Classical Music

[Fat middle]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

I listened to Bach's b minor mass, and it was stupendous

Klemperer? I'm happy you liked it.

[hectorberlioz]

yes, very strong music, the b minor...

Let me propound: Berlioz's sacred music is nearly the best there is. I listened to all the Requiem, last night, and that Offeretorium movement gets me every time. The Lacrymosa is...ahh, how can I describe it!
And the Te Deum! The Tu Christi gloriae is so majestic...the whole work is.
The Messe Solenelle is a very early work of his, and in it you can hear a theme used for the Herminie cantata, and more famously for the Symphonie Fantastique. There's a bit of the Requiem's Dies Irae in the Ressurexit, and tenor solo made it into the Te Deum. I don't think you can really label this as plagiarism since Berlioz planned on destroying the messe solenelle. I'm glad he didn't, because it sounds as fresh a work of his as any, and rivals some masses of Mozart's in inspiration.

[Mercutio]

Philadelphia Orchestra concert:

Gilbert Varga, conductor
Roberto DÃ*az, viola

MENDELSSOHN Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream
BARTÓK Viola Concerto
RAVEL Suite from Mother Goose
BARTÓK Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin

My favorites: Miraculous Mandarin and Mother Goose.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Mercutio

Philadelphia Orchestra concert:

Gilbert Varga, conductor
Roberto DÃ*az, viola

MENDELSSOHN Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream
BARTÓK Viola Concerto
RAVEL Suite from Mother Goose
BARTÓK Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin

My favorites: Miraculous Mandarin and Mother Goose.

Another Viola concerto!! That instrument is underrated...But Berlioz (Harold in Italy is a viola concerto/symphony) and William Walton do some very nice things with it.
*sigh* What is it with conductors and Ravel's mother goose suite? What a waste of concert hall time. It's lovely enough, but I don't see anything exceptional about it.
I haven't heard the Bartok on that program...I ought to look in to his stuff more. I have the Concerto f. Orch., and Music f. Strings, celesta and percussion.

[Mercutio]

There's nothing wrong with the Mother Goose Suite. It's very legit music, and not a waste of concert time.


You really need to get the Miraculous Mandarin if you haven't. Get it from the library, buy it, etc. It's extraordinary

[Spock]

Mercutio, with that icon, how about The William Tell Overture? It probably was the first classical music I heard, even before Swan Lake, in Dracula.

One of my all time favorites is the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by E. Power Biggs. It is a tour de force.

[trolls' bane]

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but the first I heard was probably Beethoven's 5th symphony. It seems mostly logical, seeing that all Leonard Bernstein said in the first chapters of The Joy of Music.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Spock

Mercutio, with that icon, how about The William Tell Overture? It probably was the first classical music I heard, even before Swan Lake, in Dracula.

One of my all time favorites is the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by E. Power Biggs. It is a tour de force.

Plenty more of those too!
Check out the Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 543 (see, I'm so crazy about it I actually remembered the opus number!)
Passacaglia and Fugue...I don't remember. But also the "Little" Fugue. And the "Dorian" Toccata and Fugue in D minor(you see what could happen if they used that one famously in movies too?)

Trolls Bane, When I first started listening to classical music, I was amazed when I heard the whole of the Beethoven fifth. I was so used to hearing only the first four notes!

I've known little bits of classical msuic my whole life (the "ode to joy" in the church hymnal version, and "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik").
What really set me onto is the movie scores of John Williams, the music in Babe (which I now know is Saint-saen's third symphony). Then I got ahold of some Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart etc...Greatest Hits. That sealed it.
Incidentally, I checked out the Berlioz Requiem from a library because Sir Colin Davis conducted it, just like on my Mozart Requiem. I thought "Requiems are pretty good so far, I'll try it".

Merc, I have two versions (both french conductors). Pierre Boulez, who also has the Bolero ono the disc. Sur la Barqa, alboredo de gracioso, rhapsodi espagnol fill out the disc. On my Pierre Montieux recording it's Ma mere l'oye, La Valse (which is VERY GOOD), Rhapsodie Espagnol, and Bolero.

i've been listening a lot to my Berlioz messe solenelle, Bach's B minor, Bach organ pieces (as listed above), Schubert's ninth symphony, Elgar's two symphonies, also his Cello Concerto.

[Spock]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

Plenty more of those too!
Check out the Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 543 (see, I'm so crazy about it I actually remembered the opus number!)
Passacaglia and Fugue...I don't remember. But also the "Little" Fugue. And the "Dorian" Toccata and Fugue in D minor(you see what could happen if they used that one famously in movies too?)

Yes, I have them also and they are great but in a lesser capacity for me than the one quoted.

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

I've known little bits of classical msuic my whole life (the "ode to joy" in the church hymnal version, and "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik").

Both favorites of mine.

Mozart has a few symphonies I enjoy also.

[trolls' bane]

Yeah same here. It used to be the only classical "song" that existed! And all it consisted of was DUN DUN DUN Dun...DUN DUN DUN Dunnn...Dun dun dun dun dundund Dun dun Dun DUn Dun. DUN DUN DADUN...DUN...DUUUNNNN.

