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Classical music challenge: convince me.

#81
The key with classical - like any other genre - find stuff you like and listen to that mostly, then branch out a bit at a time by trying other stuff to see if it matches your current or developing tastes. Here’s a few faves of mine...

Uplifting - Holst St Paul’s Suite


Powerful/emotional (inspired by the loss of life in WW1) - Elgar Cello Concerto


Just totally wonderful (evoking each season in music) - Vivaldi The Four Seasons (my personal favourite recording)


Country farming life in the mountains 100 years ago (really soothing) - Copland Appalachian Spring


Some jazz influenced classical... Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Copland’s Clarinet concerto




Romantic - Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2


Romantic (and some great melodies and harmonies) - Beethoven’s 6th Symphony (Pastoral)


Shredding on a piano based on shredding on a violin! - Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini


Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos 1-6 - just really, really beautiful and uplifting


And don’t underestimate orchestral film scores as a way in to classical style music - especially John Williams or more recently Michael a Giacchino. Here’s where I reckon JW got inspiration for a load of the Star Wars soundtracks from...
https://youtu.be/4mFkWWu5Cts
 
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#85
Wow! I went to bed and listened to Pachelbel, Barber and Beethoven’s 7th. Loved the first 2 but not the Beethoven. Wake up and there are 4 more pages of suggestions. And this is why I started the thread:

I’ve been around classical and have heard a fair bit without actively going out of my way to listen to it. So many of the suggestions I already know. I also know that I like a lot of more modern stuff (Nyman, Wim Mertens, Barber) and others who I’ve discovered through films (e.g Satie). But I draw a blank when it comes to Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. I know I prefer piano and/or strings to choral pieces. My problem is navigating the seemingly endless mass of options. It’s not like any other genre where there are a handful of great bands and then a few lesser bands all with a short discography of one-off studio recordings. In classical it’s, this composer with this conductor and that orchestra but not that recording this one. So Beethoven composed 240 works. Multiply that by recorded performances and you have literally thousands, if not, tens of thousands of pieces to choose from. Then there is the name of some pieces in English or the original language or the number (but is it a unique number?). There have been times when I’ve been looking up recommendations in Apple Music and the title is so long that the important bit (name or number) is omitted. How is a newbie like me supposed to understand how to find the right piece. It all feels so elitist and inaccessible. Yes, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but then I am trying to understand a genre you couldn’t completely understand in a lifetime. My personality type is INTP which means that I like to understand the big picture, how everything fits together and relates. That’s clearly not possible with classical without devoting years to it. That’s why I suggested breaking it down in to moods. So, @Ultradust I’ve copied your great list into my notes. Once I’ve worked through the 7 hours 22 minutes playlist I’ve compiled thanks to all of your suggestions, I’ll get going on that too.
There were two mentions of Bach as maths. I like the sound of that. I know there are Bach Tocatta books for bass. So I’ll probably explore that as well. If anyone has an idiots guide to Mozart, I’m listening...
 
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#88
I’ve been dipping my toes in over the years:

I do like Carmen and I’ve seen it both as an opera and a modern ballet. I’ve seen a string quartet and Nigel Kennedy live. Kennedy was impressive but seemed to be going through the motions a bit (I think it was the end of a long tour in 95 or 96). I also wasn’t convinced by his Hendrix interpretations. And of course I saw Fantasia as a kid at the cinema. It gave me nightmares!
 
#90
I think there was a famous album out in the 70s in the UK called the Enigma Variations or something that had this. I think it was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brother (cellist) IIRC.

*Correction* it was just called variations and was Lloyd Webber playing Paganini
 
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#91
I’m on Faure. His Pavane Op50 opening bars remind me of Genesis circa Selling England. I know Tony Banks was very much a classical influenced composer, so it’s no surprise. His education at Charterhouse school would have been full of classical music.
 
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#93
Yonni said:
As a European (born just outside London), classical music was all around me as a kid. Many of the rock bands I grew up listening to have stated that they’re influenced by classical. I have pretty diverse tastes now but as teenager I was very much a Rush, early Genesis, Yes, Floyd, Crimson, Zappa fan. I tried on occasion to listen to classical but never knew where to start and inevitably it didn’t move me like rock did. So what am I missing? Do I have no soul??

I was watching a German comedy on Netflix where a chauffeur chose music for the car depending on the mood of the meeting his boss had just had. That’s what I want: music to capture my mood. So, your challenge is to introduce us to classical music by mood. For example:
Sad strings, listen to...
Powerful and Angry = ...

Over to you
Click to expand...

Rimsky-Korsakoff
Scheherezade

Ravel
Mother goose suite

Bach
Cello suites, Goldberg variations, solo violin partitas, flute sonatas

Wagner
Prelude to act I Lohengrin
 
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#95
Yonni said:
I think there was a famous album out in the 70s in the UK called the Enigma Variations or something that had this. I think it was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brother (cellist) IIRC.

*Correction* it was just called variations and was Lloyd Webber playing Paganini
Click to expand...
Variations by Andrew and Julian Lloyd Webber... better known as The Theme to The South Bank Show - based on the same Paganini tune that Rachmaninov used for his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (see my post above). The band on that album backing JLW is pretty stunning and included both Rod Argent and Don Airey on keys, Jon Heisman (RIP) on drums, Barbara Thompson on sax and flute and Gary Moore (yes - THAT Gary Moore) on guitar!

 
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#96
Yonni said:
My personality type is INTP which means that I like to understand the big picture, how everything fits together and relates. That’s clearly not possible with classical without devoting years to it.
Click to expand...
Since you’re in the Uk and have access to BBC Sounds/iPlayer you could do a lot worse than dipping into a Radio 3 podcast called The Listening Service which is always a fascinating 30 minutes whether or not you think you might be specifically interested in that week’s particular topic. Really, really engaging.

The presenter, Tom Service, always makes it accessible and interesting and the range of topics is diverse from things like delving into a specific composer’s works or why different conductors make such a difference to the same pieces to what is virtuosity, earworms or how does improvisation work to the history of synths and electronic music, why we’re addicted to bass, how composers have evoked the sea/space or Prog Rock - brilliant or a load of pretentious tosh...



BBC Radio 3 - The Listening Service
Why are we all addicted to bass? - video short extracted from the episode audio... BBC Radio 3 - The Listening Service, Why is music addicted to bass?, Why are we all addicted to bass?

How do you start a piece of music? - video short...
BBC Radio 3 - The Listening Service, Beginnings, How do you start a piece of music?

Why does music move us so deeply? - video short...
BBC Radio 3 - The Listening Service, Why does music move us?, Why does music move us so deeply?
 
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#98
Most of the way through my playlist, only Peer Gynt and Brahms no3 to go. So far I’ve enjoyed most of it. Holst was how I remember it: I like Mars and Venus but not much else. Wagner wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. Some I liked and I’ve kept in my playlist. Debussy, Liszt, Bach, Faure and Handel all been good so far. Slow strings and fast piano seem to be a winner for me.
 
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