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Classical Music Age

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R

Rektash

Member
orchestrah.jpg


Hi Gaf, I wondered if I am the only person enjoying classical music on Gaf and BAM! - here is the thread I always missed on gaf. A thread which sole purpose is to appreciate the awesomeness classical music brought to the world. Note that opera and anything close to classical music is welcome here - like someone else in this thread said "let's have a big loving tent". Discussion is whished for. To begin with something, some videos of our favourites posted here already.

Gaf's favourites: (up to post #49)


Let's get this going muscial gaf!
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
Yes Chopin is fantastic. Although I have yet to take a liking to Brahms. I wish my wife could stand symphonies, I love going to see them live.
 
T

thomaser

Member
I was on a short city vacation in Oslo last weekend and bought 131 cds of classical music. Including the complete works by Brahms and all the recordings Rostropovich made for EMI. It's become an obsession. Gotta have 'em all.
 
H

Hilbert

Deep into his 30th decade
I recently purchased "La Belle Époque: The Songs of Reynaldo Hahn" with vocals by Susan Graham. If some of those songs don't bring a tear to your eye you are not human.

R. HAHN. L'Heure exquise. Susan Graham

R. HAHN. À Chloris. Susan Graham

I also have always been a fan of Berlioz, particularly his Damnation of Faust and Nuits d'été.

Faust hell fall

"Le Spectre de la rose" from Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été (I like Susan Graham singing this, but I couldn't find it on youtube)

I will post more when I think of them.

I see you had Mozart's Dies Irae in the op: Here is Verdi's version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXu1tFiHQgY
I like finding different takes on the requiem, berlioz's version is pretty good too.
 
C

charlesthefirst

Member
I love this stuff. I don't really know what I want to say about it. I'm a big fan of late romantic music. Mahler's 5th symphony made me decide that I wanted to be a professional musician. I also love Tchaikovsky; I have been listening to his sixth symphony a lot recently. It is just so filled with passion and sadness.

It's all great, though. Opera, Classical, Romantic...I love it all.
 
Huevos de Oro

Huevos de Oro

Member
By entering this thread I feel like a raggedy hobo crashing into a classy party. I just wanted to say that this thread is a great idea. I'm not a classical music buff, but suggestions for the uninitiated would be welcome. I'd love to make an Endless Ocean playlist out of classical music pieces.

Coincidentally, I started Eternal Sonata last night.
 
W

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
My favorite version of the Ave Maria isn't the one with Pavoratti but some chick. they used it in the Hitman games and ever since then i've absolutely loved it. Not cuz of Hitman but because I think it's just such a beautiful song and it's amplified thru a feminine voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQVz6vuNq7s

If you want some incredible Pavoratti, I always always always go with Nessun Dorma

One of my favorite compositions is Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

(I should note that now that I've listened to the hitman version of ave maria AND watched some pavoratti videos, I wanna go back and play that mission where you're in the operahouse and have to take out that singer who diddles little kids)
 
I

Ikopi

Member
<-- This man's music is genius
Liszt
. It is sad that there are no live recordings of him playing, that should have been spectacular.
 
H

Hilbert

Deep into his 30th decade
Has anybody gone to see the met live when they broadcast it in theaters? I have seen some of those and have gone to see actual performances in seattle, and I think I prefer to see the broadcast version:

- Less expensive
- better camera angles and view
- You don't have to dress up
- You can eat popcorn
- Seattle has good opera, but can it really compare to New York?

If you haven't tried it go for it! If you have never seen an opera 15 dollars is a small investment for such a wonderful and old form of art. I believe they are showing Carmen in January, looking forward to that.
 
N

-NeoTB1-

Member
SteelAttack said:
Coincidentally, I started Eternal Sonata last night.
Click to expand...

Prepare to fall in love with music of Chopin. Seriously, that is a great segway for someone who is interested in learning more about classical music. Who would have guessed that a video game would bridge that gap so effectively?
 
H

Hilbert

Deep into his 30th decade
This may be heresy, but Chopin has always been kind of below my radar. I don't know any pieces of his music...With the help of this thread, I am going to fix that now.
 
H

Hilbert

Deep into his 30th decade
zoku88 said:
(Let's pretend that Baroque is Classical >.> )
Click to expand...

