The Classical Music Recommendation Thread

[Bespin 8,483]

Beethoven in chronological order

 

Vol. 2 - First Academy, April 2nd, 1800

 

 

Vol. 3 - Turn of the Century

 

 

[TownerFan 4,983]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned before in this thread, but I just discovered this beautiful piece by Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson:

 

 

Very lyrical, romantic-tinged music, but written in 2010!  Some passages are almost cinematic in their nature.

[Bespin 8,483]

Beethoven Vol. 04 - Creation of April 5, 1803

 

 

Beethoven - Vol. 05 - The Heroic period

 

 

Beethoven - Vol. 06 - Heroic creation of April 7, 1805
 

 

[Jilal 569]

On 8-8-2016 at 3:18 AM, Sharkus Malarkus said:

Could you list some?

 

Walton!

[karelm 2,913]

I was quite impressed with the intensity and lyricism of this British symphonist, Humphrey Searle (1915-1982).  I must explore more.

 

 

[Kühni 485]

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[Melange 446]

Golden Oldie

 

 

I neve tire of how you are totally groomed for 3 minutes and 20 seconds, for the titan's footstep.

 

Another favourite.............

 

 

I wake up the next morning to this one playing in my head, if I play it too late in the evening.

 

 

[karelm 2,913]

6 hours ago, Kühni said:

What is your favourite version of Respighi's Pines of Rome? I've got the Dutoit/Montreal recording, but my favourite version is the following one (really makes me want to play the timpani and/or bass drum):

 

 

Currently listening to the Maazel/Cleveland recording on YouTube, which also has much going for it.

 

Wow, there is about five people in the audience.  I like Louis Lane (not to be confused with Superman's fling Lois Lane) with Atlanta Symphony and Riccardo Muti Philadelphia (but also Dutoit/Montreal).  None of these compare to hearing it live though.  I heard it with Dudamel/LA Phil at Disney and the freaking organ was at ffff and was so breathtaking when the whole building is vibrating at the end.

 

Here is Louis Lane's:

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Beautiful altered harmonies in the violins in the first variation.

 

 

 

[Bespin 8,483]

I love that album.

 

J.S. Bach - Vol. 14 - Concerti for oboe d'amore
 

 

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

On 8/7/2016 at 9:27 PM, karelm said:

 

Berlioz, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Christopher Young, and Schoenberg off the top of my head.  Ravel is described as "competent" which is not glowing. These were all at least satisfactorily competent but not virtuosic. My point is that poor performance skill is not an impediment to being a composer as long as their is at least some competency. 

 

Unless I'm mistaken, Takemitsu, Saariaho, and Corigliano all had/have no formal performance training.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Adams is a poor pianist, but in youth was a fine clarinetist.  

[Bespin 8,483]

Rough Guide to Bach's Cantatas - A Top 10

 

 

[karelm 2,913]

John Veale's Violin Concerto is exceptionally gorgeous:

 

[Will 2,215]

 

I've fallen in love with this piece -- I've probably listened to it five times tonight -- after hearing some kid play it at my sister's piano recital yesterday. Can anyone recommend any similar pieces? 

[Loert 2,511]

 

11 hours ago, Will said:

I've fallen in love with this piece -- I've probably listened to it five times tonight -- after hearing some kid play it at my sister's piano recital yesterday. Can anyone recommend any similar pieces? 

 

Ha, great piece. Some other pieces you may enjoy (most are harder than Wedding at Troldhaugen):

 

 

(only good recording on YT unfortunately)

 

 

 

 

[karelm 2,913]

Falling somewhere between John Adams and Arvo Part lies Lepo Sumera.  This whole CD is very fine but I especially love Symphony No. 2 with his powerful and chaotic ending.  I find the gradually intensifying ending of that symphony extremely effective.  Reminds me a bit of a modern version of the last movement of Scheherazade in its constant build.  Very unstable and extremely effective.  Like Scheherazade, it is full of tam-tam smashes, harps, and ends with cataclysm in the low brass followed by near silence.  I absolutely love how after the ferocity and that final high B flat on the trumpets, we are left with the most delicate harp that was playing throughout the devastating tumult.  To me, No. 3 has a somewhat sci-fi feel with the overlapping polychords.  An interesting piano+vibraphone mid section followed by extreme stillness in the finale.  A wonderful composer who tragically died way too young.

