Classical Listening

[Sebas. Melmoth]

Glenn Gould's Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier

http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Preludes-...278446-5847144

Krystian Zimerman's Chopin: the Ballades.

http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Ballade...4302097&sr=1-1

[Musicology]

Felix Mendelssohn
Piano Concerto No. 2
Adagio: molto sostenuto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj7CC...eature=related

[Emil Miller]

Krystian Zimerman's Chopin: the Ballades.

http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Ballade...4302097&sr=1-1

Zimmerman must be rated one of the greatest interpreters of Chopin's music post WW11. His performance of the Chopin Concerto's with Giulini conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra is legendary and held its place in the catalogue for over twenty years.

[stlukesguild]

I've been exploring the French Baroque for a while lately... and made a number of marvelous discoveries. I am especially struck by the grand orchestration of the operatic and choral works... including dramatic drums and brass. Of course, this was the era of Louis XIV, le Roi Soleil... and the composers working in Paris were working for the most grandiose court in the whole of Europe. Bach, by comparison, was forced to compose and orchestrate with the limited resources of the largely amateur orchestra players and soloists in mind. Repeatedly, he drew criticism for composing music beyond the abilities of his players and choir. Rameau, Lully, Charpentier, etc... on the other hand... had far greater resources at hand resulting in grandiose orchestrations only found in Bach in the B-minor Mass, composed following the death of Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony and the assumption of Augustus III.

In spite all this marvelous grandiose and monumental work for orchestra and chorus and soloists, there is another... more intimate side to the French music of the period. A few days ago I picked up a marvelous disc of works for solo keyboard by François Couperin. Interestingly enough, even Couperin's choral and vocal music is composed in a strip-down, intimate manner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5SX0bL6Bik

His works for keyboard, however, are something quite special. Anyone familiar and admiring of the keyboard works of Bach, Scarlatti, and Handel should love these. While I tend to lean toward HIP (Historically Informed Performances) recordings which employ historically accurate instrumentation and performance practices in the presentation and recording of Baroque music, I have long preferred the piano to the harpsichord for the performance of solo keyboard works. Perhaps its just that the best performances of this music... such as the recordings of Bach by Glenn Gould, Rosalyn Tureck, Angela Hewitt, and most recently, Murray Perahia, have all been played upon piano. Or perhaps its just that an extended period spent with the tinkly and jangly sounds of the harpsichord becomes somewhat irritating... or as the great conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham suggested, it begins to sound like "two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm".

Whatever the case may be, I greatly enjoy this latest recording of Couperin played upon piano by Alexandre Tharaud:



There are some lovely little video presentations of some of the highlights of this recording... including the title piece, Tic Toc Choc... which is presented as something of Tic Toc Hip Hop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMD6xBIXSWo

Most of Couperin's keyboard works are based upon dance forms and are given poetic titles so that many (including Richard Strauss, who later orchestrated some) thought of them as miniature tone poems. Tic Tic Choc is an especially challenging work... as difficult to play well as some of the most virtuosic piano works of the Romantic era. The promary difficulty lies in the continual demand upon the performer for "crossing over" of hands. A video of the great Russian pianist, Grigory Sokolov, performing the same piece gives a clear idea of the difficulty of the work as his hands continually cross... fingers closely jammed together... in a blur of blinding speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glg99Zc0JjU

Other performances on this disc include the famous Les barricades mysterieuses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDavx0eyjUY

Still another work entitled Bruit de guerre clearly conveys a martial air:

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

This disc closes with a performances of four brief keyboard pieces entitled La Pothouïn, by the rarely recorded peer of Couperin, Jacques Duphly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq8MfVQByW4

As absolutely enchanted as I am by this recording, I will certainly be looking into Angela Hewitt's three volume set of Couperin's keyboard works:

[Zach J.]

What would you suggest to a new listener of classical music? I'd like to get into it, but I'm not sure where to start. Who are some standard favorites? Is there a certain mindset that needs to be cultivated?

[Petrarch's Love]

Hi Zach J.--"Classical" music is a term that covers a pretty wide array of styles and types of music, so you should try listening to an array of things to see what speaks most to your personal taste. If you go through this thread, you'll find lots of links to different kinds of classical music that people have shared here, so this may be a good place to start.

I don't know that there's any special mindset you need, though it helps to listen with some attention to music you're experiencing for the first time in a quite space where you can really hear what's going on and both feel and think about what effect it has on you.

A few well known favorites of mine that come to mind to get you started:

Beethoven's 9th symphony, which is amazing from start: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE-sS_1JQZI to finish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBAqB...eature=related and everywhere in between

Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem--heart wrenchingly beautiful throughout, but I'll post the second movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOJua...eature=related

and the 5th: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtC2L...eature=related

Bach's cello suites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwHpDOWhkGk

Vivaldi's "Four Seasons": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSw7CcAXPWk

Mozart...how does one chose?..perhaps an adagio from the "dissonance" quartet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc1v2...eature=related

and an aria from the "Marriage of Figaro": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gw9K...eature=related

Which brings us to opera. Puccini's famous "nessun dorma": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdTBm...eature=related

or an excerpt from Verdi's Traviata: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcKdnkGBSgA

Or there's always Wagner, who is best known for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V92OBNsQgxU

but wrote some other great stuff as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGbmjX7AYyU

I could post many more pieces, but as I say, this thread is full of good stuff to explore. Feel free to post any thoughts or questions you have, and any good music you discover!

