laugh, but the Amadeus soundtrack really got me started into a bunch of different Mozart works.
WSS has a good suggestion -- decide what kind of classical you like helps to narrow it down a bit. You mentioned Vivaldi. If you like that -- explore other Baroque period composers, for example Bach has some great string quartet stuff. So you can break it down by periods: classical, baroque, romantic, and explore it that way too. Or maybe you prefer symphonic works over quieter string quartets, or concertos more than operas. It is a HUGE world of music waiting for you.
Mozart - you might laugh, but the Amadeus soundtrack really got me started into a bunch of different Mozart works.
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Emotional Toothpaste
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Otis Westinghouse
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I'm moderately knowledgeable on classical. In my 20s when I stopped buying a lot of rock/pop artists I'd previously been into, I got very into classical stuff instead, fuelled by having a Berlin flatmate who spent all day playing Chopin on the piano, and going to the Philharmonie on cheap tickets quite a lot. I also paid a fucking fortune to see Horowitz, and then was given a free ticket to see him in Hamburg too by flatmate's rich mum. That would have to be the highpoint of my concert-going. Incredible to see such a master in action with the lightest and sweetest of touches.
WSS's list is great (and ANY Bach is wonderful, generally). Contains a lot of my faves, although Brahms chamber/sextets are unknown to me.
Other faves of mine are:
Bach - Goldberg Variations (your fellow countrman Glenn Gould recorded it twice, Blue, but I have never been able to handle his hummed accompaniment - I'd go for it on a period instrument probably); also the Well-Tempered Clavier (Keith Jarrett did a lovely and very straight recording). Cello suites also a huge, huge fave of mine. Maybe the top of my list. I have a nice Fournier recording, but love Casals too.
Chopin - yes, anything, and yes to Rubinstein, but others are great too. Nocturnes (also great by Arrau), etudes, sonatas, scherzi, preludes. It's all wonderful.
Beethoven - string quartets, especially late ones. Ditto piano sonatas. ditto piano concertos, especially the mind-blowingly beautiful 5th (as in Picnic at Hanging Rock).
Mahler - ditto Symph 5. The adagietto is one of the great sublime things (Death in Venice).
Elgar - let's hear it for an Englander! Cello Concerto (Du Pre - fabulous), Nimrod - two of the most hair-on-end pieces of music ever.
Satie - the famous pieces (gymnopedies, gnossiennes) are wonderful, but there's loads of other great things too.
Allegri's Miserere, preferably from King's College Chapel down the road! Some of the most sublime singing ever? I love lots of choral music (Pallestrina, Orlando, Byrd), but this is tops. More hair on end.
Debussy - Images. I know Benedetti I think, from sometime EC label DG! (They're generaly reliable for everything, though not low price.)
Stravinsky - one of the great modernists in any field. Rite of Spring and Firebird are amazing.
Schubert - I don't generally go for non-choral classical singing, but the Winterreise WSS refers to (first Diskau recording) is incredible. EC is a big fan of this too! He was a genius who died way too young. Like Shelley. The symphonies are great, but the things I love most are his pinao pieces: Impromptus (the one I saw Horowitz play will stay with me forever) and the Wandered - YES!
I generally can't handle opera, but Nessun Dorma gets me every time.
That'll do for now. There's so much more (Bartok, Nielsen, Liszt, classical guitar, e.g. Segovia playing Bach transcriptions on guitar and lots of the Spanish composers).
Most of mine is on tape, hence one reason I hardly listen. And there's so much stuff I'm discovering and rediscovering from recent decades, e.g. current Bowie obsessing, but this has got me dying to listen to all of the above again. Let us know how you get on!
WSS's list is great (and ANY Bach is wonderful, generally). Contains a lot of my faves, although Brahms chamber/sextets are unknown to me.
Other faves of mine are:
Bach - Goldberg Variations (your fellow countrman Glenn Gould recorded it twice, Blue, but I have never been able to handle his hummed accompaniment - I'd go for it on a period instrument probably); also the Well-Tempered Clavier (Keith Jarrett did a lovely and very straight recording). Cello suites also a huge, huge fave of mine. Maybe the top of my list. I have a nice Fournier recording, but love Casals too.