I don't see why not, lets have a big loving tent. Not to mention this thread is already having a hard time staying alive, might as well include as much as possible.
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Chopin wrote some great stuff for piano. I like his solo piano stuff a lot more than his orchestral stuff.

I used to hate Bach (back in the days when I actually played violin), but I've come to appreciate him more. I love his cello stuff. My favorite is Sarabande from his Suite #5. It's simple, beautiful and haunting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6vZx24Whjo

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is another really good piece that everybody's probably heard. Yeah technically not Classical but neither is Bach or Chopin. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQsgE0L450
 
D

diddlyD

Banned
i'm a big fan of richard strauss (more romantic than classical) and schumann. last year i started listening to an obscure mozart contemporary named rosetti, and have been pleasantly surprised; he wrote a lot of good stuff. love haydn (both of them).

i also grew up playing horn in a youth orchestra. i still play some for fun but damn that treacherous instrument.
 
T

Tarazet

Member
demon said:
Chopin wrote some great stuff for piano. I like his solo piano stuff a lot more than his orchestral stuff.
Click to expand...

Chopin was the pianist's pianist. He didn't write a single piece of music that didn't include the piano, and he didn't know the first thing about orchestration. Even his 'cello sonata is basically a piano sonata with 'cello obligato.
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
A

Aegus

Member
Always liked classical music, but I actually hzve no idea where to start in regards to buying it. I mean there's so many different variations done by different orchestras.
 
B

BronzeWolf

Banned
sonarrat said:
I've been on a Ginastera kick lately, and been practicing the Second Sonata. It's a brutal, raw, and demanding work, but very exciting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBm8GwrsC6M - played by the woman Ginastera dedicated his Third Sonata to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9qgh4DOoTI&feature=related - Same movement, but you can see his hands.
Click to expand...

Fuck you, I was going to post Ginastera >_< you blew it

Anyway, here it is

Trabajadores Agricolas with Dudamel

EDIT: And more

Sensemaya Silvestre Revueltas 1938. Surrealist piece very Mexican

And Mexico's OTHER national anthem (I would so rather have this as a national anthem than the current tune)

Huapango Moncayo, circa 1941


So yeah, I am in my ethnomusicology stage right now
 
B

BronzeWolf

Banned
GullyJuice said:
A couple random favorites:

Erik Satie - Gymnopedies No. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSxDjW9bLCQ

Johan Pachelbel - Canon in D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Af372EQLck
Click to expand...

Not to be an asshole, but there is oh so much more out there than Canon and Gymnopedie

Aegus said:
Always liked classical music, but I actually hzve no idea where to start in regards to buying it. I mean there's so many different variations done by different orchestras.
Click to expand...

IMO it's a matter of information, there are so many composers out there that knowing who lived when it's paramount to understanding their music. I recognize I know shit about Liszt, hence if I come around to listen to him, I'll try to gather knowledge about the man and his music.

There are basically 6 big "chunks" of periods in music:

-Pre-Classical. I think it refers mostly Religious Chorus before the development of the pentagram and harmonic exploration.

-Barroque. Still very religiously heavy but also starts harmonic and melodic experimentation, usually in between terms of what the music was geared for. For example, sacred music would never resolve because God is infinite and has no end.
Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann

-Classical. Mostly forgoes religious restrictions and starts the search of harmonic and melodic perfection for itself, Sonata Form galore. Great stuff here. Mozart teheeee

-Romanticism. Mostly forgoes harmonic and melodic "basic formula" and instead focus on powerful sentiment arousal through music, even with heavy experimentation (disonances, relinquishing the traditional structure of a movement, symphony or concerto, etc.) Virtuosity starts to take ever a more central focus on pieces and many times "Soloist vs. Orchestra" contrasted with "Soloist with Orchestra" as before. Romanticism is awesome

-Modern. I think the period after Romanticism is pretty awesome too, experimentation with instruments, unmasked nationalism and ethnomusicology and even more experimentation starts to take place. Revueltas and Ginastera for example, rule my fucking world. Bartók WILL DESTROY YOUR VIOLIN

-Contemporary. But it was not until after WWII that the discordance between the "formal" music and the masses starts to dwindle with the advent of Popular Music (rock, blues, etc.). Freed from that, I think contemporary offers a lot to be discovered and understood.
Xenakis, Stockhausen. etc..

