Just a flying note (I want to read and enjoy this thread a bit before contributing properly) but inhumanist I will recommend you a booked called "The Rest is Noise" by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross. It's a history of 20th century classical (which I had very little more than a passing interest in before). I've not finished it yet, but 3/4 of the way through it's among the best non-fiction I've ever read. Technically detailed, but very readable too, and lots of fascinating insight into the people and events shaping the music of the century. He also has a superb book of essays on various musical themes called "Listen to This". Both highly, highly recommended!

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind for next time I need something to read.

I'd like to recommend this huge YT channel with lesser known composers, mostly late 1800-early 1900. It's not just random composers posted, it's quality controlled.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JCHBONNET/videos

Have you checked out Tamas Vasary's recordings of Nocturnes? They're great, even better than the Maurizio Pollini Chopin stuff but I love them both.

For me, I love 19th/early 20th century Spanish classical, the guitar stuff - Albeniz, Tarrega, Rodrigo, Sor etc


Also "early music", renaissance/medieval/baroque, especially when performed by Jordi Savall and his Hesperion XXI ensemble. You get to hear a lot of the point where European traditional folk starts to develop into classical music. I am not classically trained so I lack the adjectives to properly describe the beauty of this music but it really must be heard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibCS-scA1hs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwKgf3nmaGw

Hey guys, I absolutely ADORE Vivaldi's "Credo", but I'm having a hard time finding stuff similar. Can anyone help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQCtwo4hWo

I don't know a lot of vocal stuff, but Mozart comes to mind, although he's not a baroque composer. Give his Requiem a listen.

I know Requiem already, but thanks anyway.

What is it about it you like, that it's baroque or that it is choir or that it is baroque choir?

Both I guess, besides the actual music.

Don't know if it is considered classical, but i have been really enjoying the old nordic sounds of "vali" lately
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2yiVG9u9Q

Even though these are modern composers, Two Steps From Hell, Hans Zimmer, Gyorgi Ligeti and Clint Mansell are pretty good. I also appreciate the obvious classics like Mozart and Bach. Another great one is Jeremy Soule. He has done a lot of work with The Elder Scrolls series and other games.

Super obvious choice, but "O Fortuna," most definitely.

Was that for me?

It can be. Happy birthday.

hmm yes let's mention the cretins who make throwaway garbage to act as background music for videogames/superhero movies in the same breath as actual composers like ligeti.

For me, lots of stuff already mentioned, but I'm rather partial to the Beethoven symphonies. Also Béla Bartók and lately Erik Satie.

I'm hugely fond of the so-called impressionism of Erik Satie (just mentioned!) and Claude Debussy. Neither composer liked the label, but what else could you call this? This is my favorite type of classical because it embraces harmony and melody for the "color" it has instead of its functionality in a piece (traditional classical has strict rules for how voices can interact). This means you get all the wild exploration of breaking the rules of harmony without the wandering atonality of where classical went afterwards with serialism. What happens with this style sometimes is mysterious and haunting and it's so unique it makes me wonder why this music isn't more abundant outside of Debussy, Satie and Ravel.

Erik Satie - Danses De Travers I, II, & III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x6nuiNN3JI

Erik Satie - Sonneries de la Rose et Croix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCGNTsllp9w

Debussy - Préludes I - 2. Voiles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccaOmEKKZb0

Debussy - Préludes I - 4. Le sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJArcEB0mgU

Debussy - Nocturnes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtL_enacFn8

I heard Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata when I was younger and it changed the way I listened to music. I'm always looking for that somber, melancholic quality that's still very classical, not very formal, and not dark or atonal, and that led me to Chopin's amazing Nocturnes (John Field's are also really nice) and to modern composer Henryk Gorecki.

Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No.3, Op.36 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mEWlGLkjIw

This is the best version I think, with the soprano Zofia Kilanowicz. It's really worth listening to the whole thing, but the first movement alone captures why this piece is so powerful. The canon in the beginning unfolds so slowly, but has such a dramatic payoff as each instrument enters and echoes the melody played before it. When the soprano comes in, it gets really good and I'd be surprised to know if someone wasn't moved by the climax and return of the beginning canon. To me, this is strict tonal music at it's best.

-Snippet of the atonal opera Wozzeck, by Alban Berg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJPD2WTietY

-The pretty aggressive 4th movement of Mendelssohn's 4th Symphony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br1MKrBs_o8

-The overture of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (you've definitely heard this before...just love it for the infamous crescendo): http://youtu.be/uB8PB9fk4A8

Speaking of The Barber of Seville, classical drumming!

