Geeze Dmtri, lighten up won't ya? But seriously, this is just pure sorrow, grief, frustration, anxiety, and anger in musical form. Whereas "The Resurrection" makes me hopeful for what life will bring, this is the piece that makes me want to crawl under my bed and hide. That 2nd movement is one of the most ominous and frantic pieces of music that I have ever heard. It's like when you're being chased by something endlessly in a dream, or some other futile and desperate attempt to survive, like drowning.
Yeah, Shosti could be a bit of a Debbie Downer. I chalk it up to living under the constant oppression and scrutiny of the Party.
That piece is truly gutwrenching. Beautiful though. Such was the genius of Shostakovich.
And oh, yes, so long as we're talkin about great music from behind the iron curtain and considering you like Czechs, you definitely need to give Husa a go.
So, one of my all-time favorite video game series is DOOM. This would be a great soundtrack for the levels that are in hell. There are even a couple of moments that make you're jump while your listening to it. There is definitely a lot of monotony that can lull the listener into a fall sense of security, but then, WHAM! it hits you with another vocal freakout. While the avant-garde stylings themselves are subversive, the content, selections from the book of Luke about Christ's death along with other biblical selections, was also subversive in Penderecki's native Poland when it premiered in 1966. Christianity wasn't too big in the Soviet Union I hear.
This is great! Look forward to seeing more. There's a part of me that wants to respond to each... would that get too noisy? Would you guys appreciate the conversation?
A few of you know I'm in the middle of discovering western classical music on my own. It's quite the ride into the history of music in general. At times I don't have the time to make more than a decision of I like it or not and other times I'm learning a lot. Thanks to the internet and streaming music, I've discovered a lot I'd never had listened to.
I dig these early music recordings for various reasons you can probably find out more by reading my diary if interested, but if anyone is interested in getting into early music, the quality of music here imo is pretty solid. There's stuff missing here that'd be important to still go listen to if you are more on a music history journey.
First I'd like to do a shout out to Jordi Savall, Philip Picket, and Sequentia for being solid early music performers of HIP recordings. I grew to be very impressed by their work. I want to dig more in that direction, but am happy with my initial findings below:
So, one of my all-time favorite video game series is DOOM. This would be a great soundtrack for the levels that are in hell. There are even a couple of moments that make you're jump while your listening to it. There is definitely a lot of monotony that can lull the listener into a fall sense of security, but then, WHAM! it hits you with another vocal freakout. While the avant-garde stylings themselves are subversive, the content, selections from the book of Luke about Christ's death along with other biblical selections, was also subversive in Penderecki's native Poland when it premiered in 1966. Christianity wasn't too big in the Soviet Union I hear.
I'd never listened to that one. Thanks to this, no I have. And I'm glad I did.
But I don't see myself making a habit of it... and certainly not when I'm playing something to doze off with the earbuds in!
This is great! Look forward to seeing more. There's a part of me that wants to respond to each... would that get too noisy? Would you guys appreciate the conversation?
A few of you know I'm in the middle of discovering western classical music on my own. It's quite the ride into the history of music in general. At times I don't have the time to make more than a decision of I like it or not and other times I'm learning a lot. Thanks to the internet and streaming music, I've discovered a lot I'd never had listened to.
I dig these early music recordings for various reasons you can probably find out more by reading my diary if interested, but if anyone is interested in getting into early music, the quality of music here imo is pretty solid. There's stuff missing here that'd be important to still go listen to if you are more on a music history journey.
First I'd like to do a shout out to Jordi Savall, Philip Picket, and Sequentia for being solid early music performers of HIP recordings. I grew to be very impressed by their work. I want to dig more in that direction, but am happy with my initial findings below:
Speaking for myself, I'd love to see what you make of others' choices. At the onset, you were concerned that this thread might not grow wings... you're feedback will definitely help.
With regard to Savall, I do have one of his discs, a delightful covering of the music of Johann Hermann Schein (1586 - 1630)
[quote="sethmadsen"]I'm still combing through my options (both on the works themselves and on the recordings):
1.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_95481_56e29f25c03e6.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=95481]Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 by Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra [/url]
2.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_142627_5bf7cac4b3e1c.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=142627]Stravinsky Conducts Le Sacre Du Printemps by Igor Stravinsky / Columbia Symphony Orchestra [/url] [/url]
3.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_140723_5bb97ed8c4af9.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=140723]Vivaldi: The Four Seasons by Gil Shaham / Orpheus Chamber Orchestra [/url]
4.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_100429_5793c22a9516c.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=100429]Aaron Copland: El Salón México; Suites: Rodeo & Billy The Kid; Appalachian Spring by Various Artists [/url]
5.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_141557_5bd290a9aa527.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=141557]Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites; Holberg Suites; Piano Concerto by Sir Colin Davis / Herbert Von Karajan / Berliner Philharmoniker / Emil Gilels [/url]
6.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_15198_5a5db915c4bc4.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=15198]Carl Orff: Carmina Burana by Eugen Jochum / Orchester Der Deutschen Oper Berlin / Chor Und Orchester Der Deutschen Oper Berlin / Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau / Gerhard Stolze [/url]
7.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_134591_5ae1730169c2e.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=134591]Shaker Loops / Light Over Water by John Adams [/url]
8.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_37481_512dd00439b3f.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=37481]Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition; Night On Bald Mountain by Leonard Bernstein / New York Philharmonic [/url]
9.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_36400_571b956d849d9.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=36400]New World Symphony by Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra [/url]
10.