Chopin - yes, anything, and yes to Rubinstein, but others are great too. Nocturnes (also great by Arrau), etudes, sonatas, scherzi, preludes. It's all wonderful.
Beethoven - string quartets, especially late ones. Ditto piano sonatas. ditto piano concertos, especially the mind-blowingly beautiful 5th (as in Picnic at Hanging Rock).
Mahler - ditto Symph 5. The adagietto is one of the great sublime things (Death in Venice).
Elgar - let's hear it for an Englander! Cello Concerto (Du Pre - fabulous), Nimrod - two of the most hair-on-end pieces of music ever.
Satie - the famous pieces (gymnopedies, gnossiennes) are wonderful, but there's loads of other great things too.
Allegri's Miserere, preferably from King's College Chapel down the road! Some of the most sublime singing ever? I love lots of choral music (Pallestrina, Orlando, Byrd), but this is tops. More hair on end.
Debussy - Images. I know Benedetti I think, from sometime EC label DG! (They're generaly reliable for everything, though not low price.)
Stravinsky - one of the great modernists in any field. Rite of Spring and Firebird are amazing.
Schubert - I don't generally go for non-choral classical singing, but the Winterreise WSS refers to (first Diskau recording) is incredible. EC is a big fan of this too! He was a genius who died way too young. Like Shelley. The symphonies are great, but the things I love most are his pinao pieces: Impromptus (the one I saw Horowitz play will stay with me forever) and the Wandered - YES!
I generally can't handle opera, but Nessun Dorma gets me every time.
That'll do for now. There's so much more (Bartok, Nielsen, Liszt, classical guitar, e.g. Segovia playing Bach transcriptions on guitar and lots of the Spanish composers).
Most of mine is on tape, hence one reason I hardly listen. And there's so much stuff I'm discovering and rediscovering from recent decades, e.g. current Bowie obsessing, but this has got me dying to listen to all of the above again. Let us know how you get on!
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Who Shot Sam?
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Good question, Blue. This is a difficult topic, and I struggled with it as well when I started listening to classical music.
First, you have to ask yourself if you want a version of a piece that is closest to the composer's intent. Or are you looking for a version that strikes a chord with you individually? If it's the latter case, then simply start listening. Attend classical performances in your area and if you like what you hear, inquire about cd's by those performers. Listen to the BBC and NPR online.
If you're looking for the most authentic version possible, then it boils down to who you trust. There isn't a "definitive" version of The Four Seasons because Vivaldi hasn't been able to sit there himself and "shape" the performance (at least not for a few centuries anyway).
So.....who should you trust? Another tricky question. The record store where I worked had a classical review book by Jim Svejda, who is a critic and classical music radio show host. I read the whole thing cover to cover. In passing, he unnecessarily ripped on Dylan and McCartney a little bit, and he ripped on EC as well for his Juliet Letters recording. However, overall, Svejda's book didn't cover very much music past the Romantic period. So I knew not to trust his opinions on anything from the 20th Century forward, as he wasn't very open-minded. He seemed like the stereotypical stuffy classical music critic. He was brutally honest and extremely passionate and informative about performances of pieces from the Classical, Baroque, and Romantic periods only. His radio show is called The Record Shelf, and I believe it can be heard online. I can't imagine that he'd play anything that he doesn't truly like.
Overall, the Penguin Guide is a good one. I used that as a starting point as well.
For 20th Century pieces, I'll go with any recording where the composer was also the conductor, i.e. Stravinsky and Bernstein.
Research some conductors too. A piece is ultimately the conductor's vision of what it should be. Some conductors try to be as "authentic" as possible, while others may be a bit more maverick in their approaches. Here's a link to a rather comprehensive list of conductors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conductors
Aaron Copland's "What to Listen for in Music" is a brilliant book about music from a composer's point of view. He also lists his favorite versions of classical pieces.
