Classical music

SCSL

SCSL

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Any classical fans out there? I?ve been in and out of classical music since my childhood and I?m in a big ?in? at the moment. By ?classical? of course I mean baroque through romantic. Though I can?t seem to appreciate any modern composers outside of maybe G?recki (traditionalists and snobs, forgive me).

If so, what are you listening to lately? What do you like best? Who are your favorite composers and why?
 
p m

p m

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That's a bizarre thread on Discoweb!

I do listen to fair amount of classical music. Don't know what period do you consider modern, but there were many brilliant composers in the 20th century, many of not most of them - American. I believe even most of Stravinsky's work was created in America.
Of those still living, check out the works by William Bolcom. I only learned about him after a concert in Detroit Symphony that had an unorthodox combination of Mozart's flute works (with James Galway playing the flute) and Bolcom's works after the intermission.
Also - William Russo (Street Music).
 
SCSL

SCSL

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Thanks Peter, I’ll check that out. Though I’m so skeptical of mixed genre. l’ll trust your recommend. (A good friend of mine, a musician, recently recommended Yo Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis, and I just can’t do it... to give you an idea of my admitted conservatism.)
 
SCSL

SCSL

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stu454 said:
I've been on a Holst kick lately.
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I?ve been kicking on Mendelssohn (who I consider the heir to Mozart) and Dvorak (who I consider the heir to Beethoven, if there can be such a thing). I get that this may be considered a gross generalization / simplification... but I have rationalizations :D
 
SCSL

SCSL

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SCSL said:
Thanks Peter, I?ll check that out. Though I?m so skeptical of mixed genre. l?ll trust your recommend. (A good friend of mine, a musician, recently recommended Yo Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis, and I just can?t do it... to give you an idea of my admitted conservatism.)
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Clarification: Ma is fantastic. Seen him perform a number of times. It?s the Marsalis combo, and that whole mindset, that I can?t get into.
 
seventyfive

seventyfive

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over there
I collect beethoven's 9th cd's by conductors. I'd have to dig them up but my favorite one is intense. Several are too soft for my liking.

I am going to start picking up LP's soon.

I have OCD pretty bad so ever since I heard the ninth, when I was a kid, I can listen to it over and over and over.

I have zero music history knowledge but both my children play instruments and my daughter is getting pretty good at discerning the differences in baroque, classical, and romantic composition.
 
SCSL

SCSL

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p m said:
Of those still living, check out the works by William Bolcom.
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Interesting for sure. The piano is very jazzy with the overlay of a slightly more traditional Romantic violin. There?s just a tiny bare hint of the atonality that plaques most modern pretentious of music, and it doesn?t interfere with the actual music going on here. Nice but I just can?t get into the moderns. Thank you for introducing me to this, I?ll spend some more time with it.
 
SCSL

SCSL

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seventyfive said:
I collect beethoven's 9th cd's by conductors. I'd have to dig them up but my favorite one is intense. Several are too soft for my liking.
Click to expand...

That?s one of the amazing things about classical music... it?s bottomless. There is extreme variation among conductors. Check out Gustavo Dudamel, if you haven?t already. He?s just my tempo. Not just for the LVB 9th. He does wonders for Dvorak?s 9th as well. I rate his interpretation of Dvorak?s ninth above even von Karejan?s.

Like you, I notice significant differences in how various conductors interpret my favorite pieces. Just another rabbit hole. A lifetime is insufficient to take it all in.
 
mgreenspan

mgreenspan

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Briggs's Back Yard
I built a 9+ hour playlist on my last deployment so I wouldn't have to fiddle around with a device in the suit and just use a big on off button from the homemade battery/amp/flashlight box. It is a huge range of all genres of music but has about 40 minutes of classical to start off the sortie. Chopin Fantaisie Impromptu Op 66, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No 2, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1 B flat minor, Beethoven Symphony No 7 Allegretto, Chopin Nocturne Op 9 No 2. Usually going on during the worst part of the sortie where everything on the jet breaks and I have to fix stuff. Then the playlist leads into Come And Get Your Love and nothing else classical. Those ones are just sort of recent ones I've been into listening to. It's tough to get music you don't want to change the track on because the space gloves make everything harder especially if a device requires a stylus.

I would give Stravinsky The Rite of Spring a listen a few times. I studied it for about a year. I think you'll like it. It's no Pagan Fire mix CD but it gets the job done.
 
SCSL

SCSL

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seventyfive said:
This one
http://static.classicalm.com/repository/composition-cover/15561-img1375438678617494.jpg
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The second movement of the ninth. That?s it, really. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do in terms of a symphonic scherzo for any composer since. Beethoven finished it. There was no where else to go. Even my favorite Romantics, when you boil it down, were just trying to escape this and do something different (some of them trying too hard). The Eastern Europeans came close. Mahler was just trying too hard. IMHO, of course. And Wagner... I get his enormous influence on opera but I can?t appreciate his orchestration relative to so many of his peers. Mendelssohn, IMO, had the right idea in terms of reverting to classicism with a Romantic license.

Again, this is all opinion in an increibly complex area.
 
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