KVR Audio

tetraplan · Post by **tetraplan** » Fri May 20, 2005 8:43 pm

For some reason, I tend to have a hard time listening to most stuff written between ~1750 and ~1900. Post Bach, almost everything became boring. I have no idea why.

I love Purcell, I heard some of his fantasias the other day and immediately stopped liking a lot of Michael Nyman stuff as much as I did. His Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary may be his best known work, oh my brothers and only droogs, but he's done much more besides that and it's all brilliant.

I picked up a record with guitar-music from the Renaissance and Baroque era, music by Pisador, Mudarra, da Milano and Weiss and I've really never heard of any of them. It's great stuff though, Suite in a-Moll by Weiss being the stand-out piece.

For the rest, it's mostly contemporary Down Town stuff, Schnittke (still need to get some of his works. A shop near me has Life With An Idiot which is insanely good but very, very pricey), Cage, Varese, Andriessen, Britten, Pärt, the usual suspects.

Whatever happened to Glass, by the way? His early stuff and some of the operas are great, but all of a sudden he started writing utter shit.

Groet, Erik

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Sat May 21, 2005 1:31 am

Some favorites, in no particular order

Mahler - Symphony no. 2 (beats Beethoven's 9th, IMO)
Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (one of the most powerful pieces ever written)
Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps (So innovative, it caused a riot)
Prokofiev - Sonata no.1 for violin and piano (the first bit is astonishingly beautiful)
Messiaen - Turangalila, and Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps ( ANYTHING by Messiaen, but those are my two favs)
Frescobaldi - Messa della Domenica (Fantastic harpsichord piece)
Couperin - L 'Ame en Peine (another great harpsichord piece, my fav work by Couperin)
Glass - String Quartet No. 2 (Glass turned to shite towards the end, but this is still quality stuff, IMO)
Verdi - Requiem (Verdi's finest hour)
Purcell - Funeral Music for Queen Mary (Very powerful, used to great effect in Clockwork Orange)
Respighi - Church Windows (Delightfully over the top, as he tends to be)
Barber Symphony no. 1 (There's more to Barber than Adagio for Strings, you know...)
Sibelius - Symphony no. 2 (Although not as bleak as his later work, the second movement is fantastic, and the finale is quite uplifting)
St. Saens - Organ Symphony no 3 (Very rich sound)
Xenakis - Metastasis (Very reminiscent of Penderecki's Threnody)
Shostakovitch - Symphony no. 10 (Brutally mocking music)
Schubert - Der Doppelganger (The best, and just about least heard of his songs)
Hindemith - Mathis der Maler (great use of old church modes)

Memorex · Post by **Memorex** » Sat May 21, 2005 1:59 am

Favorite:
George Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue

Runner-Up:
Anything by Bach

o'malley · Post by **o'malley** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:04 am

Oh there are so many!

Copin's "Nocturne op. 37-1"

Ravel's "piano concerto in Gmin"

Tchaikovsky's piano "concerto no. 1"

Debussey's "La Serenade Interrompue"

Bach's "Magnificat" or anything by Bach really.

and so many more...

o'malley · Post by **o'malley** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:09 am

dx-9 wrote:moonlite sonata

He didn't call it that himself actually, that was a name some publisher gave it.

The proper name is: "Sonata quasi una Fantasia."

Ja.x · Post by **Ja.x** » Sat May 21, 2005 4:52 am

Back in my mid-20s my favourite was Vivaldi; then in my mid-30s it was Mozart. Now, since my mid-40s Bach rules. And Satie; and Martinu; and... er, does Arvo Pärt count as classical?

Fats Domino

?

The Modern Jazz Quartet

?

Apocalyptica

?

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Sat May 21, 2005 5:33 am

bluedad wrote:I always seem to enjoy clasical music in the car when I'm driving, especially at night.
Got out of astronomy class one night, hopped in my suzuki sidekick with the top open and the stars out, flicked on the radio and I was treated to bachs' brandenburg concerto #3; and that has been my favorite ever since. A very uplifting piece.
Upon first listen to many classical recordings, the first thing that strikes me is the fact that these f**kers can play!

so do you listen to the PBS/NPR station too?

even if you dont I have to say thats the only radio station I can stomach anymore locally.. everything else seems to run in 3 categories either (a) "got on my big black boots and im riding in my ford pickuppp" (b) "lifeee suckkss come backk rarr rarr yeahhhhhhh I'm a punkkkkk I own a guittarrrrr and I screeeeammm" or (c) "got the money got the power got the car got the power shoot a ho I dont care got summore in my underwear"

just doesnt do anything I'd consider positive for me.. however listening to classical seems to be the spot that feels more like home while driving.. at least as long as it doesnt sound freeform and unending to me..

