Classical Music

[Reggie29]

I like most of the artists mentioned.

I'm also into Vivaldi, particularly The Four Seasons as performed by Nigel Kennedy.

I believe Billy Joel put out an album of classical music some time ago.

[leddy]

gee I was brought up on orchectral music and was lucky enough to go to more orchestral concerts and travel to lots of venues than hot dinners with my father who was a classical musician for over 35 years. Mozart was always lovely to hear and but always enjoyed Dmitri Shostakovich if not a little hard to get into, but once i did i remember really finding it open my ears to new sounds. To hear it live was atreat if not very rehearsed and static, it really made me appreciate music of all genres. It was alot of fun getting my dad into Deep Purple in later years, he loved Jon lords freedom to be able to improvise on classical themes where as in an orchestral situation the musicians create beautiful music but could get lost as individuals. he also really loved Maiden, he thought they came up with some really memorable melodies.

[goldenguitar]

I quite like classical music, especially Vivaldi.I never get bored listening to his music.

I think my favourite piece of classical music is the"summer finale"(estate presto) from the four seasons.

That's a genuine masterpiece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=watQ28Fx2Mg...feature=related

[Fan_S.]

I like classical music, too. I first got into it in High School, thanks to hearing Un Bel Di from Mme Butterfly in a Shirley Maclaine movie. Also, there was an excellent alto singer in my choral class (Clara). In college, I was introduced to Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bach, Chopin, Aaron Copland and George Gershwin.

Today, my favorites include:

1. Chopin's Prelude No. 4, Op. 28 in Em, and
   
2. his Prelude No. 24, in Dm, (also, Opus 28)
   
3. Beethoven's 7th Symphony, 2nd Movement (the Allegretto)
   
4. Vivaldi's Concerto for Lute and Mandolin in D Major
   
5. Copland's Billy The Kid Ballet Suite
   
6. Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue
   

[spats]

I usually listen to the radio when going to sleep at night and sometimes i play one of the classic radio stations. The music is relaxing and puts me to sleep faster.

[zosodude13]

The Planets is one of my favorite classical albums.

To be honest, its the only classical album I have. I have the version by the London Symphony Orchestra. I want to find more classical albums, recommendations are nice. I have both "Fantasia" albums as well. I enjoy the music and I'll stop the PBS radio station and listen to it when I'm in the mood.

Speaking of Fantasia, one of my favorite stories is how Disney re-released Fantasia in the late 1960's and billed it as a psychedelic experience... who could blame them?

Ever heard Isao Tomita's Planets? Holst's entire suite done on synthesizers back in the 70s. Brilliant!!

It's interesting how The Planets has been interpreted by "popular music" artists, especially Mars: The Bringer of War which seems to be one of those pieces that has no problem crossing over to other genres of music.

Isao Tomita's version is just one of those I'll have to check out!

[Jarlaxle 56]

Any fans of Impressionist music here? Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy?

I love them because they evoke extremely surreal images, like you're in a dream. Especially, Ravel, my god, his music is like a hallucination.

[BonzoLikeDrumer]

I've often enjoyed Alonso Mudarra's Renaissance period guitar pieces, written for the pre guitar instrument called a Vihuela.

[redrum]

I've often enjoyed Alonso Mudarra's Renaissance period guitar pieces, written for the pre guitar instrument called a Vihuela.

Julian Bream plays some of his music on his 'Guitarra' dvd. I would love to have the Vihuela he plays.

[Fan_S.]

Any fans of Impressionist music here? Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy?

I love them because they evoke extremely surreal images, like you're in a dream. Especially, Ravel, my god, his music is like a hallucination.

Yes, I like all three composers. Love Satie's Trois Gymnopedies (no sure of sp.)

[Fan_S.]

Sorry for double posts, but I saw some references to the vihuela. Thanks, guys! I've never heard of the vihuela before. But you mentioned Renaissance music, too. I really love the Elizabethan music of lutenist extraordinaire, John Dowland.

Sting from Police has an excellent DVD entitled The Journey & The Labyrinth, featuring a great musician, Edin Karamazov on the lute. All John Dowland pieces. Toward the end, there's a choral performance of one of the very polyphonic songs of Dowland's. haha. I know, the term "Dowland", then, "polyphonic" seem redundant. But anyways, nice canon!

