Axis Mundi X discussion
I Heart Classical Music
I also love classical music, RA. I don't claim to know /that/ much about it. I just know what I like and I don't like, and I can appreciate good construction and a good crafting of a theme as well as anyone. the SO was actually in orchestras for several years, and he's expanding my horizons and helping me to appreciate it in a more educated way, but that's a slow process.I love Chopin as well! He's one of my favorite composers. I'm partial to emotional piano and violin solos, so his Nocturne series is definitely on frequent rotation at my house. Joshua Bell's violin adaptation of the Nocturne in C Minor is sex on a stick. Seriously, listen to it, its /damn/ hot. I also recommend Jean-Yves Thiabaudet's "Chopin I Love," for some beautifully delicate interpretations.
I love the Beethoven Symphonies. The ninth goes without saying, of course, but I'm also /very/ partial to the Eroica Symphony (Number 3). Get the recording with Leonard Bernstein conducting, if you can. The last track on the CD is him explaining how Beethoven wrote the piece and just why it grabs you, what makes it so good. Actually, get /any/ of them he conducts, they're high quality. I also love Beethoven's Violin Concerto (get it by Itzhak Perlman if you can), the Kreutzer, and all of his piano concertos. I have the piano concertos performed both by Arthur Rubenstein and by Daniel Barenboim. Go with Rubenstein if you prefer a more robust, dark interpretation, Barenboim for a softer touch. I personally prefer Barenboim most of the time, but there are times when I want someone to /tear/ into the "Appassionata," not treat it with kid gloves, so for those occasions I break out the Rubenstein.
In addition, I love Brahms' piano concertos, particularly the second, and his Requiem. I agree with you there, RA! The German Requiem is interesting, in its lack of religious association. Also, speaking of Requiems..:
I am addicted to Requiem masses. I own a ridiculous amount of them. The Verdi is my favorite, followed closely by the Cherubini, then the Mozart, then the Brahms.. it goes on. I feel them so deeply, I don't know why. Particularly the Libera Me and the Lux Aeterna from the Mozart, the /entirety/ of the Verdi (that gets to me like none other. You must check it out if you haven't heard it. Try to see it live if you can. I always end up completely transported.), but especially the Domine Jesu, the Daes Irae (you can just feeel the hell on earth), and the Lux Aeterna.
I also love:
-Mozart's operas (the Magic Flute was the first opera I ever saw, and I retain an attachment to it)
-Copland: I agree about that, but only in limited amounts. I can't take too much of him at once. I love "Quiet City," and Appalachian Spring, but after that, I'm pretty much ready to move on.
-Mahler: I didn't used to like him, but the SO is turning me on to him. The Fourth Movement of the Fifth Symphony surprised me so much with its honest, heartfelt loveliness that tears sprang to my eyes the first time I heard it. So the Fifth is my favorite, followed by the Third.
-Bach: especially the Cello Suites. Possibly among the most perfect music in the world. I also listen to some of his other works (Bradenburg Concerto, Partita for Violin, etc), but those are far and away the ones most on my rotation.
Bunny, I like Rimsky Korsokov's Scheherezade, too, though I like the Russian Easter Overture the best. I particularly love the end.
I'm also partial to Verdi, which strays over into opera, I know, but I just absolutely adore his sweeping, passionate, epically Romantic style. La Traviata is without a doubt my favorite opera in the entire world.
... annnd, that's all I can think of for now.
Put me in the classical music column, too. Listen to that more than anything. (Hate pop.) Bach is a longtime favorite. I can just close my eyes, lean back, and zone out into someplace far away. Philip Glass is no Bach, but I enjoy his music in much the same way. It forces such intense concentration that I'm taken out of myself.
And the Russians. Starting with Rimsky-Korsakov, but continuing on to Prokofieff and Shostakovitch. My all time favorite, though is Stravinsky.
Any time I'm feeling happy and bright, Schubert's Trout Quintet puts me right over the top.
One of the highlights is my life is the afternoon we drove an hour and a half through a rainstorm to see Maurizio Pollini play the Beethoven Piano Sonata with the LA Phil. We were in the second row. And on the way home there was a rainbow.
We used to buy season tickets to the LA Phil, but haven't done so for a few years. It's gotten so very expensive, and the various plans they offer always seem to offer something we don't want to hear or pay for. We always think we'll just pick a few individual concerts, but we end up not doing as much as we'd like.
We've been to several concerts in the new Disney Hall in Los Angeles. It is a marvel. I don't think there's a bad seat in the place.