Ah yes, that guy. He's been around for ages, and I'm honestly kinda shocked he's never been on too many of those drumming festivals. He certainly has the fan following to justify putting him on a few.

--

Lately I've been getting heavily into orchestral pieces played on piano. Something about hearing these pieces on that particular instrument is very, very compelling to me.




And also, this piece will forever make anyone who watches it feel insecure about their own musical capabilities.

Huh, didn't expect this thread to pop up again...

Speaking of Mussorgsky, recently I realized that not all Opera bores me. Boris Godunov is some pretty heavy, brutal music as far as classical goes, and also orchestra-dominated, so that might explain it.

I've been listening to nothing but classical the last few days... Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons has been playing a lot, especially this part (I have eargasms every time I listen to this)

i'll quote this instead of posting my own link, but all The Planets are awesome.



edited for brevity

Sort of reviving this from the dead, but recently on a whim I got a boxset of Debussy's works. Oh man, it's actually really amazing. The way he uses all the instruments to create such interesting sounds is totally unique; I get why he's considered the father of 20th century classical music. Obviously, I've heard prelude to afternoon of a faun before, but not his other stuff. It's an 18-disc set, so I'm still going through it at a reasonable place, but I remember La Mer, in particular, blowing me away. The solo piano works are quite nice too.

I really should get more into classical; there's definitely a strong bias in me for Romantic era and early 20th century stuff.

^Yes. Debussy is fantastic. Is Pelléas et Mélisande on the boxset? Such an enchanting opera, one of my favourite works of his. Great plot, too. I recommend it.

Myself, I've been listening to loads of French troubadour/trouvère music (part of classical, I guess). There are tens of them and their musical works preserved in manuscripts. There aren't any really characteristic musical styles of each composer, because with this type of music it's up to today's musicians to interpret and do creative stuff with the melodies.

This song's been in my head for a while: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjToYw0ErAw



Shit, I love Satie. I feel a huge connection to both his music and his personality (at least from reading about the man).

Yeah, Pelléas et Mélisande is on discs 15-16. They're all just CDs though, so no visual component for me. To be honest, I've been pretty iffy on vocal works in general. I do greatly enjoy Stravinsky's "The Wedding" though, so we'll see. I'm only on disc 5 right now, so it'll be awhile before I get there.

Speaking of opera, where would be a good place to start? I've recently started hold a favorable view of opera, whereas I used to find it grating. I really don't know anything about this sort of music.

I probably can't help you much on that one, but do you have a certain period (aka baroque, classical, romantic or "modern") of classical music you like the most (assuming you're familiar with those terms)? At least you'll have a starting place.

I should have pointed out that I'm new to classical music as a whole and I would like some recommendations on where to start in general. I had no idea this thread existed, but over the past month or so, I've been trying to jump into classical music. It's just completely foreign to me and I'm a bit overwhelmed. From the little exposure I've had to each, I guess I'm looking for anything from Renaissance to Classical (strings/piano).

Ah well we can start with the basics I guess. Classical music is very overwhelming because it's been around for hundreds of years. There's the super famous composers that are household names, but there are also plenty of other ones that aren't as well known that you might love.

I'm honestly not super familiar with the stuff either (despite having been a horn player for years), so somebody can feel free to correct me if I say something stupid. "Classical" Is a stupidly broad term that encompasses a huge variety of compositions, and you can hate some stuff and love other things quite easily. When it comes to purely instrumental music (what I'm most familiar with), you can basically split it into two main categories. Full orchestral works and chamber music (i.e. music for small ensembles). In general, I like the full fledged orchestra stuff the most, but there's tons of quality chamber music out there with a huge variety of instrumentation. One of the nice things to know is that a "concerto" generally refers to a work for a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. Of course, there's often not an orchestra lying around, so these scores are also adapted for piano as well. A symphony is a full-fledged, large-scale work for orchestra. A ballet is incidental music (aka background music) well for a ballet obviously. But some of these are more famous as concert pieces than for the actual ballet (Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, etc). Vocal and choir works are a whole other landmine that I'm really not familiar with at all lol.

There's also more modern stuff like concert band music (music scored for just winds and percussion; these instruments are much, much cheaper than strings and it's common for high school bands and the like to perform them) as well as marching music of course. Maybe they aren't strictly "classical" music but it's related. It's also worth noting that what instruments actually make up the orchestra has changed a lot during the centuries. Baroque orchestras were actually rather small and only consisted of strings, harpsichord and some woodwinds. Brass instruments would gradually get more introduced later on as technology got better and major things like valves were invented. The original brass instruments or predecessors of modern brass instruments actually are called natural horns and did not allow you to change notes without switching out slides, and you were restricted to specific sets of overtones or partials (it has to do with how your lips vibrate; could elaborate more if you want me too).

