I get daunted when I try to delve into listening to classical music. I’ve owned cds of meat and two veg 5 minute snippets of ad-friendly tunes such as Air On The G-String etc. and I have a Naxos cd of Strauss’s An Der Schoene Donau (spelling might be wrong) that I thoroughly enjoy but when I try to delve further I feel overwhelmed. I sometimes listen to my local classical station and a piece of music is often prefaced by the announcer saying something like “and now a movement from Djugledorfer’s 13th Symphony in D Major for Oboe and flute as recorded by The Prague Symphonic Orchestra as conducted by Gustav LePlange in 1959.”
I understand what each thing means but it suggest a bigger world than I can ever comprehend, also are certain specific recordings hailed as the definitive version?
Is classical a delineated genre like others or does it just refer to “old” music that was played by more than one person?
Enough of my plebian rantage, more enlightened SDMBers of a classical persuasion could you please recommend some classical cds (or music on emusic.com which I’m subscribed to). I’m not looking for Best Of/snippet type cds but rather some “real” classical. Thank you very much in advance,
An Gadaí
The major complication with classical music is that, for the most part, there’s no one recording for us to play as what the original composer intended that the work should sound like. As a result, every conductor is free to add his own interpretation. Classical music buffs assure me that this amounts to a significant amount of variation among different versions of a work.
My method for picking recordings is to find conductors who’ve led the big symphony orchestras (London, New York, Berlin, etc.) and look for their versions of any work that I’m interested in. It may miss the real gems of any collection, but I feel pretty safe that it will also miss whatever muck is out there.
Careful, you might start an argument over the definition of “classical music.”
Usually when people talk about “classical music” (especially when it’s spelled with a lower-case c), they mean the very broad category of music that includes symphonies, sonatas, concertos, string quartets, orchestral suites, tone poems, and such—and which may or may not include opera. This would include music played by just one person (usually on a piano), by a small group of people (two or more), or a large or small orchestra.
At the risk of confusing you, though, some people talk about Classical music as opposed to, say, Baroque or Romantic music, meaning music composed in a particular period and exemplifying the style of that period: that of Mozart and Haydn, to name the purest and best examples.
One of the things about classical music is that even the most familiar themes can still seem fresh when presented by a good orchestra.
Classical music (in the generic sense) is a wide ranging area. I tend to prefer symphonies and orchestral music. But I think the best place to start if you have a fast Internet connection is with Naxos. For $20 a year, you have access to their entire classical library. It’s a cheap and easy way to familiarize yourself with the composers and their works, and then you can seek out the best recordings of those works (In my case, I’ve only had one time when I thought a particular recording was no good – a CD of Rossini overtures that played “William Tell” at a slow and leisurely pace. I can’t imagine what they were thinking; not only is the finale a furious piece of work, but the “storm” section lost all its power).
Yes, it’s more ‘work’. Not because it’s necessarily more intellectual or profound than other musics, but simply because we’re talking about such a vast collection of art covering many centuries.
I would strongly recommend starting with the BBC’s Discovering Music, with programmes archived online. These are great detailed introductions to individual pieces, which should be a much better way to find your way into these soundworlds than the stab-in-the-dark approach which has resulted from your encounters with the radio station. Pick something you’ll vaguely recognise, Beethoven’s 5th symphony for example, and have a listen.
Secondly: what are you doing Friday night? 
To experience the music live lifts it to a whole different level, and there’s this concert on at the NCH. Tickets won’t break the bank, and if you can’t make that one then there’s other good ones we can guide you towards. This Friday’s is especially suitable, because two of the three pieces have Discovering Music programmes dedicated to them. Listen to these in advance and you’ll have a much better idea of what’s going on - think of it like reading a detailed synopsis of an unfamilar Shakespeare play before seeing it live.
Thirdly: don’t worry if you don’t like something! Out of this enourmous and enourmously varied expanse of music, there’s bound to be something that leaves you going ‘meh’. It would be strange if there wasn’t. For me, it’s Haydn. YMACWV. (Your Mileage Almost Certainly Will Vary.) This said, don’t write things off on the first listen, always be prepared to return to things and give them another go, be it ten minutes later or ten years later. They’ll still be there to be heard again 
Can you not get BBC Radio 3 or Classic FM? The latter stream their music over the internet. Really, you don’t have to get particular - if you enjoy a piece of music, be it baroque or heavy metal, just enjoy it.