[img::]https://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_large_139908_5b9d8c8e98c8f.jpg[/img]
[url=https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=139908]Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen by Karl Böhm / Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus [/url]
Runners up:
Requiem Mass
The Nutcracker
German Requiem
Winterreise[/quote]
So Beethoven's 9th is one of those obvious choices but one that truly is so groundbreaking, timeless, and downright transcendent, that nobody could fault you for going with the obvious choice. I've only heard a few of the many dozens of available recordings, but it'd be hard to top Karajan.
Rite of Spring is another one of those dramatically groundbreaking pieces. Nothing beats it... when I'm in the mood for it. I've never heard Stravinsky conducting his own work. I may have to rectify that.
It's hard to be objective about The Four Seasons as it kind of comes with a sort of classical equivalent to a Free Bird or Stairway to Heaven level of burnout. I do love it after I avoid it for a while. I one read that there were more recorded versions of that than any other piece of music. I can't say as I've developed any preference for a particular version.
I always like Copland. I rarely love Copland. Lots of other American composers I generally reach for first.
Peer Gynt is great fun, as is Carmina Burana and the two famous Mussorgsky pieces.
Interesting choice with the Shaker Loops. Very understated music. More plain than I usually go for, but there are times when it can really hit the spot.
Dvorak's ninth is positively unbeatable and I almost put it in my list. It is so full of accessible melody that the snobs will sometimes discount it, but they can only do so by ignoring the brilliance of those melodies as well as the sheer genius of how they are woven together. This is a true musical apex through and through.
I never did really take to Wagner. I probably should, since his overblown, grandiose, long winded pieces are the classical equivalent of much of the popular music I love, from Jim Steinman to Dream Theater. Maybe someday it'll click.
So Beethoven's 9th is one of those obvious choices but one that truly is so groundbreaking, timeless, and downright transcendent, that nobody could fault you for going with the obvious choice. I've only heard a few of the many dozens of available recordings, but it'd be hard to top Karajan.
Rite of Spring is another one of those dramatically groundbreaking pieces. Nothing beats it... when I'm in the mood for it. I've never heard Stravinsky conducting his own work. I may have to rectify that.
It's hard to be objective about The Four Seasons as it kind of comes with a sort of classical equivalent to a Free Bird or Stairway to Heaven level of burnout. I do love it after I avoid it for a while. I one read that there were more recorded versions of that than any other piece of music. I can't say as I've developed any preference for a particular version.
I always like Copland. I rarely love Copland. Lots of other American composers I generally reach for first.
Peer Gynt is great fun, as is Carmina Burana and the two famous Mussorgsky pieces.
Interesting choice with the Shaker Loops. Very understated music. More plain than I usually go for, but there are times when it can really hit the spot.
Dvorak's ninth is positively unbeatable and I almost put it in my list. It is so full of accessible melody that the snobs will sometimes discount it, but they can only do so by ignoring the brilliance of those melodies as well as the sheer genius of how they are woven together. This is a true musical apex through and through.
I never did really take to Wagner. I probably should, since his overblown, grandiose, long winded pieces are the classical equivalent of much of the popular music I love, from Jim Steinman to Dream Theater. Maybe someday it'll click.
Awesome - I'll have to find some time to reply to more of these other posts, but for now...
Beethoven's 9th is key to me for a lot of reasons. Philosophically, musically, personal experiences, etc., but yes, it has been pivotal for a lot of people for a lot of reasons.
It's odd... a few years ago I found a recording that was Stravinsky conducts Stravinksy of it and I actually didn't like it... (I think it was an early recording and I want to say it was a different version of the work [it was/is a living work that in his lifetime altered). I'm wondering if there are multiple performances recorded, but the one I recently have liked is this one:
https://open.spotify.com/album/73A8QC2L...tZv5Fr52DA
I've heard that a few times about The Four Seasons, and I get it... I mean it's my work's hold music, but perhaps that's what for me is amazing about it... it still is a massively powerful work with amazing dynamic, melody, ingenuity, and most importantly heart (by the way, that's why I chose this recording, the second movement of spring is probably the most heartfelt I've ever heard (Sophie-Mutter is close). The rest are great HIP's with fantastic energy (the one AfterHours recommended recently, as well as Trevor Pinnock and Simon Standage's interpretation), but lack that soft/subtle delivery. To me, it being commercialized or overplayed doesn't devalue the work itself (I kind of hold this ground with any good music actually).
