Who spins some classical?

darthed1981 · August 2023

Who works a bit of classical into their listening?

I love a bit of Elgar, Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Vaughan-Williams, Wagner, Dvorak, Holst.

This isn't about elitism BTW - we are talking about beautiful melody and harmony that has stood the test of centuries.

Classic FM is a must for if you have had a bad day and want to ignore the dickheads on your way home. The proms remain a fantastic series of concerts each year.

What say ye, my good friends?

LuttiS · August 2023

I saw Pav before he died. One of the best shows i've been to.

Rachmaninov is a beast with big hands. The Planets is my Jam. Beethoven's melodies are amazing.

I also like Megadeth.

beed84 · August 2023

.

strumjoughlamps · August 2023

Rachmaniinov is one of my faves, I only seem to like the mid and post romantic period.. I have tried listening to classical era but not for me at all.

ICBM · August 2023

Yes, I do. I did go through a period of buying pretty much any and all classical CDs I found in charity shops, but over time I’ve found that - like all types of music - there is some I like and some I don’t, which has nothing to do with ‘quality’, and classical is at least as varied as rock... you shouldn’t expect to like everything, despite what some of the elitism associated with it often seems to require - nor look down on the most ‘mainstream’ composers just because they’re popular, the reason they are is mostly because their music is great, as well as often some of the most accessible.

strumjoughlamps · August 2023

Also as a modern type offering listen to the Cloud Atlas soundtrack...

Also Catrin Finch, she is awesome.

Power_Freak · August 2023

I tend to enjoy more modern classical works, mostly those in a more avant garde realm - especially 12 tone serialism at the moment Schonberg, Berg, and particularly Webern. Along with the "newer" guys who don't stick so strictly to serialism like later Stravinsky, Boulez, Ives, Varese, and very much Ligeti

I can enjoy more "classical classical" in moderation but I don't find myself drawn to it as much as those above

darthed1981 · August 2023

LuttiS said:

I saw Pav before he died. One of the best shows i've been to.
Rachmaninov is a beast with big hands. The Planets is my Jam. Beethoven's melodies are amazing.
I also like Megadeth.

Nice to hear from you bud!

theatreanchor · August 2023

Heard this on the radio tonight. Quite beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntri-r3O5ig

viz · August 2023

Variety is the spice of life. Yesterday evening I watched my daughter’s funk band, then came home and listened to Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, then SLF’s BBC sessions.

Tannin · August 2023

Count me in for sure. My favourites include Mozart, Shostakovich, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dvořák, Haydn, Janáček.

I don't much care for the showy romantics like Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky. Or Wagner for that matter. Beethoven I blow a bit hot and cold on - magnificent at the right time but sometimes too bombastic (rather like heavy metal). Bach I admire more than I enjoy. I feel as though I ought to like Bach more than I do. Brahms, depends on the work. Ditto Mahler.

Kittyfrisk · August 2023

theatreanchor said:

Heard this on the radio tonight. Quite beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntri-r3O5ig

Were you by chance listening to "Add to Playlist" ? I bet you were... too

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001k84y

Stuckfast · August 2023

Current fave:

Cranky · August 2023

Tannin said:

Count me in for sure. My favourites include Mozart, Shostakovich, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dvořák, Haydn, Janáček.

I don't much care for the showy romantics like Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky. Or Wagner for that matter. Beethoven I blow a bit hot and cold on - magnificent at the right time but sometimes too bombastic (rather like heavy metal). Bach I admire more than I enjoy. I feel as though I ought to like Bach more than I do. Brahms, depends on the work. Ditto Mahler.

Yeah this is where calling everything “classical” does us no favors.

I don’t really like romantic or baroque music — Vivaldi, Handel, Dvorak etc no thanks. Mozart, some Bach, Beethoven, Chopin can keep me going for hours, though. Modernist/impressionist stuff like Debussy, Satie and Ravel even better (the Belle Epoch fascinates me; I’d time travel back to it if it wasn’t for the lack of vaccines, soap, indoor plumbing, deodorant etc — and obvs my lack of time travel ability).

Liszt and Monti are Romantic exceptions for me. Czardas and Hungarian Rhapsody are so good. Maybe there’s something about the Hungarian style that appeals to me, idk enough about any of it to say.

Sadly, I rarely know who or what I’m listening to exactly because “Sonata in C Major” or “Little Fugue in F Minor” aren’t very catchy names. I couldn’t tell you the name of any one Haydn or Chopin composition off the cuff that’s for sure. “Air on the G String”, “Moonlight Sonata” and “Claire de Lune” are easy to remember, at least.

edit: okay Tchaikovsky is in my wheelhouse too. Nutcracker Suite on cello is mesmerizing — https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CK_ldkjyFUc&pp=ygUXSGF1c2VyIG51dGNyYWNrZXIgc3VpdGU%3D

Instruments matter to me. I’m partial to strings and horns. And too many instruments at once is too much for me.

swiller · August 2023

im a sucker for villa lobos..
william orbit should put this through his access virus

barnstorm · August 2023

The Four Seasons is the one thing I’ll go out of my way to hear new recordings of. Absolutely rips, and has stood the test of time better than any other piece of music for me. Outrageous achievement to write something that arguably still counts as pop music 300 years on.

roberty · August 2023

Not nearly enough. I bloody love it though. I'm a sucker for a bit of Chopin. Bittersweet. Schubert is another favourite. I will watch this thread for recommendations

Classical was the first music I started listening to, when I was very young, because I was taking music lessons and learning it. I was a weird kid

Gassage · August 2023

My Mum was a junior opera singer so I was brought up on it and love much of it, esp Bizet & Puccini.