I love classical music, too. My favourite composer is Beethoven. I love all his piano sonatas, piano concertos (especially No. 5) and quite a few of his symphonies, the Ninth being a particular favourite. I used to take that with me when travelling, and it got me through many sleepless nights. Like Ruth, I also love the Russians -- Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgski, Prokofiev, Shostakovich. The adagio from Rachmaninov's piano concerto No. 2 makes me want to bawl. That's a compliment.Like Kelly, I have a thing for requiems. My favourite is the Mozart one (especially the Dies Irae and Lacrimosa parts), but I agree the Dies Irae bit from the Verdi requiem is just as impressive. That completely gets me high. Stupendous music. I also love Mozart's other choral works -- the Great Mass in C Minor (fabulous) and the Coronation Mass. And for some weird reason I love Bruckner's Te Deum, which is pompous as hell but brilliant.
And finally, Arvo Part. Genius. Te Deum, Silouans Song, Spiegel im Spiegel... brilliant stuff.
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I like big, dramatic exciting music. I love Liszt, Beethoven, and Wagner. I want music that inspires me to pretend I'm a genius conductor, and fling my arms about like a madman.
Or music that moves me to tears in appreciation of the beauty of the intertwining harmonies and minor chords, especially on days when you want to wallow in misery.
Yess, Jackie! I also attempt to.. /badly/... conduct music that I really like. Beethoven's Symphonies are good for that, definitely. :)Martine: I can't get into the Russians, generally. Other than a few by Rimsky-Korsokov, the Stravinsky Firebird Suite, and the Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet. I really want to like Rachmaninov, I really do, but he's just... so abrasive to my ears. With the exception of the Vocalise, which I really like. It just puts me off, I wish it didn't. Perhaps I'll try listening to the second concerto again?
Also, I'm even glad enough to hear that you also are into Requiems (most people find my taste for them depressing) that I won't try to make a Verdi v. Mozart arguement with you. I suppose its more of a visceral thing, anyway. I also preferred Mozart... until I experienced each of them live, and the Verdi just reached down and yanked at something inside of me while the Mozart left me appreciative but cold.
Isabella, Bunny: I'm looking for a good CD of Gregorian chants. Would either of you happen to have something like that to recommend?
Rachmaninov abrasive, Kelly? Wow. That's the first time I've heard that epithet applied to him. Have you tried the second piano concerto? Because really, that's pure melody. Nothing abrasive about it. But each to their own, I guess...I owe my love for classical music largely to Tchaikovsky. When I was young, I liked ballet, so I listened to a lot of ballet music -- Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Stravinsky. Swan Lake was always my favourite. I've since moved on from the ballet music to piano music and choral works, but I'll never forget that it was Tchaikovsky who got me interested in all that. I still get quite nostalgic when I hear Swan Lake. Or Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto for that matter. It's a bit too romantic for me now, but it was definitely the soundtrack of my childhood.
Jackie, thank you for reminding me of the existence of Holst's Planets. I've been meaning to check it out for years. Thanks for the shove.
Martine: Yeah, its possible I'm hearing some peculiarly strong interpretations of Rachmaninov? I don't know, but.. I'll try again. I was very young (early teens) when I decided I didn't like Rachmaninov after listening to a CD of his, and I haven't really been back since much. Perhaps it'll be different to my ears if I try again.Swan Lake is waaay over done for me now. Saccharine, even. Headache inducing. But for a wide-eyed child? I agree. Sounds of pure heaven, likely.
You should check out Holst's Planets! My favorites are Venus and Jupiter, but if you're feeling pissed off at the world, Mars is the planet for you. :)
Perhaps, Kelly... I can see that a very strong interpretation of, say, Piano Concerto No. 3 might put you off, although I don't really mind it myself. Piano Concerto No. 2 is more subtle. As I said, the adagio is pure beauty in my opinion. Up there with the adagio from Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, which is so beautiful it sometimes brings a tear to my eye. Possibly a tad too romantic for your tastes, though. :-)I hear you on the Swan Lake saccharine. These days I agree, although I still (now here's a confession!) put it on every now and then when I'm in a particularly nostalgic and/or swansy mood. My ten-year-old self loved it, though. Drove my parents mad with it.
I'll see if I can get hold of Holst tomorrow. Promise. :-)
Wow, you guys know a ton about this subject.I like Glass and Part a lot...esp. Glass' version of David Bowie's "Low" and Part's "Te Deum". About ten years ago I saw the Estonian Chamber do Te Deum in a Chicago synagogue. Brilliant.