First, you have to ask yourself if you want a version of a piece that is closest to the composer's intent. Or are you looking for a version that strikes a chord with you individually? If it's the latter case, then simply start listening. Attend classical performances in your area and if you like what you hear, inquire about cd's by those performers. Listen to the BBC and NPR online.
If you're looking for the most authentic version possible, then it boils down to who you trust. There isn't a "definitive" version of The Four Seasons because Vivaldi hasn't been able to sit there himself and "shape" the performance (at least not for a few centuries anyway).
So.....who should you trust? Another tricky question. The record store where I worked had a classical review book by Jim Svejda, who is a critic and classical music radio show host. I read the whole thing cover to cover. In passing, he unnecessarily ripped on Dylan and McCartney a little bit, and he ripped on EC as well for his Juliet Letters recording. However, overall, Svejda's book didn't cover very much music past the Romantic period. So I knew not to trust his opinions on anything from the 20th Century forward, as he wasn't very open-minded. He seemed like the stereotypical stuffy classical music critic. He was brutally honest and extremely passionate and informative about performances of pieces from the Classical, Baroque, and Romantic periods only. His radio show is called The Record Shelf, and I believe it can be heard online. I can't imagine that he'd play anything that he doesn't truly like.
Overall, the Penguin Guide is a good one. I used that as a starting point as well.
For 20th Century pieces, I'll go with any recording where the composer was also the conductor, i.e. Stravinsky and Bernstein.
Research some conductors too. A piece is ultimately the conductor's vision of what it should be. Some conductors try to be as "authentic" as possible, while others may be a bit more maverick in their approaches. Here's a link to a rather comprehensive list of conductors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conductors
Aaron Copland's "What to Listen for in Music" is a brilliant book about music from a composer's point of view. He also lists his favorite versions of classical pieces.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Ravel - Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello in a minor
Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Vivaldi - Mandolin Concerto in C
Beethoven - Fidelio Overture; Piano Sonata No. 8 in c minor; Piano Concerto No. 5
Copland - Appalachian Spring; Rodeo
Bach - any of his organ works
Berlioz - Roman Carnival
Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Chopin - Prelude in c minor, Opus 28, No. 20
Reich - Four Organs
Ives - Three Places in New England
Bartok - any of the string quartets
Berg - Wozzeck
Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Vivaldi - Mandolin Concerto in C
Beethoven - Fidelio Overture; Piano Sonata No. 8 in c minor; Piano Concerto No. 5
Copland - Appalachian Spring; Rodeo
Bach - any of his organ works
Berlioz - Roman Carnival
Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Chopin - Prelude in c minor, Opus 28, No. 20
Reich - Four Organs
Ives - Three Places in New England
Bartok - any of the string quartets
Berg - Wozzeck
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Mechanical Grace
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My knowledge of classical is decent, if spotty. One approach might be to get stuff out of the library, and then when you fall in love with a particular piece, you can seek out the definitive recordings.
Things one can jump right into:
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 (New World)
Mozart: 40th & 41st Symphonies (often on one disc); Requiem
Strauss: (if you're not bothered by the Nazi controversies surround him) Also sprach Zarathustra (yes, played to death but for a reason)
Bach: The Magnificat (choral)
Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (Christmas music, but suitable as long as it's cold outside, imo)
Agree about Bartok, Stravinsky, Copland, Ives-- I do have a modernist bent. It's also fun to get a compilation by period and/or instrument, e.g., these two faves of mine:
As to Opera, I HIGHLY recommend the pretty little book/CD combo series, The Black Dog Opera Library. For $20 or less, you can really learn about one particular work (in this caseThe Marriage of Figaro, which I actually got at Costco for $9.99):
Things one can jump right into:
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 (New World)
Mozart: 40th & 41st Symphonies (often on one disc); Requiem
Strauss: (if you're not bothered by the Nazi controversies surround him) Also sprach Zarathustra (yes, played to death but for a reason)
Bach: The Magnificat (choral)
Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (Christmas music, but suitable as long as it's cold outside, imo)
Agree about Bartok, Stravinsky, Copland, Ives-- I do have a modernist bent. It's also fun to get a compilation by period and/or instrument, e.g., these two faves of mine:
As to Opera, I HIGHLY recommend the pretty little book/CD combo series, The Black Dog Opera Library. For $20 or less, you can really learn about one particular work (in this caseThe Marriage of Figaro, which I actually got at Costco for $9.99):
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Otis Westinghouse
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Saw him live in Barcelona once. Excellent. Really varied repertoire.
