Hey, Dave, I didn’t see your post there when I wrote mine! Maybe we should mention that Dvorak’s symphonies got renumbered somewhere along the way, so that sometimes you’ll hear the New World referred to as his 5th and sometimes (in more modern recordings) as his 9th.
I’m surprised no one else has said anything about William Byrd…great music!
And I’ve recently begun a fascination with Pachelbell’s Cannon…'nother great piece of music…
Hear! Hear! Literally!
My own college roommate of more than forty years ago used to play Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto every night as we were going to sleep. Eventually, when she left school, I had to go and get my own copy so that I could get some rest.
Many years later a former fiance played it with an orchestra and then had the nerve to blow me a kiss. Beast!
At any rate, I survived and still adore the music. May it cause magic and mischief in your life!
I like the orchestral versions of Pictures at an Exhibition, too, but keep in mind that you’re actually listening to Ravel’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s composition. Mussorgsky intended it for the piano, and it deserves to be heard in that form, too–he could do some really wonderful things with the piano.
For other piano pieces, I’d second, third, etc. everyone else’s recommendations of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin–especially Chopin.
Beethoven’s symphonies are sublime. The Ninth might be a little overplayed (especially when it’s used as a soundtrack for action movies, where it’s heard almost as often as Orff’s Carmina Burana), but I still get chills whenever it begins, and it won’t let me go until the last note from the “Ode to Joy” fades. It’s especially remarkable when you realize, like dropzone noted, that Beethoven never heard (not in the truly auditory sense, anyway) a single note of it–in fact, at its premiere, he was completely unaware of the audience’s thunderous applause until one of the singers turned him around (he had had his back to the audience) so he would see their clapping.
I’d also recommend Baroque music–Bach, Handel, Albinoni, Vivaldi, etc.
All piano music:
More Chopin - etudes, preludes, waltzes, polonaises
Debussy - Preludes, Suite bergamesque (with the famous “Clair de lune”), Children’s Corner Suite, Pour le piano, Images I & II
Ravel - Pavane pour une enfante défunte, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Ma Mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose” suite, piano 4 hands), Miroirs, Le Tombeau de Couperin
Bach - Partita #5 in G major, selections from the Well-Tempered Clavier book 1
Liszt - Un sospiro (concert etude #3 in D flat)
Poulenc - Pastourelle from L’Eventail de Jeanne, Trois mouvements perpétuels, Valse
Schumann - Carnaval
Searching Cafe Society will turn up more.
I just bought and fell madly in love with Bluebeard’s Castle by Bella Bartok. It’s a very short one act opera with a very nice, very creepy symbolist libretto. Great music. I have the Deutsche Grammophon Boulez version. It’s only one CD and I can’t reccomend it enough.
Villa-Lobos is a Brasilian composer that I adore. Try his Bachianas Brasileiras. My favorites are the first and the fifth.
For older music I second the reccomendation of Glenn Gould ( or anybody else for that matter) playing the Goldberg Variations. But anything by bach is great really.
Mozart was a great composer. He composed great symphonies. He composed great sonatas, he composed great concertos. He thought, and I agree, that he was born to make operas. The best are the three with the da Ponte’s libretti. My personal favorite and many people’s nomination as the greatest opera of all time is Don Giovanni. Get a cd that comes with a libretto or a dvd and enjoy. It’s funny, it’s tragic, it’s smart and it’s dirty.
For a more modern touch in a classical vein (forgive me if anyone mentioned this before – I scanned the entire thread, but may have missed it because it’s almost 7:30 and I haven’t been to sleep yet) Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals are extraordinary modern works with a “serious” bent. Charles Dutoit (Dew-twah) and the Symphony of Montreal do a superb job on this music.
Sorry for the interruption. As you were.
Agreed. And if you want to hear Bach, tune in to WKCR (89.9 FM in New York or www.wkcr.org) between December 19th and 26th. We’re presenting “BachFest 2003” - a solid week of Johann Sebastian’s music. Listen in!
Well, the Finlandia doesn’t do much for me (sorry), but of Sibelius’, the 6th Symphony is a pure jewel. It’s what I imagine Thelonius Monk would have composed had he been a classical musician.
For total relaxing ear sugar, the Suite Algerienne of Saint Saens and the Serenade for Strings (or is it String Serenade? I can never remember which) by Tchaikovsky are great. Unfortunately, the first is only available in two versions that I can find, and the better one is in mono. Oh well.
For piano, I really like Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Also the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti are amazing. I prefer them played on piano rather than harpsichord. Mikhail Pletnev’s recording of a few years ago is excellent. Each sonata is rather short (a few minutes) and most are self-contained masterpieces. I must also put in a good word for Beethoven’s 7th symphony. It ranks up there with the fifth and ninth.
And I forgot another great symphony, Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” (I believe it is his 7th). Play it loud on a cold dark night; that second movement will scare the hell out of you. Mighty powerful.
The Symphonie Fantastique. Almost forgot that one. You could play this together with the above Suite Algerienne and have an hour and a half of total enjoyment.
Definitely Symphonie Fantastique, while enjoying ‘the theme of the Beloved returning, but so distorted as to be almost unrecognizable,’ just like in real life.
You might try listenning to ClassicFM - www.classicfm.com - over the internet.
So what? If the topic bores you or you think it’s too repetitious, choose something else. Why spend the time to dredge up previous threads to rub fellow dopers’ faces in? :wally
For Piano, yes, Rachmaninoff.! 2nd and 3rd piano concertos as others have mentioned. His 1st is nice too.
Also, among his Preludes, you might find some personal favorites.
Same with Chopin’s Preludes.
My own personal favorite work is Berlioz Romeo et Juliette, the full version as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis conducting.