Basically, I would take a chronological tour first, acquaint myself with the nuisance of each period and then go back and explore into it.

Just don't despair, it's a hobby that will last you a lifetime. Mozart even has his own catalog numbering (Kegels)

demon said:
I used to hate Bach (back in the days when I actually played violin), but I've come to appreciate him more. I love his cello stuff. My favorite is Sarabande from his Suite #5. It's simple, beautiful and haunting.
l]
Click to expand...

I used to hate Bach but not for the music, but because it was so God Damn hard to play well.

Bach's Partita No. 2 Oh My Fucking God.

No vibrating when it's so easy to do so is pretty hard
 
J

JGS

Banned
Hilbert said:
This may be heresy, but Chopin has always been kind of below my radar. I don't know any pieces of his music...With the help of this thread, I am going to fix that now.
Click to expand...

What's sad is I have most of the music here and have no idea what the titles are.

Right now, my favorite is Beethoven No. 5 ( I think:lol ), especially the last couple of minutes.
 
B

BronzeWolf

Banned
JGS said:
Right now, my favorite is Beethoven No. 5 ( I think:lol ), especially the last couple of minutes.
Click to expand...

The 3rd movement is a fucking beast, so epic!

And it attacks right into the 4th! unheard of before his time

Also, his 9th is pretty much awesome... until the choral part LOL

Well, most specifically before the coda that I feel a little bit dragged. Maybe I am missing the point, help?
 
T

Tarazet

Member
I'm just going to throw out some random recommendations of piano music that I absolutely adore, but which kind of fly under the radar and don't get much play. Youtube links included.

Brahms - Waltzes for piano, Op. 39 (Nasseri)
Liszt - Ballade No. 2 in B minor (Arrau)
Debussy - Twelve Etudes (Uchida)
Dallapiccola - Sonatina canonica on Caprices of Niccolo Paganini (De Barbariis)
Shostakovich - Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 (Nikolaieva)
Stravinsky - Piano-Rag-Music (Me!)
 
T

thomaser

Member
sonarrat said:
Dallapiccola - Sonatina canonica on Caprices of Niccolo Paganini (De Barbariis)
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks! I've often seen Dallapiccola's name, but never heard anything by him. He's on my list now for sure. Can you play this yourself, by the way?
 
T

theJwac

Member
OP, I'd love to hear more of your favs. I really do enjoy listening to classical pieces, but I have difficulty digging through hours of stuff that isn't as moving to me to find something that really speaks to me.
 
T

Tarazet

Member
thomaser said:
Wow, thanks! I've often seen Dallapiccola's name, but never heard anything by him. He's on my list now for sure. Can you play this yourself, by the way?
Click to expand...

I've had a hard time tracking down the score. The library supposedly has a copy but I can't find it on the shelf. It sounds tricky.

I did record myself playing the opening to the Musical Notebook for Annalibera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uD2I-wOUKU
 
J

Jet Grind Radio!

Banned
I was actually gonna start a thread asking for some Classical music recommendations. I don't listen to much, I got a few of those "generic" classical CDs for Mozart and Bach. My favorite stuff is Vivaldi's Four Seasons. "Summer" especially.
 
A

Always-honest

Banned
i'm going to beethoven's 9th in october (my favorite music ever made).

i would love to have been there when the berliner philharmonic performed it with Abbado.
that's the best version i ever heard.
 
R

ronito

Member
sonarrat said:
I've been on a Ginastera kick lately, and been practicing the Second Sonata. It's a brutal, raw, and demanding work, but very exciting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBm8GwrsC6M - played by the woman Ginastera dedicated his Third Sonata to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9qgh4DOoTI&feature=related - Same movement, but you can see his hands.
Click to expand...
How funny, I've been on a Ginastera kick as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85bXd6WgOvU

which almost always mean I'm listening to Brouwer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRejsBk7GCA

And Tedesco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b56G_7sGQRw

And Ibert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6XmuTWJ3UU

For some reason I always group them in my mind. I must've had a time when I was working on something from each of these guys at one time.
 
R

Rektash

Member
Phew, big update on this one. Instead of just my favs, I made a list of everything posted so far in lexicographical order. Hope you'll have fun with it. Don't let this one die so fast :lol !
 
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