I have a 6 CD set of Andres Segovia playing lots of Spanish composers plus lots of Bach and others transcribed for guitar. Gorgeous.
So, Blue, you seem to be absent in your own thread! What do you make of it all, and where will you begin?
I have a 6 CD set of Andres Segovia playing lots of Spanish composers plus lots of Bach and others transcribed for guitar. Gorgeous.
So, Blue, you seem to be absent in your own thread! What do you make of it all, and where will you begin?
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: Build my classical collection
Have dropped several none too subtle hints to various family members that I would love to add to my Glenn Gould library this holiday season-particularly his work with 20th century composers. We will see. I also would not mind some Art Tatum[he is considered 'classical' by me].
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Build my classical collection
Some good excavation of the past going on this week, Chris!
I note my ref above to the late string quartets by LVB, and at last I have got them on CD. Funny thing is I meant to get the Takacs quartet, and for some reason when I started looking on Amazon I confused the very different Alban berg Quarter with Takacs, and ordered thinking it was the latter. Thought the supplier had got it wrong and then realised I'd been wrong all along. It's sounding wonderful, anyway.
Given that I've been obsessing over LVB of late (after Mitsuko U blew my mind on the Emperor concerto (also reffed above), which I have due for arrival tomorrow too, all 5 by her + Concergebouw), I've been studying the chronology a bit. I tend to thing of the Emperor as also being late on, but compared to the 9th Symphony or the string quartets, of course it isn't, it's mid-period, as of course it's Op number indicates. Here's a useful guide:
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Oeuvres/ListOpus.html
I note my ref above to the late string quartets by LVB, and at last I have got them on CD. Funny thing is I meant to get the Takacs quartet, and for some reason when I started looking on Amazon I confused the very different Alban berg Quarter with Takacs, and ordered thinking it was the latter. Thought the supplier had got it wrong and then realised I'd been wrong all along. It's sounding wonderful, anyway.
Given that I've been obsessing over LVB of late (after Mitsuko U blew my mind on the Emperor concerto (also reffed above), which I have due for arrival tomorrow too, all 5 by her + Concergebouw), I've been studying the chronology a bit. I tend to thing of the Emperor as also being late on, but compared to the 9th Symphony or the string quartets, of course it isn't, it's mid-period, as of course it's Op number indicates. Here's a useful guide:
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Oeuvres/ListOpus.html
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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sulky lad
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Re: Build my classical collection
Cosmos wrote amongst others things- any of Bach's organ works.
As a member of a family of 2 church organists, I was pretty much brought up on Bach and my all time favourite track in the whole wide wold - and I really mean this is E. Power Biggs playing the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor BMV 582. The most complete and perfect piece of organ music ( if not any other form) with a magnificent, logical development of a theme. My brother performed this at a recital he gave at Truro Cathedral and dedicated it to me a few days after my birthday and I wept the whole way through.
As Otis also pointed out any recordings by Kings College, Cambridge are pretty superb as far as choral music goes and at this festive time, any recordings of their famous Service of 9 Lessons and Carols is a perfect evocation of what Christmas is about for me. Try and seek out any of the Sir David Wilcocks recording as his managed to take well known carols and take them to a higher plane with his descants and harmonies and the singing is heavenly. The Allegri on Psalm 54 is a piece of heaven on earth and one of the Carol Concerts has the most perfect piece of Bach's Christmas Oratorio - the piece that starts "Break Forth". It ends with a sublime diminuendo that shows perfect vocal control and again it never fails to move me monumentally.
