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The Classical Music Recommendation Thread


Muad'Dib

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Just discovered this tonight. It's a borderline case as to whether it counts as "classical," but it's pretty frickin' awesome either way. I love the original Reich piece but this is even better. 

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On 6/5/2018 at 6:31 AM, filmmusic said:

Can anyone recommend any piece ofr percussion ONLY (except Varese's Ionisation) for which I could preferably find the sheet music too please?

 

If you accept pianos into the definition, then try Bartok's Sonata for two pianos and percussion:

 

 

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I've got one of those incredibly common classical melodies stuck in my head that get included with children's toys because they're public domain.  Everyone in the world knows it and I just can't place it this morning.  Killing me!

 

UPDATE: It was "Rondo alla Turca" because of course it was.  Just needed my morning coffee to place it.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

I've got one of those incredibly common classical melodies stuck in my head that get included with children's toys because they're public domain.  Everyone in the world knows it and I just can't place it this morning.  Killing me!

 

UPDATE: It was "Rondo alla Turca" because of course it was.  Just needed my morning coffee to place it.

 

That's the out of tune door bell tune at my office... :mellow:

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40 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

That's the out of tune door bell tune at my office... :mellow:

 

I hear it 20 times a day from my 3-year-old daughter's toy "laptop"

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I've become super into Copland's Piano Concerto this year, especially the second movement.  It's brash, jazzy, dissonant, melodic, and just righteously rhythmic and wonderful.

 

The syncopated theme introduced a couple of minutes into that movement is so much fun.  Love this part:

 

 

When the horns blast the melody out at 13:44, and then the whole orchestra builds to a crescendo, the hairs stand up on my neck.

 

I'm pretty obsessed with all eras of Copland, even his late-career dalliances with serialism, but I especially love the bold music he composed in his 20s

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7 minutes ago, Loert said:

Yes! One of my favourite piano concerti. I would love to be able to perform it some day.

 

And I really should have mentioned how transfixing Copland's playing in that performance is.  What a pianist!  Still, I would love to have a recording of him performing the concerto as a young man.

 

Also, I don't want to discount the aching beauty of the first movement.  The contrasts in this work are part of what makes it so awe-inspiring.  When the first movement melody is brought back at the end of the second, it's so gratifying.  Feels like a real journey to get back there.

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Alexander Nemtin's realization of Scriabin's last sketches for his Prefatory Action is a unique piece of music. Effectively a soup of sumptuous harmonies and orchestrations, it lasts a little over two and a half hours yet captures Scriabin's sense of structure and symmetry quite well.

 

After listening to the piece over the past few days I think my favourite section is Tres lent, contemplatif from Part Three: "Transiguration" (1:44:47 - 1:55:00). The floating soprano together with the slow, pensive ostinato create an especially otherwordly atmosphere. And then the big swell in the orchestra towards the end...it's just brilliant!

 

(Btw, for Part One "Universe" I slightly prefer the older analogue recording by Kondrashin which, despite some audible tape damage here or there, brings out the individual instrumental groups in greater detail. The newer Ashkenazy recording I linked above is also great, but more "humid".)

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The inventions holds a great place in my life.  They reminds me my youth, as I played Looping on my Colecovision game station, among others.

 

There are not many good interpretations of them  as they are considered, by many professionnal pianists, as inferior works.

 

They are not.

 

Résultats de recherche d'images pour « fellner bach »

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I heard the original version of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring yesterday, played by a chamber orchestra at St. John's Smith Square in London.  It is longer than the famous orchestral suite with which I suspect many of us are more familiar and dare I say even better for it.

 

It's such an engaging a piece of music with so many good tunes peppered throughout the piece.  I just hope I wasn't humming along!  Here is a recording of the original version.

 

 

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Just now, Omen II said:

I heard the original version of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring yesterday, played by a chamber orchestra at St. John's Smith Square in London.  It is longer than the famous orchestral suite with which I suspect many of us are more familiar and dare I say even better for it.

 

It's such an engaging a piece of music with so many good tunes peppered throughout the piece.  I just hope I wasn't humming along!  Here is a recording of the original version.

 

 

 

The Tilson Thomas recording of the full Appalachian Spring is a personal favorite.  Because I don't live in a musical wonderland like London I have sadly never been able to see a Copland piece performed live.  Some day!

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Yes, we are very lucky.  In fact there is a whole season of concerts at St. John's called Americana '18, including another in a few weeks featuring Copland's Latin American Sketches and Old American Songs, which should be good.  St. John's Smith Square is a baroque former church in Westminster just a stone's throw from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament and they have loads of great concerts there for smaller ensembles.

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13 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

More like early summer here, so I’d reach the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21.  Perfect for the beginning of summer before you tire of the heat and humidity.

 

Can you tell me the perfect temperature and humidyty % to listen to it please.

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Magical and gripping. Recently, I was lucky enough to hear it performed live by Junge Deutsche Philharmonie; what a great experience!

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Rather into Fanny Mendelssohn lately.  Underappreciated composer, who, despite the conditions of her time, was able to still give us some great music like her fantastic Piano Trio in D minor.

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I really enjoy the very interesting and prolific Finnish composer, Kalevi Aho, and this brand new CD of his timpani concerto and piano concerto no. 1.  He was a student of

Einojuhani Rautavaara and I really don't think I've heard a work of his I dislike.  His early music is somewhat like Mahler/Shostakovich but his mid period and after is much more colorful.  His Finnish roots is very clear in much of his music such as Symphony No. 12 which is for orchestra and separate chamber orchestra along with vocalists as a sort of modern version of Richard Strauss's Alpensinfonie.