[redrum]

Sorry for double posts, but I saw some references to the vihuela. Thanks, guys! I've never heard of the vihuela before. But you mentioned Renaissance music, too. I really love the Elizabethan music of lutenist extraordinaire, John Dowland.

Sting from Police has an excellent DVD entitled The Journey & The Labyrinth, featuring a great musician, Edin Karamazov on the lute. All John Dowland pieces. Toward the end, there's a choral performance of one of the very polyphonic songs of Dowland's. haha. I know, the term "Dowland", then, "polyphonic" seem redundant. But anyways, nice canon!

Dowland was/is great. I saw the Sting show and I wonder if he's still trying to learn the lute?

I'm also thinking of buying one to give it a try. I love the sound.

The Vihuela also has a nice sound.

[Fan_S.]

Dowland was/is great. I saw the Sting show and I wonder if he's still trying to learn the lute?

I'm also thinking of buying one to give it a try. I love the sound.

The Vihuela also has a nice sound.

Hey sounds like a great idea! I wonder is the lute difficult...is it tuned in 4ths like a guitar? Keep us posted on your progress!

[Patrycja]

Any fans of Impressionist music here? Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy?

I love them because they evoke extremely surreal images, like you're in a dream. Especially, Ravel, my god, his music is like a hallucination.

LOVE his work, such intelligent and moving composition. I'm usually going back to the Romantic period - Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt are some favourites. I also love Schubert, like this piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5qBNhPiEgM

(Liszt transcription, Horowitz playing it)

[BonzoLikeDrumer]

Julian Bream plays some of his music on his 'Guitarra' dvd. I would love to have the Vihuela he plays.

I've got it on DVD! It was a mutha to find but, I found it! You can get it through Blockbuster on-line only.

The opening sequence is riveting, then it take's you back to the early stuff. Bream is an awesome player. Some of it is really hard to even comprehend much less listen to! I started to figure out some of the early stuff he was playing on the small Vihuela. I only got so far as it is quite complex, riff's and fragment's of what are the modern guitar chord's. The tuning is off the wall to! I like the movie very much and have watched it many time's, my mom and dad even like to watch it for the great shot's of the Spanish country side.

[redrum]

Hey sounds like a great idea! I wonder is the lute difficult...is it tuned in 4ths like a guitar? Keep us posted on your progress!

I'm still not quite sure about the tuning. I have a friend online who is going to guide me when I get mine.

[redrum]

I've got it on DVD! It was a mutha to find but, I found it! You can get it through Blockbuster on-line only.

The opening sequence is riveting, then it take's you back to the early stuff. Bream is an awesome player. Some of it is really hard to even comprehend much less listen to! I started to figure out some of the early stuff he was playing on the small Vihuela. I only got so far as it is quite complex, riff's and fragment's of what are the modern guitar chord's. The tuning is off the wall to! I like the movie very much and have watched it many time's, my mom and dad even like to watch it for the great shot's of the Spanish country side.

It is a great dvd and Bream is the master. He calls cigarettes 'Tubes Of Joy' in one of his books.

I also love the scenery and artwork shown in the film.

[ZPN]

I used to play the trumpet-not professionally-if I had been that good I'd be doing it for a living now.

I quit playing years ago, because I couldn't deal with going from playing for hours every day in college, to playing very little, once I had to work full time. That meant not being able to maintain my level of playing, and playing in a group only one night a week or less.

I listened to a lot of classical music in college. I don't listen to it these days, because I wind up depressed-I associate it with dreams that weren't realized/years of hard work that I gave up on. Also it reminds me of an ex from that time in my life: my 1st love who played bass in the orchestra, whom I never really got over (he's why I don't listen to Joni Mitchell & a couple other folks as well).

Mahler is my favorite classical composer (which is interesting because his music definitely exemplifies the extremes of led & zep). Being a brass player, I liked many of the russians (Stravinsky, Moussorgsky-sp?, Prokofiev, Tchaik etc.). I also like Britten & composers of concert/symphonic band music like Grainer, Malcolm Arnold & Alfred Reed. And brass choir stuff incl. Gabrielli & Richard Strauss.