St. Luke's--Thanks again for sharing the Couperin. It's made me realize that French baroque music has been almost entirely off my radar. I really don't know much of it at all. I also like the "Tic Toc Hip Hop" video. Baroque music needs more cool music videos.

My latest musical find has been Offenbach's suites for two cellos, after my cello teacher loaned me the recording by Roland Pidoux and Etienne Peclard (which appears to be almost the only one). The quality of the youtube version is vastly inferior to that of the cd, but appears to be the only online version of these little gems:

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

Which seems like an appropriate note on which to go seek some rest.

[Musicology]

My advice is to start with a Bach chorale or a chorus. To find yourself impatient with it. Then to listen to everything else. And finally to return to it as one returns to a good parent. Then to marvel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC35G...eature=related

What would you suggest to a new listener of classical music? I'd like to get into it, but I'm not sure where to start. Who are some standard favorites? Is there a certain mindset that needs to be cultivated?

[Emil Miller]

What would you suggest to a new listener of classical music? I'd like to get into it, but I'm not sure where to start. Who are some standard favorites? Is there a certain mindset that needs to be cultivated?

If you are a newcomer to classical music. I would suggest avoiding the classical composers. i.e. those before Beethoven and go for the romantics who are more melodious. I would not start on large scale works such as symphonies and concerto's until later but concentrate on smaller pieces such as overtures and ballet music: in this regard Tchaikovsky is the first I would go for as he is probably the most melodious composer of all time although there are plenty of others. Many people are put off classical music because they hear a symphony and it is too long and complex for an untrained ear.
For example, I like Gustav Mahler's symphonies but if you had asked me to listen when I was just beginning with classical music, I would have said it was an excessively long and formless noise.
There is no particular mindset to be cultivated, anyone with a heart can enjoy great music. You will find plenty of modern music around today that is written solely for the brain but you can forget it, if it doesn't go to the heart it aint music.

These are the kind of things I think someone starting out with classical music
would find enjoyable;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sU4mgkGtrs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvm2ZsRv3C8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QROR4LioU-8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E10K73GvCKU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrbIUDOEvp0

[Zach J.]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Gladys]

I would suggest avoiding the classical composers.

To the contrary, my interest in classical sprung from Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" and a Reader's Digest set of classical symphonies, of which Hadyn's "Surprise", Mozart's No. 40 and, the not so classical, Mendelssohn's "Italian" impressed most.

A love for baroque soon followed but, for a decade, I found Bach impenetrable and still find almost anything after Schumann so.

[Zach J.]

I made a couple of new genre stations on Pandora for both Symphonic Classical and Symphonic Romantic music. I've found that I've enjoyed the Romantic stuff a bit more right now. I like Beethoven a lot. I've only been listening to his symphonies, but as I do I feel there's something to them that's very intriguing. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it definitely draws me in.

[Sebas. Melmoth]

Brahms, Second Serenade, Bernstein/NYPO

http://www.kdb.com/

[Emil Miller]

To the contrary, my interest in classical sprung from Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" and a Reader's Digest set of classical symphonies, of which Hadyn's "Surprise", Mozart's No. 40 and, the not so classical, Mendelssohn's "Italian" impressed most.

A love for baroque soon followed but, for a decade, I found Bach impenetrable and still find almost anything after Schumann so.

Well I suppose we make recommendations according to our experience. My interest in great music began when I was about eight or nine years old. The BBC had a programme for children at 5 o'clock each day and there was usually a serialised story which would use orchestral music for the signature tune of each story. I still remember being thrilled by Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor overture and Tchaikovsky's overture to Romeo and Juliette. Then I attended a concert of similar pieces by the London Symphony Orchestra about the age of eleven and never looked back. I didn't listen to a symphony until I was 14 it was by Beethoven and I started to listen to all his symphonies and concertos. After which it was Brahms, Sibelius, Schumann etc. I did listen to a good deal of Mozart and some Haydn but I still prefer later composers. I am a very poor piano player but I prefer playing Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze to any other piece in my limited repertoire.

[Gladys]

I didn't listen to a symphony until I was 14 it was by Beethoven and I started to listen to all his symphonies and concertos. After which it was Brahms, Sibelius, Schumann etc.

Likewise, I was 17.

An early favourite was Brahms' monumental Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 - a work of heroic proportions and vision, like Schubert's Great symphony and Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata.

Brahms - Piano concerto n°2. Mov 1 (part1)

[stlukesguild]

To the contrary, my interest in classical sprung from Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" and a Reader's Digest set of classical symphonies, of which Hadyn's "Surprise", Mozart's No. 40 and, the not so classical, Mendelssohn's "Italian" impressed most.

A love for baroque soon followed but, for a decade, I found Bach impenetrable and still find almost anything after Schumann so.

And my own introduction to the world of classical music... beyond the exposure to Bach's choral music as sung in the Lutheran churches of my upbringing... would be the music of the Baroque era: Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and Violin and Keyboard concertos, Handel's Water Music, Royal Fireworks Music, Concerti Grossi Op. 3 and 6, and Organ Concertos, and Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Mandolin Concertos. The steady rhythm and usual 4/4 beat of these works were easy to latch onto coming to the classical realm from a mostly pop music background. I usually suggest the beginer explore classical music through a good anthology... where he or she can get a taste of different composers, different eras, and different genre. He or she can then expand outward from that body of music which first interests.