The Classical Music Recommendation Thread

[Loert 2,511]

 

 

[Loert 2,511]

 

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

 

[Omen II 1,235]

Music really doesn't get any better than the Chaconne from Bach's Partita number 2 in D minor, here played by Francesca Dego.

 

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Recommended to me by my cousin.  Obviously the arrangements are fairly modern, but how wonderful still.

 

 

[publicist 4,643]

 

An archaic japanese mixture of Shostakovich and Poledouris. Fans of 'Gojira' will enjoy it.

[Cerebral Cortex 3,357]

 

 

15 hours ago, publicist said:

An archaic japanese mixture of Shostakovich and Poledouris. Fans of 'Gojira' will enjoy it.

 

Have never heard any of his work before, but I really enjoyed this piece! Thanks for sharing!

 

[karelm 2,913]

 

[publicist 4,643]

 

Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphony (1948) - modernistic milestone, the instrumental color Messiaen has up his sleeve are fascinating.

[Loert 2,511]

 

Leopold Godowsky was a master of "Romantic" counterpoint. He was also one of the best pianists and teachers of his day (his 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes set a new milestone in pianistic virtuosity), made more remarkable by the fact that he himself was virtually self-taught.

[karelm 2,913]

I thought this was a very beautiful presentation of RVW's Tallis Fantasia which I'm sure has already been mentioned.

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Sublime, that one.  Perfect acoustics. 

[publicist 4,643]

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Cheers for finding and posting this.

[publicist 4,643]

It's very much the expected soothing Horner brass sound of the APOLLO 13-onwards phase with the dash of KRULL/ST II he started to re-discover in his last years. No great shakes but like the other, more british-tinged 'Pas de Deux', it's a very pleasant listen.

[Jilal 569]

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Fabulous piece. 

[Jilal 569]

18 minutes ago, TheWhiteRider said:

Fabulous piece. 

 

Fabulous indeed. I'm very surprised I had never listened to it before until about a week or two ago - it has now become my favorite violin concerto, by far. I have a particular affection for the gorgeously impressionistic, jazzy second movement, but the whole piece is exquisite.

 

In many ways one could argue it's another incarnation of the typical Williams concert work, though. Nearly all of his favored musical locutions are present here - octatonic writing, shimmering sonorities, jazzy, pulsating harmonies for the brass section, the wild octatonic, staccato woodwind figure present in Soundings, etc.

 

It's all executed in a very refreshing manner, nonetheless.

[Loert 2,511]

 

Muzio Clementi - Sonata Op.34, No.2

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

 

[Melange 446]

On 11/06/2016 at 0:43 AM, karelm said:

I thought this was a very beautiful presentation of RVW's Tallis Fantasia which I'm sure has already been mentioned.

 

 

 

Ah that performance.

 

Personally, though I 'wanted' to like it (because the setting is superb), the acoustics of the building seem to overwhelm things at times during the performance and the music gets lost in it all. Bigger isn't always better, in a sense. Going back to my chosen performance of it afterwards, I found that this performance below treats the work better.

 

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I'm becoming less and less tolerant of anything lower than about four seconds of reverb as I get older.  But if my daughters become musicians and choose dry acoustics, I'll support them and love them regardless.

[karelm 2,913]

1 hour ago, Melange said:

 

Ah that performance.

 

Personally, though I 'wanted' to like it (because the setting is superb), the acoustics of the building seem to overwhelm things at times during the performance and the music gets lost in it all. Bigger isn't always better, in a sense. Going back to my chosen performance of it afterwards, I found that this performance below treats the work better.

 

 

 

I personally find the Gothic cathedral setting and seeing the three ensembles as distinct adds to the experience and deepens the connection with the original hymn tune :

 

The TSO version certainly is fine but emphasizes the modern sound and performance practice.   

 

This is is a very fine work.

[Loert 2,511]

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

On ‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 6:44 AM, publicist said:

 

 

Horner looking completely as unnassuming, as ever. I haven't missed that, this past year.

[publicist 4,643]

 

James Newton Howard at his most evocative and musically dynamic. Must have been a release after all those musically undemanding blockbuster scores. Quite unlike his film music, actually (so unlike James Horner's recent pieces).

[Jilal 569]

On 14-6-2016 at 10:28 AM, TheWhiteRider said:

I'm becoming less and less tolerant of anything lower than about four seconds of reverb as I get older.  But if my daughters become musicians and choose dry acoustics, I'll support them and love them regardless.

 

Miking disregarded?

