• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Do or don't I like classical music? [sugestions?]

Inner Space

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
May 18, 2020
Messages
1,285
Likes
2,938
So many great proposals here. To which I'll add one more, based on experience: when I was a teenager, I was a hardcore rocker, but one night I went to a movie called "The Music Lovers" because I heard it had a lot of nudity in it. Which it did. Plus amazing music. It was a Tchaikovsky biopic and heavily featured his 1st Piano Concerto. Start there, like I did, and see where you end up.
 

JeffS7444

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jul 21, 2019
Messages
2,347
Likes
3,509
A couple of piano pieces that I enjoy hearing include

Erik Satie's Gnossienne 1

Claude Debussy's Arabesque 1
 

MRC01

Major Contributor
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
3,424
Likes
4,030
Location
Pacific Northwest
Oh yeah, for Tchaikovsky's 1st PC, the original Cliburn/Kondrashin is great. The vintage sound was great for its time, not great today but not too bad. The performance is worth it. If you like Tchaikovsky, his 1st VC is also a classical warhorse piece, great to experience for the 1st time.
 

bluefuzz

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 17, 2020
Messages
1,043
Likes
1,774
Have you listened to Schubert's piano trios and the Trout? Brahms trios? If not, they're worth a try, might change your opinion about the period from Mozart to Schonberg. Also Beethoven's string quartets.
Yes, it's mostly solo works and chamber music that I gravitate to from that period. I love 19th Century 'romantic' guitar music, especially when played on the period correct instruments - short scale, gut strung instruments and not modern Segovia-inspired cannons.
 

JustAnandaDourEyedDude

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Apr 29, 2020
Messages
518
Likes
819
Location
USA

JJB70

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 17, 2018
Messages
2,905
Likes
6,148
Location
Singapore
If I was forced to select three pieces of classical music which would be my limit then it would be Bruckner's 8th symphony, Schubert's 9th symphony and Prokofiev's 5th symphony. For the Bruckner my preferred performance is Karajan with the VPO though I have too many recordings and also love Inbal with the RSOF and the remarkable Celibidache recording which is half an hour longer than just about any other. For the Schubert I tend to listen to Bohm and Abbado, and for Prokofiev's 5th I like Jansons with the Leningrad PO.
 

ahofer

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 3, 2019
Messages
4,952
Likes
8,698
Location
New York City
If I was forced to select three pieces of classical music which would be my limit then it would be Bruckner's 8th symphony, Schubert's 9th symphony and Prokofiev's 5th symphony. For the Bruckner my preferred performance is Karajan with the VPO though I have too many recordings and also love Inbal with the RSOF and the remarkable Celibidache recording which is half an hour longer than just about any other. For the Schubert I tend to listen to Bohm and Abbado, and for Prokofiev's 5th I like Jansons with the Leningrad PO.
No Bruckner piece has yet ‘grabbed’ me. Things develop a bit slowly, I find, and I lose interest.

(yeah, I wrote Buckner before, and had the image of the music rolling slowly between my legs…)
 

JJB70

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 17, 2018
Messages
2,905
Likes
6,148
Location
Singapore
No Bruckner piece has yet ‘grabbed’ me. Things develop a bit slowly, I find, and I lose interest.

(yeah, I wrote Buckner before, and had the image of the music rolling slowly between my legs…)

I am a Bruckner obsessive, I find his symphonies to be truly remarkable. One of my weaknesses is accumulating recordings of these works even though I already have too many.
 

ahofer

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 3, 2019
Messages
4,952
Likes
8,698
Location
New York City
I am a Bruckner obsessive, I find his symphonies to be truly remarkable. One of my weaknesses is accumulating recordings of these works even though I already have too many.
Interesting. I’ll have to seek out a live performance. They are relatively rare, though.
 

Robin L

Master Contributor
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
5,213
Likes
7,593
Location
1 mile east of Sleater Kinney Rd
Interesting. I’ll have to seek out a live performance. They are relatively rare, though.
For me, the most powerful, scary Bruckner performance is the 1944 Berlin Philharmonic performance led by Wilhelm Furtwängler of the 9th symphony. It's recorded to very early tape, the sound is tolerable. There is an overhanging sense of doom, not at all surprising considering the time and place. Furtwängler is thought of as one of the great Bruckner conductors, something about this performance must have affected him powerful---he never conducted this work again. Furtwängler also has two extraordinary performances of Bruckner's 8th, one wartime, one postwar, various good performances of the 7th, decent enough performances of the 5th and 4th, a confused torso of the 6th. But that recording of the 9th is in a class all by itself. One senses the agony of the war in this performance and an intensity not found elsewhere:

 

Atanasi

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 8, 2019
Messages
713
Likes
792
  • The performance/recording matters. The same work can be spine-tinglingly brilliant or toe-curlingly dreadful
As I posted earlier, I think Trio Sonnerie and Ensemble 415 performed Corelli's violin sonatas and concerti grossi best. I have compared these with a few other recordings.
Trio Sonnerie has my favorite recording of Corelli's violin sonatas. It is arranged with a great taste.


A couple of picks: No. 7, Preludio: Vivace, No. 10, I Preludio: Adagio

As for Corelli's concerti grossi, Ensemble 415 is my favorite:


A couple of picks: No. 7, I Vivace - Allegro - Adagio, No. 8, III Adagio
 

Robin L

Master Contributor
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
5,213
Likes
7,593
Location
1 mile east of Sleater Kinney Rd

Beethoven 5
I love all movements > all other Beethoven stuff bores me to death.
Waldstein Sonata, #21, op. 53 in C major, Annie Fischer:


Symphony #7, op, 92, in A major, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic Orchestra:

 

bluefuzz

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 17, 2020
Messages
1,043
Likes
1,774
Actually, that sounds rather good. Full marks for enthusiasm ... ;-)

As I said before I would rather listen the Portsmouth Sinfonia than the Berliner Philharmonika, and I'm not joking:


You will notice Brian Eno was famously a member as was Gavin Bryars.
 

bluefuzz

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 17, 2020
Messages
1,043
Likes
1,774
I think Trio Sonnerie and Ensemble 415 performed Corelli's violin sonatas and concerti grossi best.
Yes, that's lovely. It's so important for older music to be performed on appropriate instruments and with appropriate technique.
 
Top Bottom