Talking of Sir David Willcocks, I was fortunate enough to sing under him in Exeter Cathedral with a massed choir from Devon in my twenties where we did Verdi's Requiem. Verdi is operatic in the broadest sense, even in his more sacred pieces but the Requiem with Mutti conducting and Pavrotti as the tenor soloist most clearly captured the feeling I have for the piece
I love most 19th Century Russian composers especially Mussorgsky and Borodin besides the obvious Tchaikovsky and Pictures At An Exhibition or Night On A Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky are great. The Ravel orchestration of Pictures is well known but a really good piano version of this (which is what it was written as) is also fantastic. I've got a Sky recording of Eugene (name forgotten) playing this as a piano recital and it makes my hair stand on end. Naxos are great at making great performances available at really low prices and their CD of Pictures along with Borodin's Polovtsian Dances and In The Steppes Of Central Asia is magnificent.
Finally if you like choral work, the Sir Adrian Boult recording of The Messiah by Handel with the unequalled (IMHO) Owen Brannigan as the bass is a fantastic encapsulation of this much loved piece. The great thing about classical music is that everyone does covers and you may know a piece really well and then come across another version and suddenly this turns the piece round entirely for you. And for me - nothing about Mozart moves me in the slightest - i can tolerate his Requiem but he's the one composer I find aurally unattractive in almost all he's done - (just waiting for the replies to this heresy) Good luck, have a good listen if you can before you buy and remember, it's all done to you and your own ears which makes it such a joy !
As a member of a family of 2 church organists, I was pretty much brought up on Bach and my all time favourite track in the whole wide wold - and I really mean this is E. Power Biggs playing the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor BMV 582. The most complete and perfect piece of organ music ( if not any other form) with a magnificent, logical development of a theme. My brother performed this at a recital he gave at Truro Cathedral and dedicated it to me a few days after my birthday and I wept the whole way through.
As Otis also pointed out any recordings by Kings College, Cambridge are pretty superb as far as choral music goes and at this festive time, any recordings of their famous Service of 9 Lessons and Carols is a perfect evocation of what Christmas is about for me. Try and seek out any of the Sir David Wilcocks recording as his managed to take well known carols and take them to a higher plane with his descants and harmonies and the singing is heavenly. The Allegri on Psalm 54 is a piece of heaven on earth and one of the Carol Concerts has the most perfect piece of Bach's Christmas Oratorio - the piece that starts "Break Forth". It ends with a sublime diminuendo that shows perfect vocal control and again it never fails to move me monumentally.
Talking of Sir David Willcocks, I was fortunate enough to sing under him in Exeter Cathedral with a massed choir from Devon in my twenties where we did Verdi's Requiem. Verdi is operatic in the broadest sense, even in his more sacred pieces but the Requiem with Mutti conducting and Pavrotti as the tenor soloist most clearly captured the feeling I have for the piece
I love most 19th Century Russian composers especially Mussorgsky and Borodin besides the obvious Tchaikovsky and Pictures At An Exhibition or Night On A Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky are great. The Ravel orchestration of Pictures is well known but a really good piano version of this (which is what it was written as) is also fantastic. I've got a Sky recording of Eugene (name forgotten) playing this as a piano recital and it makes my hair stand on end. Naxos are great at making great performances available at really low prices and their CD of Pictures along with Borodin's Polovtsian Dances and In The Steppes Of Central Asia is magnificent.
Finally if you like choral work, the Sir Adrian Boult recording of The Messiah by Handel with the unequalled (IMHO) Owen Brannigan as the bass is a fantastic encapsulation of this much loved piece. The great thing about classical music is that everyone does covers and you may know a piece really well and then come across another version and suddenly this turns the piece round entirely for you. And for me - nothing about Mozart moves me in the slightest - i can tolerate his Requiem but he's the one composer I find aurally unattractive in almost all he's done - (just waiting for the replies to this heresy) Good luck, have a good listen if you can before you buy and remember, it's all done to you and your own ears which makes it such a joy !