Enjoy this brilliant live recording of Shostakovich's 9th and 5th symphonies, performed by the BSO under the baton of Andris Nelsons, engineered by Shawn Murphy. 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I dunno about miking, I'm starting to say things like "turn down the tree" quite often.  

 

In a few years I'll be recording from across the street.

[nightscape94 965]

5 hours ago, Jilal said:

Enjoy this brilliant live recording of Shostakovich's 9th and 5th symphonies, performed by the BSO under the baton of Andris Nelsons, engineered by Shawn Murphy. 

 

Meh to the entire series so far, pass.  Not impressed at all at the sound quality at all. 

[nightscape94 965]

15 hours ago, publicist said:

 

James Newton Howard at his most evocative and musically dynamic. Must have been a release after all those musically undemanding blockbuster scores. Quite unlike his film music, actually (so unlike James Horner's recent pieces).

 

Some good stuff in there.

 

I just realized why I liked the tone of the soloist.  The violinist, James Ehnes, was the same performer who played Williams' Violin Concerto last month when I saw it. 

[Loert 2,511]

 

[Jilal 569]

Enjoy. Henri Dutilleux's lovely concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Call me a lunatic, but Dutilleux's musical language seems to slightly resemble that of John Williams. Both are very individualistic composers with notable jazz influences, the latter lending their harmonic vocabulary a certain distinguished lyrical quality. On top of that, Henri thought of this concerto as resembling the growth of a tree.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

John is definitely a fan!

[A24 4,331]

From what I remember, it's a complex concerto with many notes, a bit showy. But that's what a concerto needs to be, right? Need to listen to it again.

 

 

On 18-6-2016 at 8:37 AM, publicist said:

 

James Newton Howard at his most evocative and musically dynamic. Must have been a release after all those musically undemanding blockbuster scores. Quite unlike his film music, actually (so unlike James Horner's recent pieces).

 

Thanks for posting this. Listening to how the concerto opens, I'm surprised it sounds so traditional (like most violin concertos of the 20th century).

[publicist 4,643]

It could be on a double bill with Williams'es. It's traditionally romantic but also constructed with a lot of musical intellect at play. I honestly wouldn't have thought that JNH would feel inclined to reach for such depths beyond his film music. Makes me actually a bit sad how much functional stuff he churns out for motion pictures (as i usually care about the music with the attached movies a secondary interest at best).

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

JNH knows what he's doing.  Why don't they usually let him then?

[KK 3,307]

One of my first forays into Russian romanticism. Also one of the few pieces where the Dies Irae quotes do it for me. Still moves me today.

 

[Omen II 1,235]

I mentioned in the football thread what a lovely national anthem Iceland has.  Here are a couple of performances, the second purely orchestral by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

 

 

 

The music is by Sveinbjorn Sveinbjornsson.

[nightscape94 965]

On 6/21/2016 at 2:18 PM, KK said:

One of my first forays into Russian romanticism. Also one of the few pieces where the Dies Irae quotes do it for me. Still moves me today.

 

Try his Symphony No. 1 if you're into Dies Irae.  It's tied up into the entire work.

[karelm 2,913]

Poul Ruders Solar Trilogy in an excellent live performance. 

http://www.radio4.nl/gids/2016-06-25/420022/holland-festival-prom

[Loert 2,511]

 

Gerard Grisey: Les espaces acoustiques: Partiels

[karelm 2,913]

A very fine and powerful symphony from a great composer in its finest interpretation (the one that all others are compared to):

 

[Loert 2,511]

Scale practice pays off, folks...

 

 

[Bespin 8,480]

Some early Bach, the imagination of a young musician. I really love those toccatas.

 

Just bought from Amazon.

 

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

 

[Bespin 8,480]

Here goes my series of playlists to (re-)discover J.S. Bach in chronological order.  As you probably already know, for Bach, the BWV catalog don't show the works in chronological order, but rather regroup them by "genre".

 

A little work that was fun do to.

 

Vol. 1 - Imagination of a Young Musician

 

 

Vol. 2- From organs to organs

 

 

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I've been listening to this album of Alfred Newman conducting the music of George Gershwin all afternoon and it's powerful stuff.

 

I'm especially in love with this performance of "Variations on 'I Got Rhythm'":

 

 

But the album is brilliant (only the first 6 tracks are Newman conducting):

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

 

[karelm 2,913]

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I've been an enormous fan of this album for 10 years and it's been a joy to see Johann Johannsson excel in the film composing world in the years since.  The prospect of him potentially composing the Blade Runner sequel is very exciting.  It all starts with IBM 1401, A User's Manual for me though.