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Classical Music

opaltiger

opaltiger

actually very huggable
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Hi guys, I'm looking for recommendations and I figure someone here will be able to provide them. :D Specifically I'm interested in stuff that isn't in the highest circle of the mainstream (Beethoven/Mozart/Bach etc.), though if you want to suggest your favourite Beethoven I am happy to listen.

In return I offer, in order of increasing obscurity:

Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt. In The Hall of the Mountain King is probably the most famous, but I prefer Morning Mood.

Gustav Holst, The Planets. Mars, Jupiter. I think modern film music owes a lot to The Planets, so it's quite easy to get into. It's even accurate now that Pluto isn't a planet any more. :D

Maurice Ravel, Bolero. Here.

Edward Elgar, Enigma Variations. Here's the whole thing, fourteen variations on a theme.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition. Here is the beginning. Currently my favourite piece of classical music, I think.

Go go go :o
 
Most famous last. Sorry this list is so mainstream.

Tocatta, op.54; Takacs ((Don't listen to the first link on Youtube. It's not musical))
Prelude and Fugue in Eb+ (Book II of WTC); Bach
Fantasia in c-; Bach
Sonata in D+, Hob.XVI No.33; Haydn
French Suite no.V; Bach
Serenade, Op. 53, no. 5; Haberbier
Symphony No. 5; Shostakovich
Nocturne in F#, Op.15 no.2; Chopin
Feux Follets (No.5); Liszt
Mazeppa (No.4); Liszt
Polonaise in c#-; Chopin
Liebestraum no.3; Liszt
Sonata Pathétique (Op.13); Beethoven
Toccata and Fugue in d-; Bach
Fantasie Impromptu; Chopin
 
L'après-midi d'un faune - Debussy
Prelude and Fugue in F Minor - Bach
Ballade No. 1 - Chopin
Sonatine - Ravel
La plus que lente - Debussy
 
opaltiger said:
Gustav Holst, The Planets. Mars, Jupiter. I think modern film music owes a lot to The Planets, so it's quite easy to get into. It's even accurate now that Pluto isn't a planet any more. :D
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Haha you have holst there AWESOME

my band class played his Second Suite In F (I got to turn part of the third movement into a solo!) at our last concert, despite the fact that all of these movements are based off folk tunes I think they're wonderfully arranged (especially the second movement) so

i play trumpet in the band but seeing as how we only ever play stuff that was written for wind band and the first piece of music written /just/ for wind band was 1909 we don't have a lot of classical works. i mean there's stuff written in the classical style but it's not outstanding since most of it is written for middle/high school band :/
wish i had more suggestions

nutcracker music is pretty cool though
 
Um, I have a lot of favourites or whatever... don't feel like naming them so I thought instead HERE have this website
http://musopen.org/music
because it's all free stuff donated by... people... most of it's classical anyway (some of them are pretty bad quality though, and it's got a daily download limit...)
well, wait, there's some modern things on there as well, I just noticed they "stock" Ticheli, he's like still alive and... writes a lot for bands. Yeah this site is really helpful for band students who want recording references. ((:

also @Polymetric Sesquialtera (hope that's right) you may play more arranged versions of older orchestral works later. Or maybe even join an orchestra at some point but a lot of the time the trumpets can be very inactive there ((; there are still a lot of very good modern composers I loved to play in band like Eric Whitacre (massive looove oh yeah and he does film scores) and Samuel Hazo and ummm... that.. names are escaping me OK? as well as Holst who is the coolest of the cool as you know already. And gosh maybe even Grainger but he is just so popular as he is local here. Some of his stuff is okay anyway. There are also a huge number of modern European composers I was never exposed to since my conductors are usually from here (Australia) or America/Canada... maybe just check out the "concertbandland" channel on youtube, they have some good examples, kinda!
 
Symphony number 2 by Mahler is my favourite piece, especially the finale.
 
I listened to classical music a lot as a kid cuz i admired its elegance X3 I espesally liked ballet music cuz i was always wearing a tutu around ages 8 and 9. Plus it was pretty.

I really should get into listening to classical music more often again XD I think during the time i restarted over my sapphire game, i listened to mozart a lot on youtube to help me get over the loss of my data and hard work..
 
Friendly neighborhood music major here. I love all of these pieces. Especially Holst's The Planets. And Tchaik. Especially 4 and 5. Oh my god. Help me. I will talk forever about these pieces I love them oh my god

As for pieces you should go listen to right NOW because they are awesome and you probably haven't listened to them already:

Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2 Oh my god. The second movement will make you melt. It's like melted chocolate. It's long but it's worth it. Absolutely delicious.

Polovetsian Dances, Borodin Gorgeous woodwind work at the beginning. Continues into some absolutely intense lines later. Stunning all the way through.

Symphony Fantastique, Berlioz Can we just talk about all the themes in this piece? Like, CAN we? I love program symphonies. It's so sappy. Absolute best is the final movement, Dance Macabre. Actually this piece is pretty famous. You've probably listened to it. But just do it again. It's amazing.

Pines of Rome, Respighi Oh my god the final movement. English horn solo is just so gorgeous. I don't even care that the flutes are doing bird calls, it's fine, this is just so good. Each movement is supposed to be a scene from Rome, in the first is a villiage, you can here the children playing in the streets. The second is the catacombs, eerie and dark. The third is the Pines of Janiuculum which leads down the hills and the final one is the pines of the Appian way, where the spirits of Rome's once great military marches over the hill, ghostly at first, but then triumphant.