As for actual music you might like, well it's hard to say. If you're biased strongly towards any particular instrument in the orchestra, it might be easy to pick out a concerto or something you might like. I love the horn actually (well I used to play it ), and Strauss's second horn concerto is amazing to me. You pointed out strings/piano, so I guess I'll just put some piano and string stuff I like.
Handel's Suite No. 7 (it's harpsichord)
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto
Wagner's Symphony in C
Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (a little more experimental I guess)
Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21

Uh, I guess that's plenty for now. I sort of just randomly linked some stuff off the top of my head, so whenever you feel like it. I have no idea if any of this has been previously linked in the thread or not, but whatever. Another to point out is that performances are pretty important in classical music. Recordings can differ quite a bit from each other. For example, my favorite recording of Walton's Symphony No. 1 that I've heard is the one done by the London Symphony way back in the 1960s (it's so powerful).

Thanks for the recommendations. I checked out a little bit of the music, but I haven't had the time to really jump into it. I do prefer chamber music compared to the full-blown orchestras. I also find Gregorian chant quite interesting.

Don't think I could really help you there with Gregorian chant lol. I guess I can just spam some more chamber I like and see if anything sticks.

Bozza's Suite for Four Horns
Poulenc's Trio for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone
Stravinsky's Duo Concertante For Violin and Piano
Ewazen's Ballade, Pastorale, and Dance (first movement)
Debussy's Suite Bergamesque (solo piano)

Gee, 3 out of 5 links there have horn in them.

I love gregorian chant! It's perfect to relax.

Not Gregorian, but early sacred vocal music.

Palestrina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRfF7W4El60

Orlando di Lasso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Mqy22bu48

This music just takes me away.

Check out what somebody did to C.P.E. Bach's Solfeggietto. Watch til the end, it goes berserk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzFOkGfqaeE

So I mentioned it in the Now Playing thread earlier, but I found some super cool CD that's a collection of Turkish folk dances done by violinist Cihat Aşkın. There's some incredibly good violin work on this thing. Here's one of the dances. The album is called "İstanbulin" and it's done by Cihat Aşkın. Dunno it might be worth checking out if you're into that kind of thing.

Oh man, bookmarking this. I've been curious of classical music, but I haven't really found the time to find a way in. This seems like a good, quick and dirty way to start aurally vetting stuff.

Beautiful pieces of music. I especially like what I've heard of Palestrina, there's something surprisingly modern about his tonality making it somewhat more accessible than a lot renaissance music.

If you like these and haven't already heard Miserere by Gregorio Allegri, you should listen to it. It's an indescribably beautiful piece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKj1iK2WKS8

I've been on a pretty strong classical kick lately and I figure I might as well share. So as you might know, a ton of really good pieces have no copyrights on them, and there's actually some public domain recordings of this stuff. I came across this collection of public domain works that would be worth looking at especially if you want to get more familiar with the stuff (mostly classical and romantic era). There's quite a few well-regarded pieces there.

I've also realized that Romantic Russian composers are the bomb. Tchaikovsky, Korsakov, Borodin, etc. all rule. Stravinsky is also awesome (he's always been one of my favorite composers though). His neoclassical period is a lot more experimental than you would think. I guess my taste is just changing or something because I suddenly started appreciating almost everything a lot more. I'll be honest: slower movements almost always used to bore me in the past (with some exceptions), but a lot of them are actually really good. Piano sonatas are also very nice to me now.

Threads like this make me realize how much i'm unforgivably ingnorant about classical music despite the fact that my girlfriend is a "Conservatorio" (i don't know how to say that in english ) trained piano player.. i really need to fill my huge gaps, but the quantity of the material is freaking intimidating!
Stranvinsky and Mussorgsky are the only one that i can say i love through and through!

Recently i've come in contact with Steve Reich and John Adams's music and i enjoyed that a lot if taken in small doses, as it reminded me the atmospheres created by bands like Popol Vuh and the brighter moments of Swans..
i also enjoy a lot Satie's Gnosiennes: i know it is a blasphemy, but to me they sound almost like a ghostlike ancestor of jazz!

Also i've enjoyed a lot Schoenberg's "Verklärte nacht" but i can't really get into his more abstract dodecaphonic piano works no matter how much i try.. they put in my head the mental image of a mouse running on the piano
anybody here knows if something similar exists? atonal music that is not that jarring and has a strong nocturnal feeling