The Classical Music Recommendation Thread

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

I know what you mean. It has a lightness to it, whereas Handel and even Bach at times has the heavy-handedness that would come to define classical and romantic tradition, particularly in German music.

[KK 3,308]

Agreed with all your points. I'm not all that big a fan of the Baroque era, but Vivaldi is one the few of that era whose music just speaks to me and is much more accessible.

Got some Tavener playing again. I think stress for my chem midterm is getting to me. I'm getting all moody...

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

I saw Koray mention Max Richter way back in this thread. He did a great "recomposition" of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, basically taking each piece and creating a new one based on an element or elements from the original, and in a few cases only slightly altering the original. Worth a listen, I'll see if there are any on Youtube in a moment.

Well, looks like the whole thing is.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6wSqc1bLqPB0Pw5Gr8-dgGKVYzoKww7c

[KK 3,308]

Listening to the Spring movement right now. Interesting. The looped fragments of Vivaldi's original, are they played live or are they literally looped from pre-recordings?

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Certain passage remind somewhat of the B Section from THE FURY's Main Title.

Big fan of Poulenc here.

Wow, I've not heard this before, but the second movement is ridiculously similar to one of the first pieces I wrote.

KK, I think some of it is recorded, and some of it is live aleatory, assuming you mean the Spring 0 movement.

[KK 3,308]

I was referring to the Spring 0 movement. There's some cool stuff there, but it seems the work is just fragments of Vivaldi mixed in there to appeal to modern audiences (some of those familiar progressions...). Not bad though.

Anyways, one of favourites of Part's work:

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

I was there!

Now look, I appreciate some pretty far out stuff. But would anyone care to try and convince me that this isn't total wankery?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3RTNWDTMM

Maybe we can get a little discussion going on post-Boulezian models of the composer as scientist and the artistic merits of works produced thereof.

[Glóin the Dark 1,280]

I was there!

Now that you mention it, I can see a tall pointy hat and staff protruding above the crowd in several shots!

...would anyone care to try and convince me that this isn't total wankery?

I don't understand what's happening in this piece; I don't know how intelligible the principles or processes at work in it would turn out to be on closer acquaintance for someone at my level. In its favour, all I can say is that I really enjoyed the sound of it, on an immediate level, all the way through.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

Ah! Brian Ferneyhough! One of my favourite Youtube commentators (fremsley001) has made it his life's mission to take the piss of Ferneyhough, Finnisy, Emsley and other pseuds.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fremsley001/about

This piece was originally entitled "On hearing Liberace falling over the cliffs at Beachy Head, East Sussex" first performed in Hove. Finnissy went on to compose a series of similar pieces, including "Thomas the Tank Engine Visits the Antiques Road Show at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum" and "My Oh My Look at the Traffic Its Nose to Tail For Miles Looks like an Accident Oh No There's Blood Everywhere (M25 remix)". Eventually these were all brought under the title English Country Tunes.

I heard a similar piece played by drainage workmen on assorted hammers and shovels while stuck in roadworks on the A27 Chichester bypass on 22 July 2005. They appeared to be playing without sheet music, having committed the piece to memory - a staggering achievement - though at one point the foreman shouted to a young lad "Keep up, ye fookin slacker!!", indicative of the immense challenges faced by even these seasoned Ferneyhoughian contrapuntalists.

Ferneyhough writes of "creating a dynamically fertile perspectival multiplicity which would both intensify momentary expression and negate any tendency to dissociate the fragile contingency of local events and larger-scale formal organization from the effortful work involved in traversing (rather, that is, than leaping over) the disturbingly unstable and eruptive landscape of middleground speculation." Pffffhh!! - and there was me thinking his music was just contrived shite.

Reminiscent of Finnissy's earlier Hoop-Dee Honka (or 'Piece with Diverting Title More Interesting than its Content').

In Who's Who, Michael Finnissy lists his recreations as "X-ray photography" and "humming a perfect fifth below my tinnitus".