Play me Jussi Bjoerling and I'll go weak at the knees. The greatest voice I've ever heard- so beautifully sweet.

His control and vibrato are quite astonishing.

Kilgore · August 2023

Love a bit of classical. You can't beat Clapton with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Some think it's high brow and elitist but that's not true at all, he still does solos.

thecolourbox · August 2023

I'm a classical pianist first and foremost, so definitely enjoy listening to a lot of classical. What I would say though is if people only listen to classical to unwind and relax, that's great if it works for you, but that's only such a small section of what is out there and what I did to be my favourite classical to listen to is stuff that actually makes it hard to relax.

My favourites to play on piano are Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Bach, Schubert, Mozart and Ravel.

My favourites to listen to are a bit different - there's quite a lot I find interesting to listen to which I find a bit dull or unsatisfying to play, or they are mainly for instruments that don't translate to solo piano. Vivaldi, Paganini, Mahler, Holst, Debussy. The only piano music I really listen to apart from whatever they put on classic FM in the car is Liszt or Rachmaninoff.

Beethoven however gets a total free pass for both playing and listening - I was played his music (unknowingly) as a baby to get me to sleep and apparently it worked within minutes to get me quiet and ready to sleep. Then when I was about 15 I got a new (to me) piano which came with a massive box full of old sheet music, including his complete piano sonatas. On the first sight read of the pathetique and the moonlight, I could play them pretty much all the way through, albeit slightly slower than proper tempo on the fast movements. They were probably slightly higher than my general grade level at the time however way more advanced than the normal sight reading tests, I was quite amazed at how easy they seemed to be and that I knew my way through them. Then my parents told me about playing it to me as an infant, and it kind of clicked into place I suppose.

Around the same time I got into rock music (and Liszt, also a proper rocker of a composer) and I've always felt a lot of similarities between the intensity and passion and heart of the music and the performance potential.

Shameless bit of self promo here

digitalkettle · August 2023

thecolourbox said:

I'm a classical pianist first and foremost...

Impresssive...most impressive...

digitalkettle · August 2023

swiller said:

im a sucker for villa lobos...

I'm fond of a lot of classical guitar stuff (only 'guitar' though: always a six-string bigot)...but I can't get Villa-Lobos. I just don't find him as lyrical as someone like Lauro (or other, less obvious, composers that John Williams and David Russell featured on their respective 'best of south america' albums of the 2000s).

Apart from players who do amazing interpretations of Bach, I think my favourite stuff is spanish, e.g. Tarrega, Rodrigo, Granados, Albeniz, Torroba, etc.

ICBM · August 2023

barnstorm said:

The Four Seasons is the one thing I’ll go out of my way to hear new recordings of. Absolutely rips, and has stood the test of time better than any other piece of music for me. Outrageous achievement to write something that arguably still counts as pop music 300 years on.

The Four Seasons is absolute perfection, a work of outstanding genius. I had two or three more albums worth of Vivaldi's music though, and none of it was as good - but very similar, almost as if all the notes and phrases of TFS had been cut up into a random order and rejoined. I probably only scratched the surface, admittedly.

Sporky · August 2023

I like Max Richter's version of The Four Seasons.

Cranky · August 2023

thecolourbox said:

Shameless bit of self promo here

Tabs?

barnstorm · August 2023

Sporky said:

I like Max Richter's version of The Four Seasons.

I still put that on from time to time, too. The version he released last year seemed superfluous to me, but insisting on re-recording the whole thing with all the players using gut strings is very online-guitar-forum, so I sort of respect it!

CHRISB50 · August 2023

barnstorm said:

Sporky said:

I like Max Richter's version of The Four Seasons.

I still put that on from time to time, too. The version he released last year seemed superfluous to me, but insisting on re-recording the whole thing with all the players using gut strings is very online-guitar-forum, so I sort of respect it!

I love it too. I’ve just listened to it because of this thread.

Spring 1 and Autumn 3 are favourites of mine.

I have both versions. They do sound different, but it was quite OTT to redo it.

Aside from Vivaldi, I quite like some contemporary stuff like Phillip Glass and Steve Reich.

Classical guitar wise I really like Tarrega.

I don’t have an acoustic anymore but loved playing Lagrima and Adelita.

Contemporary classical guitar I really like Gerrard Cousins. He’s written some great stuff.

CHRISB50 · August 2023

@thecolourbox really enjoyed listening to you.

You’re very talented.

thecolourbox · September 2023

CHRISB50 said:

@thecolourbox really enjoyed listening to you.
You’re very talented.

Very kind, thank you. Like most things in life and in music, it's a lot of repetitive practice and loving what you're playing enough to go through that ordeal of obsession, I think. There are a couple of other pieces from that concert on my youtube as well if you wish to find them, they are shorter pieces so you'll get less of a numb backside from sitting there listening. Rachmaninov prelude and a light piece by Sinding (Norwegian romantic era composer)

roberty · September 2023

digitalkettle said:

thecolourbox said:

I'm a classical pianist first and foremost...

Impresssive...most impressive...

What a coincidence, I am a classical penis

roberty · September 2023

Cranky said:

thecolourbox said:

Shameless bit of self promo here

Tabs?

Musical notation is basically piano tab lol

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Who spins some classical?

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