Which American's do you reach for first? I hear Appalachian Spring and I hear and see parts of turn of the century America. It's amazing and beautiful. It somehow perfectly captures the serenity of open quiet America with a loud/robust America.
Peer Gynt is much more than the famous first movement - the whole piece is great and not a single dull moment.
Carmina Burana and Der Ring des Nibelungen have their roots in early German literature, and that's the degree I got. I had a whole semester dedicated to the Der Ring des Nibelungen, so I actually got a chance to understand it more than if I had just listened to it. We watched all 14 hours of the opera. Then about 2 weeks we dedicated to Carmina Burana in another class from it's associations with early German literature/themes of fate, but also of drinking songs/naughty stuff and then some aspects of the cusp of early renaissance Germany.
Dvorak and Mussorgsky... I have mixed feelings about. Sometimes I feel like they should be higher on my list and sometimes I feel they need to be lower. Sometimes they feel like how you probably feel about The Four Seasons (stagnant due to being over played?) and sometimes they feel like the breath of fresh air and artistry they are.
Crap... I'm realizing there's quite a few I'm leaving out. I wrote a few ideas down, process of elmination, but I don't think I wrote down any Mahler (probably his 2nd is my favorite) or Scheherazade... I'll probably remember more.
Which American's do you reach for first? I hear Appalachian Spring and I hear and see parts of turn of the century America. It's amazing and beautiful. It somehow perfectly captures the serenity of open quiet America with a loud/robust America.
In addition to WaltervPiston, who appeared in my top 10 works here, I also really love Howard Hanson and William Grant Still (coincidentally like Piston, for both of them I think their best work is their respective Symphony #2s).
I'm also quick to lean on Alan Hovhaness (whose Mt St Helen's symphony is as magnificently powerful as the title suggests), Roy Harris, and William Shuman (not to be confused with the more famous Robert Schumann).
Since you appreciate Copland's pastoral music, are you familiar with Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite?
Which American's do you reach for first? I hear Appalachian Spring and I hear and see parts of turn of the century America. It's amazing and beautiful. It somehow perfectly captures the serenity of open quiet America with a loud/robust America.
In addition to WaltervPiston, who appeared in my top 10 works here, I also really love Howard Hanson and William Grant Still (coincidentally like Piston, for both of them I think their best work is their respective Symphony #2s).
I'm also quick to lean on Alan Hovhaness (whose Mt St Helen's symphony is as magnificently powerful as the title suggests), Roy Harris, and William Shuman (not to be confused with the more famous Robert Schumann).
Since you appreciate Copland's pastoral music, are you familiar with Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite?
I've heard of it, but haven't heard more than 30 seconds of it to be added to my list. Also thanks for the insight - haven't heard of any of those. That's more or less the whole purpose of this and all the genre threads.
I think for me I'm only really familiar with these American composers (and some more than others):
Ives
Copland
Bernstein
Bloch
Gershwin
Barber
Cage
Adams
Glass
Williams
Which American's do you reach for first? I hear Appalachian Spring and I hear and see parts of turn of the century America. It's amazing and beautiful. It somehow perfectly captures the serenity of open quiet America with a loud/robust America.
In addition to WaltervPiston, who appeared in my top 10 works here, I also really love Howard Hanson and William Grant Still (coincidentally like Piston, for both of them I think their best work is their respective Symphony #2s).
I'm also quick to lean on Alan Hovhaness (whose Mt St Helen's symphony is as magnificently powerful as the title suggests), Roy Harris, and William Shuman (not to be confused with the more famous Robert Schumann).
Since you appreciate Copland's pastoral music, are you familiar with Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite?
I've heard of it, but haven't heard more than 30 seconds of it to be added to my list. Also thanks for the insight - haven't heard of any of those. That's more or less the whole purpose of this and all the genre threads.
I think for me I'm only really familiar with these American composers (and some more than others):
Ives
Copland
Bernstein
Bloch
Gershwin
Barber
Cage
Adams
Glass
Williams
Ives can be very challenging. I do like Bloch; like a lot of American composers, he was foreign born (Swiss). Both the minimalists and avant gardists are very hit or miss with me.
Williams is of course famous as the most successful movie composer of all time, but he has supposedly written some excellent music for the concert hall as well. Of particular interest to me is a reportedly superb flute concerto, but I've been unable to find a recording (only one was made and it quickly went out of print).
More on Hanson:
His Symphony #2 is nicknamed "Romantic" and that moniker is most apt as it does harken back to the Romantic era, but does so in his own voice. It's truly special. Ditto his first symphony, equally aptly nicknamed "Nordic" as you will hear shades of the great Scandinavian composers in there, but also through Hanson's individual lens. I also love his tuneful Piano Concerto and his very unusual yet accessible 6th symphony.
More on Still:
I highly recommend Still. Not only will you be exposed to a wonderful American composer, you'll also get some Black History Month input (he was African American). His Gegro folk song/spiritual-influenced symphony #2, entitled "Song of a New Race," is more chock full of ravishingly gorgeous melodies than anything this side of Dvorak's 9th.
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