[Glóin the Dark 1,280]

James Dillon is the only composer associated with this "New Complexity" movement with whose music I'm at all familiar (beyond occasional one-off encounters on the BBC's Hear and Now programme). I've loved his Andromeda since hearing it broadcast in a Late Night Prom seven or eight years ago. Still have the recording on tape. (Tape! Remember that?)

[Bespin 8,674]

Of "classical" music, I consider Vivaldi my favorite composer.

And this album contains, in my opinion, the finest recordings of some of his works:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FQITXE/ref=dm_ws_ps_cdp?ie=UTF8&s=music

The "La Follia" recording is sublime.

Thanks, I did'nt know the existence of this compilation! I absolutely need it!

Their performance of Bach's Brandeburg Concertos are among my favorites.

[KK 3,308]

Now look, I appreciate some pretty far out stuff. But would anyone care to try and convince me that this isn't total wankery?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3RTNWDTMM

Maybe we can get a little discussion going on post-Boulezian models of the composer as scientist and the artistic merits of works produced thereof.

I don't understand the purpose behind the piece and what it's trying to accomplish. But I did enjoy reading the score in the video. Wankery looks pretty nice on paper.

James Dillon is the only composer associated with this "New Complexity" movement with whose music I'm at all familiar (beyond occasional one-off encounters on the BBC's Hear and Now programme). I've loved his Andromeda since hearing it broadcast in a Late Night Prom seven or eight years ago. Still have the recording on tape. (Tape! Remember that?)

Much more interesting! There is actual direction in this music.

[Bespin 8,674]

Oboe Concertos, Christian Hommel.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8zxHNG1dWo

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

 

 

[Joni Wiljami 1,208]

Wow, didn't know the existence of this piece by my country man, so I heard it for the first time. Thanks!

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Isn't it lovely? I dig that cold, spritely tune in the second movement.

[Joni Wiljami 1,208]

Lovely indeed. I even found the same shades as in the Grail theme, Indy III.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

Tom Newman studied with this guy at Yale, along with Jacob Druckman and Robert Moore. Exploring his work.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Very interesting!

[KK 3,308]

[Marian Schedenig 8,894]

This is gorgeous!

[nightscape94 965]

'Dies Irae' from Cherubini's Requiem

[Henry B 51]

Tom Newman studied with this guy at Yale, along with Jacob Druckman and Robert Moore. Exploring his work.

Oh, wow. I studied with Bruce MacCombie for a year at the University of Massachusetts. It was his last year - he died of cancer in 2012. Humble, warm hearted person, and a fine composer. He mentioned knowing Newman.

His most well known piece:

[Bespin 8,674]

Just love that series, great remastering... and great interpretation! A real must.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=521597

Here's my favorite one, unfortunately, not the remastered version :

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-ZCOUJFsiE

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

[nightscape94 965]

Joachim Raff - Symphony No. 3

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Nice work from a sadly under-remembered composer.

Here's an interesting thesis on Henri Dutilleux's work I've been reading through, maybe of interest to Sharky, Ludwig, and the other more academically inclined.

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2928482/DX225760.pdf

[karelm 3,014]

Fans of John Williams will find much to enjoy in Reinhold Gliere's Symphony No. 3.

 

This epic work is really peerless but think part Wagner, Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade and Scriabin put in a blender.  It is a gigantic programmatic symphony that tells a story of good and evil on mythological scales.

[nightscape94 965]

Fans of John Williams will find much to enjoy in Reinhold Gliere's Symphony No. 3.

Love Gliere, especially that symphony. I have the box set of orchestral music, beautifully conducted, performed and recorded by the BBC Phil with Sir Edward Downes.

[karelm 3,014]

Fans of John Williams will find much to enjoy in Reinhold Gliere's Symphony No. 3.

Love Gliere, especially that symphony. I have the box set of orchestral music, beautifully conducted, performed and recorded by the BBC Phil with Sir Edward Downes.

That is an excellent set. Do you agree with me that it is somewhat similar to John Williams? There is a hero theme, the villain theme, love theme, an adventure theme, etc.