 

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Unknown to me until now.  Great stuff.

[Loert 2,511]

Bartok's wickedly creative Scherzo from his 4 Orchestral Pieces (composed in 1912, orchestrated in 1921):

 

 

[bollemanneke 3,348]

This has probably been mentioned before too, but I'm currently loving Walton's Crown Imperial march. Unable to include a YouTube link because the eight recordings I found there all made a mess of my favourite part.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

The organ version, or the orchestral one?  Both good.

[Jilal 569]

11 hours ago, loert said:

Bartok's wickedly creative Scherzo from his 4 Orchestral Pieces (composed in 1912, orchestrated in 1921):

 

Have you heard the complete The Miraculous Mandarin? Very fascinating ballet.

 

Also, this!

 

 

The grand finale of the composer's String Quartet No. 4, linked to the first movement in style, approach and energy through the work's arch structure. An insane counterpoint of various scales, harsh sonorities, etc. I fondly remember being fascinated by this piece some years ago, playing it over and over again in bed before falling asleep during school weeks.

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Excellent choice.

[bollemanneke 3,348]

Haven't listened to the organ version yet.

[Bespin 8,483]

Listened to this album two days ago, I liked it very much!

Dvorák: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87; Sonatina in G, Op. 100; Romatic Pieces, Op. 75 - Expanded Edition

Yo-Yo Ma

 

[Kühni 485]

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[karelm 2,913]

2 hours ago, Kühni said:

Recommendation sought for best recording on CD of Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele. Ta mucho!

This is the one I have and I think it's very fine:

https://www.amazon.com/Boito-Mefistofele-Marton-Domingo-Tedesco/dp/B0000026QH/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1472341877&sr=1-8&keywords=boito+mefistofele

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

 

When a psychotic ascetic discovers Youtube. God forbid music post-Webern might convey express colour or atmosphere. He sounds like late Stravinsky without the pithy wit.

 

Quote

musicalidea 3 years ago
The use of hokey percussive ornaments and film-score flourishy gimmicks obscures the substantial harmonic, sound mass and melodic ideas that Mr. Shepherd presents - say in the horn & strings antiphony starting at :58. There is obviously quite a bit of skill up his sleeve & certain samples & aspects of Prevailing Winds constitute what one might call art, but neither skill nor creativity can compensate for poor TASTE. It would be nice to see this reworked with all the Hollywood nonsense removed.

 

Quote

musicalidea 3 years ago

I almost with these "lush" leaning composers & orchestrators would be imprisoned for a few months in a Webernian gulag, just to shake all that schmultzy American cinema sparkle out of their gait. Let us then see them return to society, ideas free to emerge in clarity, un-obscured by dramatic fluff and "effect" music. Bach, not Offenbach!

 

 

Quote

musicalidea 3 years ago

The oboe / vibe duet in the 8:30 neighborhood near the close of II. Seagulls on High have a nice sultry ambiance. But then we are led into the ultra-predictable "on your toes" Presto for the concluding section...with that stupid battery of castanets & klangfarbenmelodie mixed in with cheeso pitz., rainsticks, bells, hammers, Chilean percussive implementa & all manner of tasteless "furious" violin arpeggios--again for sonorous EFFECT. These are the dressings of a theater pit & film work: not ART.

 

To paraphrase Max Bialystok, "They come here, they all come here. How do they find these videos?"

 

 

[karelm 2,913]

Gorgeous French music of love and loss.

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

8 hours ago, Sharkus Malarkus said:

 

When a psychotic ascetic discovers Youtube. God forbid music post-Webern might convey express colour or atmosphere. He sounds like late Stravinsky without the pithy wit.

 

 

 

 

To paraphrase Max Bialystok, "They come here, they all come here. How do they find these videos?"

 

 

 

Perhaps the same guy who frequently makes comments like "What a noisy music!"

[publicist 4,643]

 

[publicist 4,643]

 

[karelm 2,913]

6 hours ago, publicist said:

 

Very distinctive voice.  Thanks for posting.  I'm finding this music very interesting and full of surprises.