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Jack of All Parades
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- Location: Where I wish to be
Re: Build my classical collection
Enjoyed that. Have no desire to take you to task over Mozart- to each his own. The organ music you cite is most powerful and has always been a source of constant enjoyment in my household. As to choral works- I have only a small acquaintance and will try your suggestions. My wife and I share a real love for the St. Matthew's Passion and for various cantatas- in fact I am listening to the Coffee one now as I enjoy my Sunday cup and bagel with lox and capers. One of my favorite Holiday recordings is the King's College Chapel Choir at Cambridge performing older carols and secular pieces. I also listen to them without fail, live on Christmas Eve, on my international radio. My favorite service.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
Re: Build my classical collection
I've always vowed I'd make it one year, but I think a commoner like myself would have to queue all night or something unspeakable. The acoustics in there are sublime. I had the good fortune to go to a Sir Frank Kermode memorial service last year - one of the best gigs of 2011! Solo clarinet stuff soaring up to the fan vaulted ceiling. Wow.
Agree with you on Mozart up to a point, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Schubert and many others can melt your insides, but I'm very taken with Uchida playing M's sonatas. She can make anything involving. Watched her on a 2009 Berlin Philharmonie New Year's Day concert just now playing a Mozart piano concerto, and she's just amazing. here she is conducting and playing one. Pure theatre. This is a powerful concerto, for sure:
Agree with you on Mozart up to a point, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Schubert and many others can melt your insides, but I'm very taken with Uchida playing M's sonatas. She can make anything involving. Watched her on a 2009 Berlin Philharmonie New Year's Day concert just now playing a Mozart piano concerto, and she's just amazing. here she is conducting and playing one. Pure theatre. This is a powerful concerto, for sure:
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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redsfan720
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:44 am
- Location: Kentucky
Re: Build my classical collection
A few years ago I was given one of the best gifts ever bestowed upon me: A 10CD box set of the complete choir works of Felix Mendelssohn. I took a specific interest in Romantic music early on when I was studying music in high school and never let go, and I connected with Mendelssohn above others for some reason or another that has since been lost.
The brilliance of the Chamber Choir of Europe on this recording can't be understated, but I've never once listened and thought about the performers. They and conductor Nicol Matt are transparent, and I mean that in the best way possible; they perfectly frame what is some of the most beautiful, artistic, dramatic and all-encompassing music I've heard.
Not a bad deal if you can spare it:
http://www.amazon.com/Mendelssohn-Compl ... B0000BABW4
The brilliance of the Chamber Choir of Europe on this recording can't be understated, but I've never once listened and thought about the performers. They and conductor Nicol Matt are transparent, and I mean that in the best way possible; they perfectly frame what is some of the most beautiful, artistic, dramatic and all-encompassing music I've heard.
Not a bad deal if you can spare it:
http://www.amazon.com/Mendelssohn-Compl ... B0000BABW4
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Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
Re: Build my classical collection
I confess I was unaware of any of his choral music. Must check this out.
I'm loving my Alban Berg Beethoven string quartet. Top quality stuff superbly performed. Only thing is the order of the CDs is not at all chronological. I guess it's arranged to fit them neatly into as few CDs as possible (7). It starts off with 11, then there's 7. CD 2 has 2, and then 16!!! Only solution is to restore the order of them as 1-16 on the iPod, but then again Opus 18, quartets 1-6 was actually composed as 3, 1, 2, 5, 4, 6, or something close to that, and you can trace the development of his composition (from more formulaic Haydnesque to more individually Beethovenian) if you listen to them in that order.
Or maybe that's being too far up one's arse?
I'm loving my Alban Berg Beethoven string quartet. Top quality stuff superbly performed. Only thing is the order of the CDs is not at all chronological. I guess it's arranged to fit them neatly into as few CDs as possible (7). It starts off with 11, then there's 7. CD 2 has 2, and then 16!!! Only solution is to restore the order of them as 1-16 on the iPod, but then again Opus 18, quartets 1-6 was actually composed as 3, 1, 2, 5, 4, 6, or something close to that, and you can trace the development of his composition (from more formulaic Haydnesque to more individually Beethovenian) if you listen to them in that order.
Or maybe that's being too far up one's arse?
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more