um i hope nobody else started a topic on it.. please dont kill me

but i love classical music!!! i actually like it more than any other music..
hopefully im not only person on soompi who likes it

what kind of classical music does everybody like?
i really like violin music and cello music, and chamber music (string quartet, piano trio, etc)

and what are peoples favorite composers?

Yup, I love big orchestral pieces such as The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, stuff from Mahler, Pines of Romes by Respighi, etc. I went to a few live performances in Europe of those pieces...simply ethereal.

I like listening to it when I do my homework...it really helps. Unfortunately most of the time I don't know the titles of the songs I listen to or the artists...but yes, I really like listening to classical music. I also like that kind of classical music that sounds Celtic?

i totally love it... sounds soo ionno like big and important .. uhm powerful yet relaxing and beautiful... =P i love it so much ! <333!

I love classical music! I started listening to it maybe six years ago...? Anyway, my favorite composers are Mahler, Rimsky-Korsakov, Handel, Albinoni, Telemann, and Erik Satie.
I'm not a huge fan of the neo-classical music really. I think my favorite eras in classical music have to be Romantic (esp. late Romantic), Baroque, and the Classical era itself. I listen to stuff from practically every period, but those are my favorites.

What are everyone's favorite orchestras? Or do you have any? I'm a bit of an orchestra snob >.< I like BSO and LSO a lot. CSO is all right, I'm not too fond of their brass section, even though it is revered for its brass. I get to start going to ASO concerts soon this year, and they are playing Korsakov's Scheherazade next January according to the web site schedule.

I love it =)... I usually listen to instrumental stuff, recently got into opera coz I'm majoring in classical voice. Any good recommendations?

I love listening to it sometimes when I'm in the mood to just relax and let go of stress. PIANO is my favorite.

Classical is my music for sleeping. in a good way. I listen to it before i go to bed. my favorite kind is the "baroque era." then again i perferd to play baroque music. ( i play the violin for 9+ years now)

i adore "pachabel's cannon", lol.

"river flows in you" and "kiss the rain" by yiruma are two tunes i will never get sick of^^

You can't just simply choose to prefer one particular orchestra to the other in such an arbitrary fashion.
The strength of a particular orchestra will depend on the musical piece that is being performed as well as the direction of the conductor.

Case in point; even for Shostakovich's Symphonies I prefer the following recordings:

1 & 15: Lopez-Cobos, Cincinnati SO (Telarc)
5: Bernstein, NY Philharmonic, Sony (the 1959 recording)
7: Bernstein (two recordings, Sony and DG, both worth having)
8: Haitink, Concertgebouw (Decca)
10: Jarvi, Scottish NO (Chandos), Ormandy, Philadelphia (Sony)
11: Rostropovich, LSO (LSO Live)
15: Haitink, London Philharmonic (Decca)

Yea i like those tunes.. river flows in you is so soothing

Yup, love it too.
Chopin and Edvard Grieg are my too faves.

ok whoa. yeah, it's frustrating to buy classical music, because even if you know what piece you want, you can go badly so easily with the wrong recording. but i never follow things like "oh this recording made during this year with this conductor and this orchestra was so much better than that recording made that year with that conductor and that orchestra." i can admit different versions can sound incredibly different -- i bought four different versions of the tchaikovsky violin concerto before i found one that made me smile -- but i don't remember which i liked or didn't like. just before i buy a CD, i read reviews on a particular recording and choose one with good ratings. that's not a foolproof method but it's better than nothing.

for me to list what classical music i like is even more difficult because often i'll like one movement and find the others sleep-inducing. my tastes aren't exactly pachelbel's canon, but they are really accessible... whenever i play what i like for friends or family, they end up liking it too. here i've pasted a few things last.fm tracked me listening to yesterday:

Los Angeles Philharmonic / Leonard Bernstein / Barber – Adagio for Strings
Evgeny Kissin / Brahms – Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35: Variation XIV
Vladimir Horowitz / Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 3 - Allegro ma non tanto
Wilhelm Kempff / Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, KV. 488: II. Adagio

idk if those are my all-time favorites, but i like them. i need to work on a better naming system for my classical music files. if you have suggestions, let me know. or recommendations for more music.