[publicist 4,643]

Here's some info on it from All Music:

"Unusual among Roy Harris's music in absolute forms, this symphony has a definite program. It was written during World War II, when patriotic reminders of past struggles and the ideals of America were particularly needed. It was commissioned by the Blue Network for nationwide broadcast. The programmatic content has prompted some derogatory commentary from critics who have often relegated it to an inferior status. However, to many listeners the presence of a noble and specific program gives emotional shape to the work. The movements are prefaced by words from President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. They are: (1) Awakening (Fourscore and seven years ago...). Lincoln's essay on the birth of the nation inspired Harris in this fine symphonic movement, where small melodic ideas come together, assert themselves in a faster section, and unite to emerge into a soaring theme. (2) Conflict (Now we are engaged in a great civil war...). This movement uses two marches: A slow funereal march followed by a savage military one. It seems feasible that the first march is concerned with the tragedy of slavery that brought about the civil war. Harris uses The Caissons and a distorted version of a football fight song to propel the truly frightening musical carnage. (3) Dedication (We are met on a great battlefield of that war ...). This is an eloquent movement, so grandly conceived in a rising and falling arch of emotion that its nine minutes are virtually one single enormous melody. (4) Affirmation (...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...). This is a triple fugue which rises to a soaring optimistic melody for horns and cellos. Exceptional music, which should be a familiar part of the American concert repertoire."

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Itching to hear this Don Davis work in completion.

 

http://www.dondavis.net/media/concert/pain.mp3

 

This one too.

 

http://www.dondavis.net/media/concert/flurry.mp3

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

 

 

 

Seems I'll be conducting John Adams' recent saxophone concerto, as well as my own, next spring.  I would dearly love to include this in the program but it's proving very difficult to make that happen... it's an exhilarating, moving piece.  I'd also like to include Heartwood, either in original form or with the cello solo adapted to tenor sax, which is a project I've been playing with for a few years, but that's also an elusive piece.  Damn publishers.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

On 29/08/2016 at 7:54 PM, publicist said:

 

 

Pure conjecture, but I wonder if John Barry ever heard that second movement (7:03)? It's uncanny.

[karelm 2,913]

20 hours ago, TheWhiteRider said:

Seems I'll be conducting John Adams' recent saxophone concerto, as well as my own, next spring.  I would dearly love to include this in the program but it's proving very difficult to make that happen... it's an exhilarating, moving piece.  I'd also like to include Heartwood, either in original form or with the cello solo adapted to tenor sax, which is a project I've been playing with for a few years, but that's also an elusive piece.  Damn publishers.

 

That's very cool, Grey.  Congratulations!

[Loert 2,511]

A fun little piece. Kodaly's "Háry János" suite, last movement Entrance of the Emperor and His Court:

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

Johan Botha, one of today's greatest heldentenors, has died at only 51.

 

I've had the luck to see him quite a few times at the Vienna State Opera, first in Fidelio and later in various Wagner and Strauss roles. He was a lousy stage actor, but his voice more than made up for that.

 

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Bach is monumental.

 

 

[nightscape94 965]

Indeed!

[Loert 2,511]

My 2nd favourite Chopin piece (after Sonata No.2). I've always adored that section around 14:57. Such exquisite harmonies!

 

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Somewhat proto-Debussy, ain't it?

 

[Loert 2,511]

1 hour ago, TheWhiteRider said:

Somewhat proto-Debussy, ain't it?

 

Now that you mention it, it does remind me of Clair de Lune a bit. It's the same sort of treatment of the bass, combined with the arpeggios.

[karelm 2,913]

Originally concieved as a counterpart to Holst's The Planets, Johan De Meij's Symphony No. 3 "Planet Earth" for electronics, wordless chorus, and orchestra (or in this case the wind band version).

 

 

 

[karelm 2,913]

I am greatly enjoying this new CD of Michael Daugherty from Naxos, http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559798

 

Unfortunately, it is not on Spotify nor youtube yet.  It is very well crafted and melodic modern music all written within the past few years and gorgeously recorded (though I wouldn't mind the organ to be more prominent in "Once upon a Castle").  There are hints of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, John Adams, John Williams, etc. but very distinctively Daugherty with some retro and pop sensibilities.  This is an excellent CD.  Melodic, contemporary, engaging, energetic, vibrant, but with a nod to the traditional too. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

New Daugherty? Excellent! Must have.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]