Sorry if that was a downer...

[Otto Masson]

I generally like power, conviction and expression in all music - bold music. That also means there should be space for subtleties and really meaningful quieter passages or works.

One of the things I love the most in classical music is the organ compositions of the three very different greats in that whole department, Bach, César Franck and Max Reger. The organ really is like an entire orchestra in a single instrument, and the immense beauty and power of a piece like, say, Reger's B-A-C-H theme, or of Bach's own Toccata and Fugue in D-minor is just something you can't experience with anything else in music, there's a special quality to it.

Other than that, I generally tend to like "romantic" music. In terms of orchestral music Beethoven's symphonies (no. 7 especially is a favorite, can't begin to describe the beauty of the second movement), Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Harold en Italie for me are just an incredible listening experience.

And then there are all these wonderful 20th century composers as well, Stravinsky's ballet pieces, Petruschka, Firebird and the Rite of Spring, Shostakovich's 5th, 7th, and 15th symphonies, Respighi's amazing Pini di Roma, Feste Romane and Fontane di Roma (some of that music is really, really astonishing), Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra and The Alpine Symphony, Mahler's 7th, etc.

On a smaller scale the solo and chamber music of Leos Janacek for me is always both baffling and beautiful, because he often manages to express simultaneously quite antithetical emotions. There is a good deal of truth in that, I think.

Beethoven's piano sonatas are also unbelievable, the Sonata quasi una fantasia, Mondschein, Appassionata, etc. where I favor the interpretations of older classic players like Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels (I couldn't bear listening to Barenboim!).

All of the above is music that demands a lot of attention. I like that. I don't like "background music" because that's turning music into noise, as Milan Kundera once put it so well. But then I do also like some classical music that is not quite as immense and overwhelming. For quiet moments Chopin's Préludes are wonderful - or indeed Erik Satie's very lyrical piano pieces.

[Cecil.]

Yes of course, Chopin, Bartok, Strauss good music is where you find it.

On a lighter note anyone owns a helicopter who likes Wagner, lets pay a visit to the Kingdom

Come fans.......

[redrum]

Great posts guys.

I just received a cd from a friend in Australia and she plays classical guitar and I would truly rate her right up there with all the greats. She plays a suite by Carlos Domeniconi and the last part 'Presto' is some of the most amazing guitar playing I've ever heard. She's like Paganini on steroids. She also plays 'Cavatina' live (from The Deer Hunter) and it's beautiful and the audience really responds.

[redrum]

I just watched 'AMADEUS' (1984) and I never saw it before. Great movie and I never realized he was buried in a mass unmarked grave.

[Evster2012]

I just watched 'AMADEUS' (1984) and I never saw it before. Great movie and I never realized he was buried in a mass unmarked grave.

Loved F. Murray Abraham as Salieri, and Jeffery Jones as the Emperor was terrific! Not the principal from Ferris at all!

[Aquamarine]

That and The Third Man are probably my favorite movies.

I like most classical music, Beethoven most of all, and Mozart's operas (not his chamber music). Stravinsky, Mahler, Aaron Copeland . . .

(Tchaikovsky is my guilty pleasure. Don't tell anyone.)

[Jarlaxle 56]

Guys, I have a confession to make. I find music of the classical period boring compared to everything after. I don't know what it is, but I suspect it has to do with the strict adherence to form. I just find the wild explorations of Romantics, Impressionists, and everyone after to be so much more emotional. They contain the ability for me to relate to them as a human being much easier. It's not that the music of the classical period is bad, but it doesn't conjure up images and strong emotion like Beethoven and everything after him does. Mozart's music is "perfect" in the sense that everything is perfectly balanced with not a single note out of place, but it just seems like it doesn't make me feel the same as, say the opening of Mahler's 9th Symphony, or Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1.

Oddly however, I do enjoy Bach a lot, and medieval and ancient music, as well as Asian traditional music.

Please don't castrate me?

Also, I wouldn't take any info from the movie Amadeus as fact...it's a movie, and not historically accurate.