Classical Listening

[Gladys]

Mozart's Don Giovanni: brilliant words, brilliant music, brilliant drama!

[anzki4]

I have also "got into" classical a while ago. However I can`t stand classical with vocals! My favorites so far are Beethoven: Moonlight sonata, and Tchaikovsky`s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

[kasie]

Bastable - I don't know how practical a piece of advice this will be for you, but if you possibly can, try to go to see a live performance of an opera, preferably one with surtitles if you don't speak the language in which it is being sung. It doesn't really matter which one, though maybe one of the 'pops' would be more accessible for a first experience. (Salome, for example, which has had such 'rave revues' on this thread might be a bit daunting as a first experience of opera - on the other hand it could blow your mind and convert you on the spot.) My 'first time' was La Boheme, on the recommendation of my music master. My niece has just seen La Traviata and is hooked for life - she chose that over Madama Butterfly as she didn't want a sad ending, she said....guess she will always go to the opera with a wad of tissues from now on!

I've just seen Carmen for the I-don't-know-how-manyth time - choosing a 'pop' like that could be the way in for you, seeing or just listening, as you will probably recognise lots of it.

[Emil Miller]

I have also "got into" classical a while ago. However I can`t stand classical with vocals! My favorites so far are Beethoven: Moonlight sonata, and Tchaikovsky`s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

It isn't necesary to like vocal accompaniment to orchestral music, it depends what you like to hear. The pieces you have mentioned are all very popular and rightly so. Swan Lake, for all that it has been performed so many times, is still the greatest ballet of all. The Moonlight sonata is still one of the most beautiful piano works in the repertoire despite the fact that anyone with the slightest interest in music knows of it. If you are a recent convert to great music you have a long and fabulous journey ahead of you which will almost certainly take you to regions that you may currently find unlikeable. We all make the journey in our own way but along the road we learn more about music and its many facets. I don't know if you have listened to any symphonic works but I note that you are from Finland and so you are most likely to have heard some of the works of Sibelius.
I think anyone who wants to know just how great the human spirit can be should listen to his work and in particular his 2nd symphnony. It has become
a venerable warhorse among symphonies but the finale is still one of the most heroic endings to any work ever composed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gdM3n9hNdE

[LitNetIsGreat]

I've been inspired to "get into" classical music, with an emphasis on opera. Since this is where all the classical music fans congregate - where would you recommend I start?

Oh good move indefinitely. I don't know how I existed without opera before. Following on from Kasie's wise advice I would say the same, stick to the popular ones - Mozart, Puccini, Verdi - you can't really go wrong with those. Any of the one's Kasie mentioned plus Figaro, must be Figaro - Figaro and La Traviata in particular have hooked me totally, but that's just a personal preference.

I would definitely try to see a live performance, but start by searching for DVD performances and perhaps even before that listening to select arias or preludes (Mortal posted a load of choice ones a few pages back).

Enjoy!

StLuke's: I'll certainly look towards the Handel next, though I've still several "major" ones left to explore...

[ktm5124]

I'm so glad I found this thread!

I highly recommend Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 3 and his Piano Sonata no. 8. They are entirely addicting!

[stlukesguild]

COLOR="DarkRed"]I've been inspired to "get into" classical music, with an emphasis on opera. Since this is where all the classical music fans congregate - where would you recommend I start?[/COLOR]

I believe I've made suggestions along this line earlier in this thread. I would avoid Wagner and opera post-Wagner at the outset as Wagner brings something very different to opera... something that may be best served by first having a good appreciation of the earlier traditional approaches to opera. The traditional format of opera was set by the time of Gluck... or even Handel: the recitative (or half-sung/half-recited dialog) alternates with arias, duets, trios, and choruses. You might essentially think of a Hollywood musical where the dialog (in this case the recitative) is broken up as suddenly the characters break into a song. Wagner shatters this tradition by developing a musical theater in which there is no break in the music which unfolds more in a symphonic manner.

There have been several good recommendations. Nothing surpasses the experiences of witnessing an opera live. I was immediately seduced. The next ideal would be to look into some good performances of opera on DVD where you can still experience the work as theater as well as music. A current favorite of mine is the French Baroque composer, Rameau's Les Indes Galantes. This production by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants is particularly fine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zegt...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_nUt66IvIY

Of course French Baroque opera placed a great emphasis upon dance as opposed to the more traditional drama.

Among the best choices for an introduction to opera you might look into Bizet's Carmen, Mozart's Magic Flute, Cosi fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, and Don Giovanni, Rossini's Barber of Seville or Cinderella, Verdi's La Traviata or Aida, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore or Lucia di Lammermoor, Vincenzo Bellini's La Sonnambula, Handel's Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano, Alcina, or Serse.

I would also make a few further recommendations. The first is that you might wish to explore opera initially through the various recordings of recitals... performances of exemplary arias, duets, etc... by some of the best singers. Among discs I would highly recommend I would include:











































You might also simply look into "greatest hits" collections of famous arias by the big composers. Another possibility is that you look into Chandos records' series on "Opera in English". Finally I would suggest you look into some good guide books (Penguin or Grammophone) and brief histories of opera which can help put things in perspective. Opera is an incredibly broad field and there are works dating from the late Renaissance to the middle of last week. Opera fans can be absolutely fanatical (far more so the book lovers) so don't allow yourself to be put off by attacks upon this great soprano by the fan of a different soprano... or by those cognoscenti who claim that this French soprano from 1911 or that Milanese star of La Scala from 1892 is the greatest singer ever... in spite of the lack of any credible recordings of the same. Look through the rest of this thread, feel free to ask questions, and enjoy!

[Gladys]

As a teenager I stumbled upon Handel's Acis and Galetea and the opera remains a favourite. Acis and Galetea has an English libretto, there is enough repetition to make meaning transparent and, above all, the music is joyful and alive beyond belief.

Incidentally, I recorded Semele from TV in November and have watched it a dozen time since - humour and wit aplenty.

[Bastable]

Okay, so I just checked out what was going on in my area, and I discovered that The Barber of Seville is going to be playing in about a month or so, with La Traviata playing not long after. I'll be going about purchasing tickets in the coming week.

Thanks for the recommendations guys, much appreciated

[Emil Miller]

Without going into the soviet authorities requirement for Shostakovitch to produce work less esoteric and more accessible to people, here is part of his response, the finale to his 5th symphony in an outstanding performance by Bernstein and the Berlin Philharmonic. If this doesn't blow your socks off you aren't wearing any.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJFXqYEYd8

[Drkshadow03]

Without going into the soviet authorities requirement for Shostakovitch to produce work less esoteric and more accessible to people, here is part of his response, the finale to his 5th symphony in an outstanding performance by Bernstein and the Berlin Philharmonic. If this doesn't blow your socks off you aren't wearing any.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJFXqYEYd8

Socks are bourgeoisie anyway!

[Emil Miller]

Socks are bourgeoisie anyway!

Not necessarily.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVhto-jt438

[Musicology]

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Serenade to Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPteIR4Qaog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btxc1...eature=related

[stlukesguild]

I haven't yet come around to Shostakovitch's symphonies. Too much obvious bombast... like Bruckner without the Germanic mastery of structure. Yet I love his audacious opera, The Nose, his cello concerto, and as a Bach fanatic... definitely his Preludes and Fugues modeled on Bach's Well Tempered Clavier:

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuj5u...eature=related

[stlukesguild]

Here's a great little video with Magdalena Kozena performing an aria from Bach's Cantata BWV 30:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJcL-dSn5zo