Classical Music II

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I youtubed Bruckner and I really like what I've heard--I listened to movements from his second and eighth symphonies and some other pieces that I can't recall the names of. Quite good stuff!

It really is good stuff. Might try the Fourth symphony too, epsecially for the third movement. It was nicknames the "Hunting" Scherzo. Very majestic and exciting.

Two things I've been keen to get my hands on lately are Richard Strauss's 'Ariadne auf Naxos',

I believe that is the opera about an opera....kinda like a few Hollywood films about hollywood...

followed closely by Maurice Ravel's Valse Nobles.

Even though I own that work, I've never really listened to it. I should. Maybe tonight.

Oh, and thirdly that Berlioz cycle of art songs you turned me on to... I'm leaning towards the one sung by Susan Ghram, as I'm rather a fan of her and she has such a lovely, warm tone.

Get whichever version you like, but sooner or later you'll have to come to acknowledge Regine Crespin.

I just need to get myself a new job before I can go buying all of the music I want . Dratted college courses being all scattered about so that I can't get solid working-blocks of time. *sigh*

I know how that is. The NAXOS label btw, is very cheap and commendable. They won Gramophone's Label of the Year in 2005. Incidentally, they have a great Bruckner Symphonies set that is much admired, and much cheaper than most other sets.

[Tessar]

Yes, Naxos is a label that I like very much. In fact, today I went ahead and bought Ravel's Bolero on that label, Daphnis at Chloe (#1), Ma mere l'oye, and Valse Nobles as done by the slovak radio symphony orchestra and slovak philharmonic choir. I dunno how good it is! Haven't gotten to listen to it yet.

I also got some random Cello thing from the LaserLight label. I'm generally way against just getting silly compilations (especially since this isn't even a CD of 'cello' music... it's a cello doing the melody of things like Ave Maria, etc.), but I just love a lot of the songs on here, and I -love- the cello. So I got suckered into it .


Then I got a Fray CD, but that's for another thread .


Also I've heard Regina Crispin--fabulous, but I think my top favorite would have to be Jan DeGaetani. Her voice is just a bit dry with age, but my god, what a rich Mezzo she has. Love her version to bits.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Yes, Naxos is a label that I like very much. In fact, today I went ahead and bought Ravel's Bolero on that label, Daphnis at Chloe (#1), Ma mere l'oye, and Valse Nobles as done by the slovak radio symphony orchestra and slovak philharmonic choir. I dunno how good it is! Haven't gotten to listen to it yet.

The amazing thing is, it started as a label in 1988. Very derided by the mainstream labels.

I also got some random Cello thing from the LaserLight label. I'm generally way against just getting silly compilations (especially since this isn't even a CD of 'cello' music... it's a cello doing the melody of things like Ave Maria, etc.), but I just love a lot of the songs on here, and I -love- the cello. So I got suckered into it .

It's okay once in a while...I think a lot of Laserlight artists signed on with Naxos.

Then I got a Fray CD, but that's for another thread .

Keep that stuff outta here;p

Also I've heard Regina Crispin--fabulous, but I think my top favorite would have to be Jan DeGaetani. Her voice is just a bit dry with age, but my god, what a rich Mezzo she has. Love her version to bits.

I havent even heard that one...*looks up*

[Mercutio]

My speakers just came

Pieces played:
Mendelssohn organ sonata in C Minor 3rd movement
Beethoven 5th Symphony 4th movement
Isaac Regina caeli laetare

now i've got to run to band, bye

[Tessar]

I finally went back to my local library after about five years of not going (their selection just wasn't great, and I got busy with theater and stuff).

I found out that they have quite a decent music selection, these days!

I got to -watch- a DVD of Chanticleer (omg teh AMAZIN') doing various Christmas carols/pieces, and things like the Bibel Ave Maria (which I got to sing a few years ago with my church choir).

And I also picked up Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, as performed by the BBC orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis in '93. I really enjoyed it! I don't know that I would sit and listen to the pieces without doing anything else, as I'll do for some other works, but the music was certainly 'above average' by far, and I may look for a copy of it for my home collection (no, I'm not going to burn the library's version ).

[Lotesse]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I finally went back to my local library after about five years of not going (their selection just wasn't great, and I got busy with theater and stuff).

I found out that they have quite a decent music selection, these days!

AAHHH!! I do the same thing; I've been getting library CDs and burning them iinto my computer for months, now. That's te secret free gold-mine of music, the public library! The only thing is, you have to choose CDs that aren't too heavily scratched, and whatever you do bring home, before popping it into the computer or DVD player it really is a good idea to thoroughly and gently wash the CD's playing side with a soft cotton terrytowel dipped in rubbing alcohol.

But TESSAR!! We do the same thing; I was just at the library yesterday and grabbed a Sinead O'Conner and a Bob Dylan and a Depeche Mode and an Oasis CD, they all burned fine to my computer except Sinead O'Conner whci was too scratched to take to the system.

I have a burgeoning classical collection goin' on, too, thanks to the Public Library. Yes!!!!

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Tessar

And I also picked up Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, as performed by the BBC orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis in '93. I really enjoyed it! I don't know that I would sit and listen to the pieces without doing anything else, as I'll do for some other works, but the music was certainly 'above average' by far, and I may look for a copy of it for my home collection (no, I'm not going to burn the library's version ).

[hypothetical] Librarian: *gasp* this cd cover has naked people on it! No way you're going to copy THIS one, pal.