Debussy, Sunken Cathedral Ever get tired of Afternoon of the Fawn? Of course not! But this is here anyway!

Hindemith, Symphonic Metamorphosis Ever want to know what it feels like for your brain to melt? Look no further. (well, I guess you could listen to some Philip Glass too, but I like Hindey)

Eric Whitacre, Cloudburst There's not enough choral music here. Have some Whitacre

Lord of the Rings Symphony Did you know this was a thing? Cause it's a thing. It won't melt your brain like the others, but it's still nice.

Stravinski, The Firebird *screaming*

Okay I'm done. This stopped being coherent a long time ago. But seriously, listen to these.
 
I'm an orchestra kid so I'm mostly mainstream string pieces but the mostly relevant thing to this thread from me is this arrangement of Greensleeves, which is my favorite not professional (?) thing.

also string concertos are nice for math homework because less distractingly beautiful while being nice background noise and still beautiful. this is Haydn's cello concerto in c and it's also somewhat mainstream and it nice. :D
 
Altissimo said:
i played Tchaik 5 on Sunday \o/
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EEE =D My fave!!! I just played it a few weeks ago. I almost cried. It's so hard to keep it together during that piece, it breaks my heart in so many ways and then puts it back together right at the end.

I'd say it takes my breath away, but I'm a flute player, I need that.
 
it's hard for me to keep it together but for a completely different reason, I am a mediocre trumpeter who has trouble actually Playing the whole thing :V

But naaah I love it and I love the third movement especially. And like everything else. Not as much as Tchaik 4 but still a lot.
 
...In case you want to find lots of classical music and won't mind parody manga, try reading Violinist of Hameln - it's about heroes playing magic music, and all the pieces played are either very famous or quite obscure. Actually, it was thanks to VoH that I discovered Holst and his Planets Suite.

I have to admit my favorite composer is Beethoven. XD I just respect the man since he composed his best piece while completely deaf. ...Though I love classical in general~

Franz Schubert - Der Erlkönig / I love how the tenor has to use three different singing voices. A light one for the boy, a deep one for the father and an airy one for the Erlkönig. The story itself is very scary, since the Erlkönig is a spirit who the boy can see, but the father cannot; the Erlkönig develops an interest in the boy and tries to coax him into coming with him... the boy doesn't want to, and eventually the spirit simply kidnaps him and it's too late that the father notices his son is dead.

Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre
Franz Liszt - Totentanz
Both of these are based around the same concept: Death playing music while skeletons of the dead dance wildly on Halloween.

Franz von Súppe - The Light Cavalry Overture / The main theme kicks in around 2:25... it's very catchy and sounds exactly like a galloping cavalry.

Julius Fučík - Entrance of the Gladiators / ...Commonly known as the circus theme...

Jean Sibelius - Finlandia / I hate it when people call this the "Be Still, My Soul" hymn. This hymn isn't supposed to be religious... it's about Finland, our independence and national pride, not god. The hymn - and the entire piece - was written/composed as concealed rebellion toward Russia. "You were not broken by oppressors ruling; Your morn has come, o my native land." It's the most powerful thing to ever come out of Finnish music.

Vala (Oath) - not exactly classical, but this song is the Finnish military oath and soldiers actually have to sing it. Apparently back in 1939 during the eve of the Winter War, soldiers from Helsinki sung it while walking from their own city blocks toward the train station. As the men neared the station square, their song took an echo off the stone buildings and gained such power that the spectators' blood ran cold. "You we will protect, with our blood preserve, be without worries; your son is awake"

Edward Elgar - Salut d'Amour / Discovered this thanks to La Corda d'Oro.

Émile Waldteufel - The Skater's Waltz / I've known this waltz since I was like 8 years old. That was when I first listened to the classical CDs we have at home. (Main theme kicks in at 2:15.)

Bedřich Smetana - Moldau / I like how fast the Prague orchestra plays this... now it actually sounds like a surging river!

Oskar Merikanto - Kesäillan valssi (Summer Evening Waltz) / Finnish waltz. Merikanto was only 15 years old when he composed this.

Erkki Melartin - Prinsessa Ruususen häämarssi (Sleeping Beauty's Wedding March) / The most popular wedding march in Finland, even outdoes Mendelssohn's infamous march. My parents actually had this one at their wedding, and I'll also use it if I get married. Who would have thought a Finnish man could make something this beautiful... *pause* OK, I'm listening to everything by Melartin now. His symphonies sound amazing.

Georges Bizet - L'Arlesienne ~Farandole~

Paganini - Rondo la Campanella

Vittorio Monti - Czardas / Sounds like Hungarian gypsy music, it's just the composer was Italian. The tempo picks up at 2:09.

Antonin Dvorak - Slavonic Dances / Dance 2 is usually the one people are most familiar with. My favorite is 8. (I would have linked his "New World Symphony", but that's really mainstream... XD)

Carl Maria von Weber - Der Freischütz ~The Huntsmen Chorus~

Stravinsky's "Firebird" and Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" are some of my favorite Russian pieces. ...I've always been scared of the latter, ever since I saw Disney's Fantasia when I was 6. XD It's been 22 years...

And this is just scratching the tip of the iceberg.
 
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