Anyone into classical?
 

I just recently fell in love with classical music. I've always listened to Beethoven but now I am branching out to other composers and operas too. I can't beleive how you can get complety lost in some of the songs. There is some beautiful music that I have been missing for a long time.
Can anyone suggest some great songs to listen to?

i listen to classical almost exclusively, candy. if you're looking for great "songs" (short, vocal pieces) then guys like mahler, schubert, and brahms have great stuff (i mention mahler first because he's my favorite). i would mention specific pieces, but really you can't go wrong with any of their stuff. if you're into other areas of classical let me know; i'd be glad to give you some suggestions.

I'm another from the terrible "ancient music" crowd.

The first thing to learn when getting into real music--that is, classical or baroque, and even some "Romantic"--is that 'song' is usually the wrong word. The song as it is a rather recent invention. Classical music falls into all sorts of divisions and groupings. You might call, for instance, an operatic aria a "song", but that's not quite right. If you want to really grow in appreciation, you should at least have a rough understanding of musical forms. A quick Google reveals this dictionary of musical forms. More simple Googling will find all sorts of information about music history, which will also lead to some composers worth hearing! Check Amazon for hints on what CDs to get of a particular piece--its classical music reviews are quite good.

Now, for personal recommendation, I must submit Bach. All of Bach. I am a tremendous Bach fan. I just got a piano rendition of Bach's Toccatas, Amazon ASIN "B000069CVA", which is simply awesome. However, this might not be quite your "thing"? If you're familiar with Beethoven, you might prefer somewhat later music. You could fill up your Beethoven collection with all his symphonies and piano concerti.

Another personal recommendation is for sacred music. Most of the great composers wrote at least something for the church: in chronological order, I recommend lots of Vivaldi; try the "Sacred Music" CD series put out by Hyperion records, which I love deeply; Bach's Mass in B minor, among his many other sacred works; Mozart's famous Requiem and his other Mass settings; Verdi's Requiem; oh, the list goes on: Berlioz, Rutter... My tiny library is 150 hours long, and I feel that I have nothing. Listen! If you like it, get more of the same form, or by the same composer, or by similar composers.

"The best of" or other compilation CDs are nice to get a taste for a composer and his various forms, but once you have gotten a taste--by all means go ahead and get full performances of the music you like. Handel's Messiah, for instance, has a few grossly overplayed sections ("Halleluja"), which have almost completely lost their beauty, along with a lot of really delightful pieces, say, in the third section, that are rarely played.

It's fun! Don't be too serious about it. Listen, listen, listen. Get headphones or good speakers. You can get the cheap Sennheiser models for a pittance; classical music really demands high quality. Don't get turned off by the stigma of stuffiness or "old"ness--it's not! I say this as a teenager. :D

Oh. And go to concerts too. It's not that expensive, really, especially if you qualify for student discounts, which are usually _extremely_ deep. This depends on where you are--here in Los Angeles, we have a good Opera and Philharmonic, and lots of other musical opportunities--for instance, weekly organ concerts at the Cathedral after Mass.

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! Then try playing it! That's for another post though.

I have a real problem with labels; my perspective is if you like a musical piece, who cares when it was written, or by whom? I listen to all forms of music equally (except ANY type of "pop" music, it'susually crap). At any given time, in my house, Hendrix might be followed by Sgarlatti, or The Allman Brothers by a little Prokofiev; music is subjective, the typical human trait of putting labels on different types of music makes people think that (for instance) Classical music is too old to be good, so folks short-change themselves and never sit down and enjoy the "The thoughts of a brain that has been dust for two hunderd and fifty years". (Not my quote; I wish it were). Forgetting about the artifical labels that people put on music opens up your perspective; if you've never heard a piece of music, it's new to you, why would the fact that it was written 200 years ago alter that?

I like it when I'm in a quiet mood or studying

Vivaldi
Debussy
Tchaikovsky

Got an mp3 cd with of about 120 fave classical works for going home at nine tonight. Makes me unwind after such a day...

Some Classical pieces are the heaviest songs around. I've heard a few that just blew me away but i dont know the names.

Classical guitar is awesome and anybody who can pull it off deserves a ton of credit, that stuff gets hard.

You might want to check out this thread:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...&threadid=1718

Im a classically trained Violinest and Pianant. i like it

Verdi's Requiem is the most amazing classical music I've ever heard

hey guys, I'm terribly inexperienced in classical, but what I've heard, I do enjoy. But what I refer to as classical is like The Requiem Overture, which is a score from the movie Requiem for a Dream. If you guys don't think thats real classical, I apologize. If you guys don't mind, could someone tell me some really fast classical, not so much the beautiful, slow stuff. That stuff I can really respect, and I like it sometimes, but I LOVE that fast classical, it pumps me up, so any suggestions for that?

Thanks.

I have a 10 CD collection, with around 15 songs per each that I listen to mainly for relaxing. Includes such greats as Bach, Chopin, Puccini, Grieg, Mozart, Verdi and many more.

crow_daw, here are a few:

chopin piano etudes
bach fugues
beethoven scherzos from symphonies #2,3,7,8,9
prokofiev classical symphony
dvorak american suite
mozart marriage of figaro overture
rossini william tell overture (lone ranger)
rachmoninoff piano concerti (mainly the finales of these)
khachaturian sabre dance (classic looney tunes, breaks the speed limit)

there is a ton of fast stuff out there; i'm not very good at lists. if you're interested look up chamber music (concerti, sonatas, etudes, etc) because those types of pieces almost always have fast sections basically written to show off how good the soloist is.

crow_daw,

I would add to that list,

-Rossini, Barber of Seville, overture
-Mozert Requiem, esp. the Dies Irae
-Tchaikovsky, 1812 overture
-Handel, Messiah, esp. the Hallelujah Chorus
-Holst, The Planets, esp. Mars and Jupiter

and the ultimate in classical frenzy

Flight of the Bumblebee.


You won't fall asleep listening to any of those.

I'd add Copeland, Appalachian Spring. It's not classic Classic, but it's very accessible to the modern listener, but with a lot of complexity too...

thanks guys, much appreciated.

Verdi's Rigoletto (Caro nome), preferably sung by Lucia Popp...I'm not big on Opera but this is JUST gorgeous...

Otherwise Gershwin's the way to go! Rhapsody in Blue is a definate fav'