I know the one, Tessar...
and btw. One more mention of "above average" in the same paragraph with Berlioz will result in something a little more violent that being guillotined and burned at the stake....

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Lotesse

I have a burgeoning classical collection goin' on, too, thanks to the Public Library. Yes!!!!

And I didnt know about this?

[Tessar]

Forgive me, oh great maestro .

I'll have to define what I mean:

To me, average music is pretty, but forgettable. Some of the works of Bach, and various other composers fall under that label... I might recognize the style and say, "oh, this must be so-and-so", but I might not recognize that I'd heard it before.

With something like Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, I'm about 90% sure that if I heard it again, I would be able to go, "holy crap, it's Berlioz's SF!"

That, to me, is above-average... when it's memorable .

[Lotesse]

Pretty, but forgettable, yes I totally know what you mean, TessarBaby... Not just classical, but every genre runs across this phenomenon - in fact, so does painting, speaking of art. BUt yeah, a great chunk of the Baroque stuff all sounds exactly the sweet, formulaic, well-crafted but blurringly boring same to me; in fact a lot of Baroque inspires fits of anti-social and reasonless rage in me, much as, say, some gangsta rap or country music does in others. But I digress.


Hector, young man, I have been listening to classical music since beofre you were born, son. Why does my mention of burgeoning up a classical collection cause you shocked surprise; what, you thought I was only interested in modern rebel-art a.k.a. gangsta rap and whatever-else you might have thought about my musical tastes? This is always a humdinger for people when I tell them what I love and listen to. They dn't get it. And who cares, anyway, ta hell with 'em. I love what I love. Rachmaninoff and Rage Against The Machine, Maria Callas and Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and the Sneaker Pimps, Andres Segovia and Ol' Dirty Bastard, The Notorious B.I.G. and Nina Simone, Herbert von Karajan and Dr. Dre, L'il Kim and Ludwig van Beethoven. Too Short and Vivaldi. Dvorak and The Game. Tchaikovsky and John Lee Hooker. anyway...


What was that old saying, something about a book, and judging, and its cover, something....

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Lotesse

What was that old saying, something about a book, and judging, and its cover, something....

Actually I'm just surprised you haven't graced this thread before...wher've you been? Thats my question...

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Forgive me, oh great maestro .

I'll have to define what I mean:

To me, average music is pretty, but forgettable. Some of the works of Bach, and various other composers fall under that label... I might recognize the style and say, "oh, this must be so-and-so", but I might not recognize that I'd heard it before.

With something like Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, I'm about 90% sure that if I heard it again, I would be able to go, "holy crap, it's Berlioz's SF!"

That, to me, is above-average... when it's memorable .

Ok...maybe I forgive you...you'll have to include this the next time you go to confession though...

[trolls' bane]

I personally have no problem with downloading from Napster (have to pay anyway) and burning library classical CDs. The original artist is in most cases already dead and the copyright long expired, or they existed before copyrights anyway, and it's not like the artists are the ones actually getting the money. I am, however, wary with the twentieth century composers.

Incidentally, I never knew the library had a CD collection, and in fact, I'm rather awed to find out that my town actually has a library!

Hmm...Looks like it's time to pay a visit. I bet at the Indio library, the classical section, if any, is full of never opened classical CDs under an inch of dust.

EDIT/OT: Godsake, Lotesse. Answer my e-mails!

[hectorberlioz]

purchases...not that anyone with anything to say will ever care...

Bruckner: Symphony No.00
Symphony No.8 & 0
Symphony No.7

[Lotesse]

Picked up a bunch of CDs fro the library to load up into my ITunes the other day, and I think, so far, my favourite has been Anne-Sophie Mutterdoing Alban Berg, Wolfgang Rihm, Bela Bartok(what a genius HE was), Norbert Moret, Igor Stravinsky and Witold Lutoslawski with accompaniment by Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra - it is a 3-disc collection called Mutter Modern - Werke fur Violine & Orchester. Anyway, I have been enjoying it immensely, she's a very intense and expressive violinist, and I love her.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Lotesse

Picked up a bunch of CDs fro the library to load up into my ITunes the other day, and I think, so far, my favourite has been Anne-Sophie Mutterdoing Alban Berg, Wolfgang Rihm, Bela Bartok(what a genius HE was), Norbert Moret, Igor Stravinsky and Witold Lutoslawski with accompaniment by Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra - it is a 3-disc collection called Mutter Modern - Werke fur Violine & Orchester. Anyway, I have been enjoying it immensely, she's a very intense and expressive violinist, and I love her.

She's also the wife of one of my favorite conductors: Andre Previn

Bartok is great: look for "The Miraculous Mandarin"...very intense music that you would like.

[hectorberlioz]

Hey Lotesse, this is the Bartok CD I speak of

Update: Amazon.com has a very interesting messageboard for classical music llovers.

[Tessar]

Hm, Andre Previn wrote a gorgeous vocalize for Barbara Bonney that I love to bits, but I haven't heard much else by him. Mostly his jazz works.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Hm, Andre Previn wrote a gorgeous vocalize for Barbara Bonney that I love to bits, but I haven't heard much else by him. Mostly his jazz works.

He wrote a big opera: A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as a violin concerto for his wife. But he isn't a big composer, he mostly conducts.

[Lotesse]

Van Cliburn!!!

Pianist, oh my god what an amazing pianist. I just re-discovered him, been enjoying a collection of piano concertos from, yes, another library CD. Will send chills all through you. You haven't heard piano played right 'til you've heard a recording of Van Cliburn attacking and caressing the ebonies & ivories.