[hectorberlioz]

You ought to look into Mozart's 29th Symphony. Underrated Imo.

Troll's Bane, what've you heard in the way of Berlioz?

As a point of interest, I used to think Baroque was a man

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

You ought to look into Mozart's 29th Symphony. Underrated Imo.

Troll's Bane, what've you heard in the way of Berlioz?

As a point of interest, I used to think Baroque was a man

Sorry, I never heard ANYTHING Berlioz. I can't seem to find it anywhere. He's harder to find than the Ring in this area, and that is saying a lot!

Oh, by the way, do you know where I could listen to Anna Russell's Ring cycle parody? Have you heard it?

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by trolls' bane

Sorry, I never heard ANYTHING Berlioz. I can't seem to find it anywhere. He's harder to find than the Ring in this area, and that is saying a lot!

Oh, by the way, do you know where I could listen to Anna Russell's Ring cycle parody? Have you heard it?

Bah! you'll never find him in stores (exxageratioinnn...). You MUST look him up on Amazon.com. really, just ask your dad to deposit some of your money into his account, and then order.
Get the requiem, the symphonie fantastique and, harold in italy. Try to find a disc that pairs Harold in Italy with the Les Francs-juges overture.

Anna Russell? Never heard of her...

[hectorberlioz]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/off...?condition=all
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/off...?condition=all

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/off...?condition=all

[Janny]

Vaguely picking up on what TB said about logic, what can you tell me about Bach's canons. I've been doing some reading (uni interview prep) and Bach was mentioned in a discussion of the scientific philosophy concerning reductionism and holism. Bach canons were mentioned as they, as Esher's artwork depicts, rise and rise but, ye gods!, get back to where they started.
Could someone give me a few details or point me roughl in the direction of info?

[trolls' bane]

HB, you have never heard Anna Russell's parody? They were doing a five-hour excerpt program on KUSC about a year ago, and I only caught the last two hours, but she was FUNNY! (They were playing excerpts from her parody to give a synopsis.)
"[Siegfried] gets the Ring by killing Fafner, the giant, who's turned into a dragon in this opera don't ask me why. Well, then, a little bird tells him, and he finds Brunnhilde--"*interrupted by laughter from audience*--"He finds Brunnhilde on the fire-surrounded rock. Now, he's never seen a woman before, so he doesn't know what she is...but he soon finds out. And they go in for some very competitive singing, the type of thing "Anything you can sing I can sing louder." *she does a demo while playing the piano, and stops singing and starts talking as though in the same sentence* "--*ahem* Terrific."

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Janny

Vaguely picking up on what TB said about logic, what can you tell me about Bach's canons. I've been doing some reading (uni interview prep) and Bach was mentioned in a discussion of the scientific philosophy concerning reductionism and holism. Bach canons were mentioned as they, as Esher's artwork depicts, rise and rise but, ye gods!, get back to where they started.
Could someone give me a few details or point me roughl in the direction of info?

Esher! Now there's some interesting artwork!
You know, I've heard so many times that Bach is a very mathematical composer. I've never analysed his stuff so I'm no expert, but you should read up on your Bach with Albert Schweitzer's two volume bio, and I'm sure that if you looked it up here on the net it would come up.

TB, I've never heard it before...hmm...Have you heard of PDQ Bach? I forget the guy who came up with him, but supposedly PDQ was the greatest of Bach's children who wrote such things as the 1712 overture, A lot of Night Music et...
How's your search for Berlioz going? My math tutor just heard of Berlioz today, they were playing the Symphonie Fantastique on the radio (NOT NPR

), and she loved it. But she didnt get to finish it, so I told her that I owned three versions("!"), and I'm going to loan her one of them (My Pierre Boulez version).


New:
Dvorak's 12th and 14th string quartets
Hildegard: Origins of Fire
Holst: The Planets (why another version? it includes composer Colin Matthews' "Appendix": Pluto the renewer, and finishes with Holst's Somerset Rhapsody).

[Janny]

Thanks for the name Hector. In and around my Schweitzer search, I came across this page: http://www.geocities.com/g0del_escher_bach/geb.html

I found a snippet of the particular canon, but it's very hard to hear the effect. I also found a site about a study that was made into peoples' ability to hear this ascending tone.
Anyway, Bach's Musical Offerings goes on the ol' chopin listz. Sorry.

[hectorberlioz]

Found something! Good. At last I've given some right advice.
I imagine it's pretty tough to hear aurally. I'm sure the experts found it when they read through the score.
Whats really impressive is the bass (I'm not sure what else to call it) in the Preludes and Fugues (of Bach). Gives the pieces a very majestic feel.

Also, failed to mention earlier: I also bought a disc of Louis Moreau Gottschalk piano music. American piano virtuoso in the 1800's, Berlioz was a a friend of and advocate of him and his music.
He was from New Orleans by the way, but inidentally was a supporter of the north states army during the civil war.

[Mercutio]

PDQ (Peter Schikele (?)). Great stuff. I have some choral and piano music of it, as well as a cd or two and a book.