Nicely done, **GM **- I think about taking my 10 and 7 year old to see art. We always start with “so - whaddya think?” - just try to let them decide whether they like it on first look. Then we talk about it and they can decide if their feelings change.
So, An Gadaí, a cool melody is a cool melody - what kind of melodies do you like? Beethoven’s Fifth is a high-drama, over the top power melody. But his Fur Elise is a more intimite, quiet melody. If you try to find melodies you like - it’s a great start.
Having said that - classical music - especially symphonic works - is more harmonically complex vs. most other forms of music. There is a great book called Music, The Brain and Ecstasy (Amazon link). A great book that delves into the complex biochemistry of the brain and how it is affected by music - it can be a slog, but the payoff is worth it as you learn about how the “deeper harmonic structures” of classical music trigger different aspects of the brain. Fascinating.
So - start with what you like and be open to learning…ultimately, it’s just music and meant to appeal to your ears and brain - start with how effective a piece is in doing that…
People devote their entire lives to the research and studying of classical music. They never find the bottom. Like so many other things in the world there is just too much stuff to know all of it. Fortunately, you don’t need to know it all to appreciate it.
Classical radio probably has people listening to it 12 hours a day every single day of the year. They will be playing a lot of music one might not recognize just because one can only hear Beethoven’s 5th Symphony so many times in a week. So don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize everything.
As far as the other stuff, many conductors, orchestras, soloists, etc. will have styles that will show through their music. When you come to listen to multiple recordings, you will be able to compare and contrast tempos, dynamics, and other elements. You will be extremely surprised at how small changes can completely change the feeling of a piece. Contrast this recording of Karajan with this one of Bohm. Bohm’s tempi are a bit more relaxed, which IIRC is also the case with his 6th, though I don’t know if this is just a coincidence or his more relaxed tempi are common with all his recordings.
My recommendation is to find things you like, learn about them, then branch out. Listen to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos . Do you like them? What do you like about them? If so, maybe look for other things* by Bach or do a little research on the Baroque era for some other ideas.
*Gould is notorious for humming along. This recording is hilarious.
Not your thing? Move on to Beethoven Symphonies. Try other big romantic composers. Sibelius, Mahler, Dvorák, whatever strikes your fancy.
The most important part is just find something you like and go with it. Just because someone else likes something doesn’t mean you will. This seems obvious at first until you overhear someone talking about the brilliance of X composer’s third piano trio and you think, “Damn, I thought that piece was boring as shit. What did I miss? Was I just not knowledgeable enough to appreciate it?” Don’t worry about it! Likewise, snobbery is abound and many love to diminish popular pieces (read: the Beethoven Symphonies).
If you liked it you liked it. If you hated it, you hated it. Maybe you might like it SOMEDAY (maybe not, after 15 years I still can’t stand piano trios), but don’t feel obligated to keep listening if you don’t.
Holy cow, that piece is beautiful - the brilliant partita no. 2.
That’s great.
I second the recommendation for BBC’s Discovering Music. I also agree that you shouldn’t worry if there’s something you don’t like - personally, I just can’t grok Brahms, and Haydn bores me stiff. Am I a worse person for it? I like to think not, and anyway, who cares? It’s all about finding things you enjoy, and there’s plenty of stuff out there for everyone.
In any case, I can’t pass by a thread like this without recommending my favorite introduction to classical music - these series of lectures from The Teaching Company, by professor Robert Greenberg. They’re great fun as well as educational, easy to get into, stacked with musical samples, and Mr. Greenberg’s somewhat… *enthusiastic *lecturing style is nothing if not enjoyable. They go on sale at regular intervals at a pretty decent price, and are all downloadable as mp3’s, perfect for slapping on your iPod or device of choice.
Kindred spirits, I feel! Some Brahms I struggle with - the third symphony leaves me cold. Then he goes and comes out with the Alto Rhapsody and all is forgiven. Your take on Prokofiev?