^ Agreed. However, sometimes it's just whatever style of the conductor/performer appeals to you. It's always good to have several recordings and try to integrate some different styles into your Classical collection. Usually find about 2/3 recordings of a song that I'm playing on the piano. For example, I have, like, 2 recordings for the Beethoven Pathetique Sonata.

I have to say my favorite composers will always be Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Liszt, Grieg, Brahms... :] Mmhm. Beethoven. Genius will be genius.

So which Tchaikovsky's violin concerto did you end up settling on? For me, I love Kyung-Wai Chung version. She plays with such passion and feeling!

If you're a fan of tchaikovsky's violin Concerto, you'll certainly like Brahm's VC in D, Mendelssohn's VC in E, and definitely Beethoven's VC in D!

You're most certaintly right that different versions sound very different. Case in point, Karajan performed 4 complete cycles of Beethoven's symphonies during the last 4 decades. Each interpretations are quite different from eachother; the latter 2 are definitely laid back and he lets the strings dominate. But his 2nd cycle is so intense! You listen to the 5th on that one and wow, he had some fire in his belly back then!!

I love intimate classical pieces the most. Sonatas for piano or violin are among my favourites. If you would like to start a collection, Beethoven's 32 sonatas are a good starting point; these pieces are considered the pillars of western music. I own 5 differncent complete cycles for these;

1)Arrau
2)Kempff
3)Brendel
4)Fischer
5)Pollini

Out of these, my favourite was Arrau, now it is Fischer. But if you were to get one, I would strongly suggest that you start with the Kempff set. It is the best overall set for a person just getting to know these works. Hope this helps.

Happy Listening

Dave

We alll can't forget the beautiful works of Vivaldi, Correlli and Beethoven's symphonies.
I want to get back into playing violin...just....busy.

I would agree with you on Vivaldi. He has composed 800+ various instrument concerti plus many opera and religious vocal works; extremely prolific output. Some of his best orchestral work is arranged in groups of twelve connected concertos.

The famous 4 Seasons are just the first four concertos of Vivaldi's Opus 8 collection of 12 concertos Il Cimento Dell'armonia, other famous concerto sets are:

Opus 3 - L'estro Armonico
Opus 4 - La Stravaganza
Opus 10 - La Cetra (flute concertos)

There are countless mix/match collections, best to just find conductor you like for Vivaldi and buy his Cds......definitely go with original instrument performances IMO. Check out CDs by:

Pinnock/Archiv
Hogwood
Hugget/Virgin
Biondi/Virgin

Marriner/London has large body of Vivaldi work using the smaller orchestra Academy of St Martins, these are modern instrument performances but still hold thier own and worth getting also.

For those that are looking for a good mid-priced CD of his famous four seasons, my suggestion would be this one:





I see that you're a fan of italian baroque composers. Gotta give love to Corelli's Concerti Grossi.

dk: i have the kempff set. i went through some random beethoven sonata recordings awhile back, including claudio arrau, but kempff was my favorite. for the tchaik violin concerto... it took awhile to find one i liked. i kept reading the "have to own" version was heifetz, but i listened and i don't know... i think i ended up with pinchas zukerman? i don't know that it was well-reviewed, but i really liked it. i'd be open to something new... i've never even listened to kyung-wha chung even though my mom has some of her stuff. i will certainly try those other concertos you recommended! thanks! mostly i tend to like things in minor keys though. and i'd be more interested in non-piano stuff. orchestral or choral.

xingjing: i played the 2nd and 3rd movements of the beethoven pathetique because at the time my hand was too small to span the fast octaves in the 1st... that really upset me, because i liked that one. if you play the 1st, i think that's really cool

Melkimx: You must be referring to Heifetz/Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, which is indeed a reference recording. It is definitely worth including in anyone's collection(I own it), although I find it a tad polite and polished. Have a listen to Kyung-wha chung. There is a compilation of her performing both the Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn's concerto on Decca. I like her touch of feminine sensitivity on these lyrical concerti. Oh, btw, the Mendelssohn's concerto is in E-minor.