[nightscape94 965]

Myaskovsky, Symphony 17 - 2nd Movement (part 1). Criminally underperformed composer, at least in the States. Beautiful lento movement.

Fans of John Williams will find much to enjoy in Reinhold Gliere's Symphony No. 3.

Love Gliere, especially that symphony. I have the box set of orchestral music, beautifully conducted, performed and recorded by the BBC Phil with Sir Edward Downes.

That is an excellent set. Do you agree with me that it is somewhat similar to John Williams? There is a hero theme, the villain theme, love theme, an adventure theme, etc.

Somewhat. I think due to the programmatic nature of that symphony, and in a lot of Gliere's music, you can hear some similarities in the writing of Williams, especially in the quieter moments, or moments of tension.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

[nightscape94 965]

Walter Piston, Symphony No. 2 - Movement II - Adagio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdceB55VjYs

[Muad'Dib 1,852]

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

 

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

John Adams' "Eros Piano". Dreamy and pretty sexy.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Damn dead links already.

 

[nightscape94 965]

John Adams' "Eros Piano". Dreamy and pretty sexy.Eros Piano by Paul Crossley, Orchestra of St. Lukes conducted by John Adams on Grooveshark

Not usually a fan of Adams (except for Harmonielehre), but this was pretty enjoyable.

[Bespin 8,674]

A focus on the last works of some Great composers....

Bach's musical Testament

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TownerFan 5,097]

Fans of John Williams will find much to enjoy in Reinhold Gliere's Symphony No. 3.

Thank you, karelm, for introducing me to this magnificent piece of work. Epic and film-like indeed!

Only one request, guys: this thread is getting almost impossibly slow to load, mostly because of all the Grooveshark embedded clips. YouTube links are much faster. I appreciate a lot the work of sharing countless magnificent pieces of great music. But frankly I don't see the point of embedding clips of full Bach's cantatas or Beethoven's string quartets all the way through. A link to the external page would be more than welcome. Just my two cents!

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

Nous devons cesser Bespin!

[Bespin 8,674]

Fans of John Williams will find much to enjoy in Reinhold Gliere's Symphony No. 3.

Only one request, guys: this thread is getting almost impossibly slow to load, mostly because of all the Grooveshark embedded clips. YouTube links are much faster. I appreciate a lot the work of sharing countless magnificent pieces of great music. But frankly I don't see the point of embedding clips of full Bach's cantatas or Beethoven's string quartets all the way through. A link to the external page would be more than welcome. Just my two cents!

Get a faster internet connection.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,312]

Nous devons cesser Bespin!

In English?

[TownerFan 5,097]

Fans of John Williams will find much to enjoy in Reinhold Gliere's Symphony No. 3.

Only one request, guys: this thread is getting almost impossibly slow to load, mostly because of all the Grooveshark embedded clips. YouTube links are much faster. I appreciate a lot the work of sharing countless magnificent pieces of great music. But frankly I don't see the point of embedding clips of full Bach's cantatas or Beethoven's string quartets all the way through. A link to the external page would be more than welcome. Just my two cents!

Get a faster internet connection.

Not everyone can afford ultra high speed broadband. I don't see what difference would make if you would simply put a hyperlink instead of embedding everything. But what do I know, I'm not the mod here, so be it. It was just a modest request.

[Bespin 8,674]

Well, I must admit I've posted many links, I've splitted my post, will wait an another page to put other second part.

[Marian Schedenig 8,894]

Not everyone can afford ultra high speed broadband. I don't see what difference would make if you would simply put a hyperlink instead of embedding everything. But what do I know, I'm not the mod here, so be it. It was just a modest request.

It's also not just a bandwith issue. Looks like the browser has to open a lot of connections for all the embedded stuff.

[Bespin 8,674]

Il s'agissait de mon dernier post dans ce fil de discussion. De toute façon, il faut bien se rendre à l'évidence, chacun partage ce qu'il aime et ceci, dans l'indifférence de tous les autres usagers.