And I thought I was imagining it. Geez, that’s obnoxious.
Classical music shouldn’t be work. At least early on, don’t waste time on music that someone thinks you should appreciate but you don’t like.
Pick things that appeal and then you can always branch out from there. Use the types of inexpensive sources that others have mentioned and have a good time with it.
Jackmannii, who is “classically trained” but this very weekend added to his Ipod not only a selection of obscure Romantic overtures but Herman’s Hermits’ “No Milk Today” as well. :eek:
Not sure if I have one. :dubious: He doesn’t bother me. The third piano concerto is way cool.
Of course, then again, I do seem to be into fluffy piano music at the moment - Chopin, Ravel, Satie, a spot of César Franck. 
I thought about this a bit, and in practice I’m not so sure the actual catalogue of classical music is all that large, relatively speaking. For sure, a shitload of music was written in the 300 years or so of “classical music”. However, if you look at the stuff that’s actually available on record, now, there’s only a fairly small number of composers, and in many cases only a few of their works are easy to find. However, it’s the few pieces that have been recorded 10,000 times that really bloat the classical section of record stores. At HMV, you might have a whole wall of Mozart CDs, but the Rock section has hundreds of artists with only a few records out. I’m not sure which is easier to approach for the complete neophyte. I can’t even keep up with the output of the dozens of often tiny record labels that put out experimental electronic music, but the number of classical music pieces, regardless of how broadly you define the term, grows at a glacial pace.
Is anyone crazy about Haydn? Historically, his significance is undeniable, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who really liked his music. Comments like “more boring than a bad Haydn symphony” seem pretty common among even professional musicians.
I like Haydn! I’ve never met a Haydn work I didn’t like. I find his music easy to understand and appreciate—which, admittedly, means there isn’t much more to discover with repeated listens. I see Haydn as kinda like the musical equivalent of those authors who prolifically and consistently crank out reliable entertainment (e.g. Rex Stout? Louis L’Amour?). Granted, there’s more substance and variety in Beethoven’s 9 symphonies than in Haydn’s 100+, but Haydn, when done right, can be really fun to listen to.
Don’t be so hasty. The current Naxos catalogue (Excel file) has over 7000 items. I chose them because they generally don’t re-record the same repertoire over and over, and obviously also because they have that handy file Sure, they’ve got compilations and audiobooks in there, but we’re still talking about something like a year’s worth of solid listening, 12 hours a day, before you need to hear the same piece again. On one label.
And don’t use HMV for a decent assessment of the state of classical music recording, whatever you do!!
That sounds like a lot, but relatively speaking it’s still somewhat small. For instance compare the following two Wikipedia lists:
And,
Electronic music record labels.
Now, on both list there are a number of somewhat obscure entries. However, I find 7000 releases by one label much less daunting than a practically uncountable number of releases by 440 or so labels. In the Naxos catalogue, I count 551 releases of Mozart music, 451 of Bach, and 432 of Beethoven. That’s 1/5 of their whole catalogue between three composers.
My point is that I don’t think there’s all that much work required to get to know classical music at first. For one, the canon is fairly well defined and there aren’t that many names on it. Again a Wikipedia list. Now, it’s true that when you start digging, there’s a tremendous amount of depth: “canon grade” composers (I’m not talking about counterpoint!) were often very prolific, there are many more obscure composers and some of them are worth checking out and of course multiple interpretations by various performers. Once you find out you really dig Mozart, you can spend years getting to know his works. But finding Mozart and composers that wrote in a similar style is quite easy.
I associate different pieces with different times of the year. Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto should be played in the winter. It’s very brooding. The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto is at its best in autumn.
As I was growing up, I found that one classical piece led to another. I liked the movie Fantasia and that introduced me to several “classical” pieces. “Waltz of the Flowers” from Fantasia got me hooked on the ballet The Nutcracker. That led to other Tchaikovsky music such as The 1812 Overture.. That led to a love of Russian composers and Romantic composers in general.
It helps to know what you are listening to and for. My husband and I enjoyed rewatching some of the Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. He teaches audiences of youngsters some of the very things that you want to know. All of these concerts are available on DVD at Netflix. They are a goldmine!