How is the audio quality of Zurkerman's? I think it is from the 60's right? I know that it has the honour of being the first uncut recording. I'm thinking of buying it but I don't even own the Oistrakh one yet, which I was thinking of getting first.





I don't know much about choral works so sorry I can't be of much help. I do own a great deal of orchestral works by most of the famous composers. If you have a particular composer or style/mood in mind, I can perhaps give you my impressions of them.

mm nothing too esoteric; my general favorites are beethoven, chopin, and vaughan williams. ok how about this... something to build up a good basic classical music collection. you also mentioned corelli's concerti grossi and vivaldi's four seasons, but i already have those, so like... a next step, i guess?

i'm not sure about the audio quality. i guess i thought it was fine. these days everything is "remastered" and stuff and it's all good to me; i can't tell unless it's reeeeeeally fuzzy. oh! at least in the first movement, which is honestly all i listen to, there are a lot of other versions of the tchaikovsky violin concerto that are missing this solo part toward the end that this version has. i wasn't sure what was going on there. i guess that would explain it.

you know, i wonder how people can tell whether a man or woman is playing. i was once playing a random CD of some piano works and my mom stopped by, listened for a bit, and said, "that's a woman pianist." i was like, o_O how could you TELL? and my mom said, "oh, you can tell," and then she left. i always wondered if she had looked at the case earlier when i wasn't around. haha

I love classical music. Baroque is probably my favorite...especially with Bach. Beethoven is pretty good as well. I recently really enjoy La campanella by paganini (?).

Melkimx:

Mozart - Sym 35-41, Piano concerto 16-25, Opera Overtures
Haydn - Sym 80-104 Paris & London sets
Beethoven - Sym 1-9 (karajan's 2nd cycle), Overtures
Beethoven - Piano Concerto 1-5 (Aimard/Harnoncourt)
Beethoven - Violin Concerto (he only wrote 1)
Beethoven - String Quartets (Julliard), his last 5 quartets are mindblowing.
Beethoven - Sonata for violin and piano (Perlman/Askz)
Berlioz - Symphony Fantastique
Schubert - Sym 8,9 (or Sym 1-9 Abbado/DG)
Schumann - Sym 1-4 (Gardiner/Arkiv is fabulous)
Brahms - Sym 1-4, Hungarian dances, piano sonata 1 (get Richter's recording), cello sonata 1, etc
Mendelssohn - Sym 3,4,5, Midsummer Night etc
Tchaikovsky - Sym 3,4,5, Piano Concerto 1 (I have Horowitz's version and is a terrible recording in terms of quality), 1812 Overture etc.
Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker + Swan Lake + Sleeping Beauty ballets
Prokofiev - Romeo & Juliet Ballet, Sym 1
Bizet - Carmen Suites, Sym in C etc
Stravinsky - Firebird + Petrushka + Rites of Spring ballets
Rachmaninoff - Sym 2, Piano Concerto 2
Rossinni - Overtures
Bach - Cello Suites, Violin Concerto 1&2
Mahler - Symphony #2 (Rattle), #6
Dvorak - Serenade for strings, cello concerto (Du Pre)
Rimsky/Korsakov - Schehezade

More to come.....

If you don't particularly like overly cheerful/sappy music (just an assumption since you prefer works in minor keys), you must definitely check out late-period Beethoven (especially his quartets) and his odd-numbered symphonies (especially his 3, 5, and 9th). Also, Russian composers wrote some seriously gloomy music (Tchaikovsky's 6th)

If you're looking for cheerful/melodic type: Beethoven's 6th, Mozart's violin concerto #3, mendelssohn's italian and Violin Concerto.

Hope this helps, and sorry for the late reply. Classical music doesn't get much love in this forum, and this thread got lost.