various Brandenburg Concertos get played at least monthly on my local PBS Radio station - good stuff.. I quite like anything Bach has wrote.. Air on the G String (or 'Air' as its for some reason sometimes called now

), fugue (organ), and Concerto for violin, oboe and strings in D Minor (the adaigo one its on the brandenburg cd) all tops by me..

also non bach:

Gorecki's Symphony #3
Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

Smetana's Moldau
Mozart's Turkish March

good stuff.. I'm missing a ton.. but this thread has come up before.. I have listed more at previous times

tetraplan · Post by **tetraplan** » Sat May 21, 2005 10:26 am

Voidoid Surrealist wrote:Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps (So innovative, it caused a riot)

Damn, forgot all about Strawhiskey. Great stuff, and I get the impression Herrmann nicked quite a bit of his stuff. first time I heard a performance of his works I thought I was listening to a combination of scores for Hitchcock-movies.

There should be more classical music that causes riots.
Um, there should be more music that causes riots, period.

Groet, Erik

herodotus · Post by **herodotus** » Sat May 21, 2005 12:06 pm

Bartok: Well, anything really, but the third and fifth String Quartets; The 'Miraculous Mandarin' (Boulez on Columbia, accept no imitations); The Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste; and The Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion are especially groovy. Also the recordings of the man himself playing parts of his 'Mikrokosmos' are very cool.

Schoenberg: The much maligned Arnold, lets see.... For sure the Serenade opus 24 (just this side of Mr. Bungle in weird intensity, in 1923!); obviously Pierrot Lunaire; Moses and Aaron (unfinished, way too long and pure genius); 'The Survivor from Warsaw' (I only heard it once, but I will never forget it); Erwartung is cool in a way that very few can appreciate these days: very quiet and totally non-dance-able.

Stravinsky's three early ballets (The Firebird, Petrouchka, and Le Sacre) on the other hand are obviously very dance-able, as are his three mature symphonies (In C, In Three Movements, and The Symphony of Psalms).

Bach couldn't write a boring note (J.S. that is, don't care for the sons much). But his late stuff like the Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue are especially humbling.

This is taking too long, gonna chop it off there.

OH!, except that I have to mention Ockeghem, who not only did things with rhythm that would have amazed Stravinsky (in circa 1450!) but who is very pleasant on the ear as well.

And Nancarrow!! Can't forget that crazy genius.

And Ives, and Webern (esp. opus 5), and Varese (Arcana!! Octandre!!!).

Sigh...

Bunnyboy · Post by **Bunnyboy** » Sat May 21, 2005 12:12 pm

Gorecki - Symphony No 3
Rachmaninov - Vexations
Rachmaninov - Ganyopedies (or whatever its called!!)
Terry Riley - In C

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:47 am

God, just looking at this thread, I see so many favorites of mine that I left out!

Wagenseil, Sammartini, and Boccherini always seem to get forgotten.
Alfred Schnittke's Collected Songs Where Every Verse Is Filled With Grief is fantastic...I just love too much of this stuff to narrow it down...

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:53 am

herodotus wrote: And Nancarrow!! Can't forget that crazy genius.

88 keys at once on the piano.

kevvvvv · Post by **kevvvvv** » Sun May 22, 2005 10:43 am

tetraplan

For some reason, I tend to have a hard time listening to most stuff written between ~1750 and ~1900. Post Bach, almost everything became boring. I have no idea why.

I love Purcell, I heard some of his fantasias the other day and immediately stopped liking a lot of Michael Nyman stuff as much as I did. His Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary may be his best known work, oh my brothers and only droogs, but he's done much more besides that and it's all brilliant.

I picked up a record with guitar-music from the Renaissance and Baroque era, music by Pisador, Mudarra, da Milano and Weiss and I've really never heard of any of them. It's great stuff though, Suite in a-Moll by Weiss being the stand-out piece.

We are musical brothers. I love this stuff, especially Henry Purcell (the marrrster)

And how about John Dowland, Thomas Morley or Claudio Monteverdi?

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Sun May 22, 2005 10:52 am

kevvvvv wrote: And how about John Dowland, Thomas Morley...

and William Byrd, John Bull, Giles Farnaby, and Thomas Campion!

Hovmod · Post by **Hovmod** » Sun May 22, 2005 11:04 am

If you like Italian baroque you could do worse than to get "Viaggio Musicale" with Il Giardino Armonico. Lots of more or less obscure composers and pieces, played with attitude.

Your favourite classical pieces