Classical Music Recommendations...

Chris Messineo

Chris Messineo

Veteran
I love listening to classical music, especially when I write. However, my collection is pretty lame and I was hoping to get a few recommendations for some additions.

Here are some of my favorites and I would love to find some more stuff along these lines:

Barber - Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 (my all time favorite)
Holst - The Planets
Orff - Carmina Burana
Saint-Saëns - The Carnival of the Animals
Debussy - Clair De Lune
Albinoni - Adagio in G Minor
Shoshtakovich - Piano Concerts 1 and 2
Stravinksy - The Firebird

As you can probably tell, I tend to like dark moody pieces (usually without vocals - no opera).

Any suggestions for stuff I should add to the collection?
 
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring usually gets me going. Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez is a good one. Also enjoy Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring...not exactly dark though.
 
Dude - you have to listen to some Scriabin. Start with the Poem of Ecstasy (orchestral, not the piano sonata by the same name).... Sonata fantasy No. 2... Vers la flamme (a fascinating study in sustained crescendo)... Prometheus ... the Black Mass sonata... and one of the greatest rollercoaster-rides of composition of all time, Etude Op. 8 No. 12 (try to find the version wit Scriabin playing - it's wilder and very different from most other interpretations).

That said, Messiaens chamber music - Brahms cello pieces - Prokofiev piano concertos and sonatas - the Beethoven Piano concertos (especially the slow movements, e.g. No. 4) - Berlioz (start with Symphony Fantastique) - Schumann's Carnaval - Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit - I'm just associating off your list, but there's so much it's hard! Contemporary? Listen to Crumb (makrokosmos, Gnomic variations), Kirchner, Rzewski...

-Barry
 
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Dvorak's 9th Symphony (especially the 4th movement) is one of my favorites.

Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is excellent.
 
Stravinsky is the one...

Actually Jaws and Star Wars are Stravinsky...

[or at least, HEAVILY influenced by Stravinsky :D)
 
Richard Strauss:

Thus Spoke Zarathustra (obviously, it's the theme from 2001: A Space Oddysey)

An Alpine Symphony, try this, it is some seriously deep stuff... I mean, dangerously deep....
 
Any Mahler symphony... though, start with 1 and 2 to get you into it. Then jump to 5. That will get you ready for the real masterpiece 8!!!

But before you go to 8, go back to 3 and 4. Skip 6 and 7 all together.

If you want to learn true emotion building on a grand scale, Mahler was the master.

Give some John Adams a try too. Stick to his orchestral works for now. Though his operas are masterpieces too they are a bit hard to 'love' even for me.

I'm still a big Beethoven fan... older I get the more I go back to Mozart and Beethoven. Symphony 4 is a hidden gem of a symphony.

I'll send you a copy of my classical cd too. Some good stuff on it. Check your PM in a day or so and I'll give you the hidden link!!

CaptM
 
Missed the no vocal part...

I'd still say try Mahler 2 (after 1)... but maybe skip 3 and 8 for now. 4 is good, though there is a soprano solo in the 4th mvt... but VERY good!!

You want brooding, not much better than Mahler.

The massive Adams piece I was thinking of is: Harmonielehre

CaptM
 
Kronos Quartet performs Philip Glass is my favorite right now
Rachmaninov Piano Concertos (especially 1 and 3)
Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Symphonies (especially 9), and String Quartets
Erik Satie Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes
 
Thank you all for the great advice.

I will be heading to amazon.com, checking out some clips, and making some purchases later today.
 
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JHudson,

Thanks for the suggestion. I am already a soundtrack junkie and own hundreds.

My frustration with Classical music is, I know what I like when I hear it, but I never knew how to get more based on what I already liked. The suggestions above are perfect.

Zim, I love classic rock and I could listen to Zeppelin, The Kinks, or The Who until my ears bleed, but they aren't always good for writing to (at least not for me). :)
 
TheMacB said:
Rachmaninov Piano Concertos (especially 1 and 3)
Click to expand...

... do you mean 2 and 3?

Satie wrote a lot of little gems, ahead of their time. My favorite Satie story is when he tried and failed to invent Muzak (or "Furniture Music", as he called it). He placed the musicians in the corners of the room at an art event. But though he literally ran around shouting "don't pay attention to the musicians! Look at the art!", the audience couldn't help but face whoever was playing and act "audience-like".

If you listen to Satie... read the score (at leasst the markings). They often give surreal, ridiculous and ambiguous hints to the performer about the music - it's especially amusing to hear how, say, a pianist interprets this series of markings (spread throughout the score of a 3-minute piece): "The dandy is very proud of his legs... they only dance special dances... they are nice slender legs... In the evening they are dressed in black... he wants to carry them under his arms... they slide along, quite sad... Here they are indignant, very angry (Do not cough)... often he kisses them and embraces them... how good it is for them!... He absolutely refuses to buy leggings, like a prison, he says... (Continue, without losing consciousness)"

Ah, Satie!

But, I don't know of much Satie work that's dark and gloomy! But much of it certainly good for writing... well, contemplative scenes, at least...
 
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