 

 

I believe he has written more concertos for diverse instruments than anyone else:

  • Violin Concerto No. 1 (1981)
  • Cello Concerto No. 1 (1983–84)
  • Piano Concerto No. 1 (1988–89)
  • Tuba Concerto (2000–01)
  • Piano Concerto No. 2 (for Piano and 20 Strings) (2001–02)
  • Flute Concerto (2002)
  • Concerto for Two Cellos & Orchestra (2003)
  • Bassoon Concerto (2004)
  • Contrabassoon Concerto (2004–05)
  • Double Bass Concerto (2005)
  • Clarinet Concerto (2005)
  • Viola Concerto (for Viola & Chamber Orchestra) (2006)
  • Oboe Concerto (2007)
  • The Bells. Concerto for Saxophone Quartet & Orchestra (2008)
  • Trombone Concerto (2010)
  • Sieidi. Concerto for Percussion & Orchestra (2010)
  • Trumpet Concerto (for Trumpet & Wind Orchestra) (2011)
  • Horn Concerto (for Horn & Chamber Orchestra) (2011)
  • Eight Seasons. Concerto for Theremin & Chamber orchestra (2011)
  • Cello Concerto No. 2 (2013)
  • Double Concerto for Cor Anglais, Harp and Orchestra (2014)
  • Soprano Saxophone Concerto (for Soprano Saxophone & Chamber Orchestra) (2014–15)
  • Timpani Concerto (2015)
  • Tenor Saxophone Concerto (2015)
  • Violin Concerto No. 2 (2015)
  • Accordion Concerto (for Accordion, 20 strings and bassoon) (2015–16)
  • Mearra. Chamber concerto for harp and 13 strings (2016)
  • Double Concerto for Two Bassoons and Orchestra (2016)
  • Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano and Chamber orchestra (2018)
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2 hours ago, Loert said:

 

Very enjoyable piece.

 

I wasn't familiar with this.  Very enjoyable indeed!  Lots of fun.

 

Sounds very much in line with the golden age of symphonic poems a la Saint Saens and Strauss, which I definitely have a soft spot for.

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2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Hamelin's first recording of Alkan's masterpiece:

 

 

 

Wow, I'm so glad to see this on here! This piece essentially catalyzed my love for classical music when I was about 10 years old and gave me a solid reason for pursuing music composition. Alkan is such a uniquely daring and witty composer, and his music is infused with a certain spirit of spontaneity which I tried to recreate in my early composing efforts. In fact, I copied out this entire work some 10 years ago because I was fascinated by Alkan's musical thinking. 

 

And of course, Hamelin is such a fine pianist. I am more familiar with his later recording for the Hyperion label (which, apparently, was one of the ways in which the label attempted to save itself from serious financial troubles) but this is a great recording too.

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6 hours ago, Loert said:

 

Very enjoyable piece.

 

Alfven is cool, this set is certainly worth having:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfvén-Complete-Symphonies-Swedish-Rhapsodies/dp/B001716JR4/

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Luigi Cherubini - Ali Baba Overture

 

This one has quite tickled my fancy.  I'd never heard of this guy, he was quite popular in the 19th century I read.  Doesn't seem like his legacy has lasted to the 21st?  Am I wrong on that?

 

 

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18 hours ago, Loert said:

 

Wow, I'm so glad to see this on here! This piece essentially catalyzed my love for classical music when I was about 10 years old and gave me a reason for seriously pursuing music composition. Alkan is such a uniquely daring and witty composer, and his music is infused with a certain spirit of spontaneity which I tried to recreate in my early composing efforts. In fact, I copied out this entire work some 10 years ago because I was fascinated by Alkan's musical thinking. 

 

And of course, Hamelin is such a fine pianist. I am more familiar with his later recording for the Hyperion label (which, apparently, was one of the ways in which the label attempted to save itself from serious financial troubles) but this is a great recording too.

 

In some ways I like this better than his Hyperion recording. Good job copying out the whole work, btw! Have you checked out Brilliant Classics' relatively new Alkan box? There's some quite good recordings in it!

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16 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Luigi Cherubini - Ali Baba Overture

 

This one has quite tickled my fancy.  I'd never heard of this guy, he was quite popular in the 19th century I read.  Doesn't seem like his legacy has lasted to the 21st?  Am I wrong on that?

 

I'm most familiar with his Requiem - check out the Dies Irae:

 

 

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This morning's listening

 

"Meditation - to the victims of Tsunami 3.11" by Toshio Hosokawa

 

I have to admit this scared the shit out of me.  He's not comforting the victims, he's voicing their horror.

 

8.573733.jpg

 

Having free access to the entire Naxos library through work is a lovely thing

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

This morning's listening

 

"Meditation - to the victims of Tsunami 3.11" by Toshio Hosokawa

 

I have to admit this scared the shit out of me.  He's not comforting the victims, he's voicing their horror.

 

8.573733.jpg

 

Having free access to the entire Naxos library through work is a lovely thing

 

I quite like this composer and will have to check out this disc.  It seems to be new.  Yes, his music is rather full of relentless tension.

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23 minutes ago, karelm said:

 

I quite like this composer and will have to check out this disc.  It seems to be new.  Yes, his music is rather full of relentless tension.

 

I hope you check it out!  The orchestration is fascinating even if it is a bit scary.  Use of percussion is very cool.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I hope you check it out!  The orchestration is fascinating even if it is a bit scary.  Use of percussion is very cool.

This was the work of his that I was referring to.  It is dedicated to the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb so he seems to have a lot of angst in his music and thoughts.

 

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