Fiz Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 I am listening to Tchaikovsky's piano concertos at them moment. Musically, who floats your boat? Apart from Tchaik, I like Elgar, church music, Purcell, Sullivan (even if he is very derivative), Handel, Mozart, Delibes.. OK, this could run and run but it won't if you don't answer! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 I tend to go largely for mid-19th to mid-20th century, really: Tchaikovsky (in moderation), Sibelius, Ravel, Debussy, Prokofiev, Elgar, trying to get a bit more into Mahler and Bruckner (and avoiding Brahms as much as possible). Trouble is, once you start asking me to name composers half their names slip my mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Well, let's see.....I enjoy most all the composers mentioned above except for Ravel (he really irritates me) and Mahler (I'm not very sophisticated!). I would add Monteverdi especially his Vespro Della Beata Vergine which I think is a masterpiece. As for Brahms - I do enjoy his Requiem. Handel's Acis and Galatea is stunning - contains one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. And I'd have to add Bizet - especially The Pearl Fishers. Tchaikovsky - mostly for the ballets - but I could do without the 1812 overture - I'm just really really tired of it. Vivaldi - love just about everything he wrote. Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell with the Deller group. Verdi Puccini I'm not at all into modern music - except some musicals and even then I prefer the old ones such as South Pacific. Most modern music sounds like metal trash can lids crashing about. I think I was born old because even as a child I didn't like modern music. Except for a brief interlude as a teen when I social danced to Elvis - but when alone listened to Handel and Mozart. There is some really well done music for the movies/cinema such as the theme from The Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia and The Last of the Mohicans. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 I'm enjoying Philip Glass at the moment - particularly In the Upper Room, which I frequently play very loudly in my car. I've also just acquired his Dracula, which I'm enjoying listening to. Most classical music I enjoy, I have heard because I have seen ballet using it! I adore Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (aka Powder to BRB fans!). I'm also listening to Muse, Elbow and the Bee Gees No 1s album at the moment. Oh, and Seal's soul classic albums. Rory Gallagher Paul Weller. Some Hendrix. Nils Lofgren. Jools Holland 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 Music rules! I did profit a little singing wise from my youngest DD's singing lessons so I do now stay in tune and know how to carry a note, but beyond that I cannot really sing. Both my DDs can and my youngest had no real voice when she first started her lessons. Sadly I cannot play an instrument either. There was no money for that sort of thing when i was young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTL Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 How much does it change as you age? In my first extensive experience of classical music, in my teens, it was Beethoven – any of it I came across. In my late teens and early twenties, Prokofiev's “Romeo & Juliet” score, despite not having seen the ballet on stage or screen at that point; amongst my friends, that was often the only classical piece in their collections. Since then, I never listen to it and usually avoid it on stage. Too many memories! Then Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin. Now, well into middle age, it's more a case of trying anything once, but Beethoven and Haydn predominate on my ipod. My favourites are more fixed, worryingly Victorian and definitely populist: Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, Gounod's “Faust”, Donizetti's “Lucia di Lammermoor”, Bizet's “Symphony in C” to cheer me up and Verdi or Fauré when my friends die. Then there's Milhaud, Poulenc's “Les Biches”, Gloria Estefan's “Mi Tierra” to celebrate summer, the Rolling Stones to purge any trace of a teenage admiration of Lennon and McCartney. Finally, I'll confess to some twenty or thirty years of devotion to Adams' music for “Giselle”, which for me lifts even mediocre performances into something more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTL Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 (edited) Adams' music for “Giselle”.... Sorry, Adolphe Adam, no "s", so it's Adam's. I do try to do my Saxon genitives proper. Edited August 21, 2012 by Grand Tier Left 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul N Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 My no. 1 has to be Mozart. I started with his piano concertos - before long I bought the complete LP box set of Murray Perahia's recordings. How can anyone fail to be uplifted by the start of no. 23? Symphonies 40 and 41 - doesn't matter how many times I come back to them, they're still fresh and fascinating. The string quartets and the two masterpiece quintets in C and G minor. The operas - Figaro and Cosi are my favourites. Then, probably Chopin. Just love all of this, can listen to it forever - waltzes, nocturnes, mazurkas, preludes, ballades. I love the old recordings c1930s by the likes of Cortot (especially) and Rubinstein, also, later, Lipatti. I was really irked when I heard the orchestrated versions used in Sylphides - didn't work for me! Schubert - again, his chamber music - the string quintet is a must, as is his piano sonata D960 (The Lindsays and Wilhelm Kempff respectively for me). I love symphony no 9 especially the second movement and the third movement scherzo and trio. Then, I just love his songs. I have several discs by Elly Ameling. Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise are also essential (but perhaps not if you want cheering up). Then, of course, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms (German Requiem yes, symphony 2, violin concerto), Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Bizet.... Getting back to Germany.... Bruckner - symphonies 4 and 6 by Celibidache/Munich; no 9 by Giulini and the Vienna Phil. I like quite a lot of Wagner - I would have to single out bits of the Ring, and Meistersinger. I also like the Richard Strauss "sound" - massive dynamics and texture. Obviously his swooping songs; also some of the opera sounds - Elektra and Frau Ohne Schatten, also Arabella...... Hildegard Behrens, "Orest!" from Elektra: Loads more I don't have time for now. On film music.... Once Upon A Time In the West 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 How could I possibly have forgotten Strauss: I know some people find the orchestration a bit overblown, but I love it. Especially Tod und Verklärung. I have a 9-disc set of all his orchestral music. And then, looking at my CD collection now I'm home, there's also a disproportionate amount of Dvorak and Stravinsky. And of course Bruce Springsteen. Haven't yet got fully into Wagner, but I do love Lohengrin. And, getting back to Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin. BTW, Anjuli, Handel's Acis and Galatea is stunning - contains one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. Which bit did you mean? I'm struggling to think. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 How could I possibly have forgotten Strauss: I know some people find the orchestration a bit overblown, but I love it. Especially Tod und Verklärung. I have a 9-disc set of all his orchestral music. And then, looking at my CD collection now I'm home, there's also a disproportionate amount of Dvorak and Stravinsky. And of course Bruce Springsteen. Haven't yet got fully into Wagner, but I do love Lohengrin. And, getting back to Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin. BTW, Anjuli, Which bit did you mean? I'm struggling to think. "Love in Her Eyes Sits Playing" - my recording is with Peter Pears and Joan Sutherland - here is the YouTube link: I hope the llnk works - if it doesn't just Google: Acis & Galatea - Love in Her eyes - Pears - and it'll come up. I also love "Cease, Cease, Galatea, Cease to Grieve" - well, actually I love the whole thing. Mozart is very VERY high on my list - my previous post should have made that clearer. One of the things I love about him is - he doesn't noodle around. He knows where to start, he knows exactly where he's going, and when he's done - that's it - no extraneous chords - when he's done - it's over. One does get the feeling that the entire composition was born as a whole piece before he ever set it down on paper. I also have the movie "Amadeus." It makes me very sad that he was buried in a pauper's grave with no Requiem. Were I wealthy (really wealthy) I would hire an opera house and on the yearly anniversary of his death I would have his Requiem performed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Baroque and Renaissance music are my great loves, but my CD collection is pretty wide, my favourite recording artists are Emma Kirkby and Andreas Scholl. In opera my preference is anything written before 1800 with Handel the supreme favourite, but I adore Puccini too and a couple of months ago made the pilgrimage to his former home in Lucca which was a wonderful experience. Being Irish I've a great love for the Chieftains, my favourite piece by them is 'Women of Ireland', the haunting theme of the film Barry Lyndon. Anjuli_Bai, Mozart wasn't the only composer to die in poverty, though by far the greatest; I like your idea of an annual requiem for him very much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 "Love in Her Eyes Sits Playing" - my recording is with Peter Pears and Joan Sutherland - here is the YouTube link: Duh! Of course. When I was trying to recall bits of A & G yesterday, all I could get was Polyphemus singing about cherries and things . BTW, have you seen the Royal Opera/Royal Ballet collaboration on DVD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Now I think of it, I very much enjoyed Semele, too. (Had to stifle a giggle while watching Danielle de Niese sing "Myself I shall adore", though ) And going back to Fiz' initial post, I'm afraid Tchaik piano concertos don't float *my* boat, especially not the first. The second's not so bad ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Duh! Of course. When I was trying to recall bits of A & G yesterday, all I could get was Polyphemus singing about cherries and things . BTW, have you seen the Royal Opera/Royal Ballet collaboration on DVD? I do have it - sent to me by a dear friend - but - I have to admit this - I haven't as yet watched it. It arrived at a time when our sound system was undergoing a major overhaul and it got put on the shelf. I will watch it - i promise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 23, 2012 Author Share Posted August 23, 2012 More favourites :- Rachmaninov, Palestrina, Bach, Smetana and others who I sure will occur to me after I have posted this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 I have the most ridiculously eclectic collection of music going. The first piece of music I fell in love with was probably Dvorak's 9th, which (apparently) I used to demand over and over again as a toddler because it made me cry (!). Then Holst's Planets, Swan Lake, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, anything I could get my hands on. Now I have a mixture of probably every music genre including rap, opera, and of course lots of Tchaikovsky. But I do have a particular love of both Pink Floyd and Genesis. :-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 I've just bought Latino by Milos because I read about it somewhere. It is absolutely entrancing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now