I like Gorecki, too.
I've been meaning to listen to more Mahler...
I think Copland's underrated...I dig his work.
Ooo classical music thread. I used to play both piano and viola. In high school, I was in the NYC All-School Orchestra and every year we played a concert with the NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. Each of us would sit next to a member from that orchestra, awesome. One of my favorite sounds in the whole world is the orchestra tuning up, starting with the oboe through all instruments sounding the A and ending with the cacaphony of individual's final practice of a problematic phrase. To be a part of that is one of my most joyous memories.When you study composers it's fun to realize they were the rock stars of their time, with the masspopulation following their lives much as we do today with celebrities, altho without the internet. Liszt was like the Mick Jagger of his time, swaggering around with outrageous clothing, until he married Wagner's daughter. I learned alot about this when I produced a 22 set of CDs called Musically Speaking with our conductor here in Seattle. There were 2 CDs, one with the music straight, the other with Gerard Schwartz discussing each phrase intercut by the music. There were 2 brochures, one about the life of the composer, and the other a written version of the 2nd CD.
Ruth, one of my favorite pieces is Philip Glass' Mishima.
I have to admit I'm not a big Copland fan. But Chopin, oh never fails to transport me. Rachmaninov can be schmaltzy, so he isn't to everyone's taste. One of my favorites is Dvorak's New World Symphony. Forgive me I'm having a senior moment but I believe it's the second movement that sends me into exquisite raptures, the part which is inspired by Longfellow. When I was a teenager and suffering from insomnia it was Scheherazade that I would play to soothe me into sleep. I used to have an LP of Rampal playing Bach, and I can't find it anywhere now, it's frustrating.
There's something about Gregorian chants that truly transcends into a spiritual experience.
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But I have also always loved Schubert. Mostly his solo piano works. I took classical piano lessons when I was 8 years old and as a result solo piano music makes me deeply happy. I actually prefer piano to large symphony for the most part. Although, Ode to Joy is a religious experience, so whaddya gonna do?
Chopin: Etudes & Impromptus
Beethoven: The Emperor, Ode to Joy, & the Sonatas
Mozart: The Magic Flute (the soprano in this piece is amazing)
I also really love Schumann's 'Papillons'
You saw the Estonian Chamber do Part's Te Deum live, RandomAnthony? Holy you-know-what. Colour me envious. Waaaaant!I think Mahler's Symphony No. 1 is a pretty good place to start; it's one of his more accessible works. I also like his orchestral songs, but they're a mood thing.
Lori, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who loves hearing orchestras tuning up. To me it's a total goosebumps-on-arms experience, but when I mention this to friends, they look at me like I'm crazy.
Dvorak's New World Symphony -- yes, quite. I haven't heard it for years, but I used to like it.
And yes, when I hear Gregorian chants and imagine them being sung in grand mediaeval cathedrals, I understand why people used to be (and in some cases still are) religious. They are transcendent. But so are requiems, I think. :-)
Martine: If you get the Planets, I'll get Rachmaninov's Concert No. 2! We can report back on the thread on our experiences later. And "a tad too romantic for my taste,"? Oh please! I read the Romantics, I listen to the Romantics, I go to galleries to see the Romantics. I know you lower-cased that, but nonetheless! I love my music romantic and Romantic. Give me the big sweeping emotions any day. I just draw the limit at sugar spun, overdone, simplistic things, that's all. Swan Lake happens to fall into that for me. But then again, I didn't grow up on it, and I didn't listen to it at a young enough age to be captivated. But I am all for nostalgia in music. Isn't it supposed to transport us to another place? And it sounds like you are transported to a very happy place indeed. Which is very much the point. :) The music of my childhood was very much Broadway musicals, and I'm absurdedly attached to musicals that I now recognize really aren't that good. Yet, they still retain their power over me. We all have those special pieces that we'll never grow out of. And mature taste be damned, I hope we don't entirely. :)Isabella: I /have/ grown out of liking Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, though. I'll have to very much disagree with you there. I used to love them, but as I've gotten older, I can't appreciate them any longer. I think both their voices lack depth, they are far too smooth and lack any personality, and Sarah Brightman is very badly trained. Her breath control and tone is awful, and she very often sings sharp. I may be bitter because I found out that she never actually hit that crazy high note in the original Phantom of the Opera soundtrack, though that I spent my childhood killing my lungs to do. It was synthesized. Fake! :) Andrea is too limited in range, and on anything but light opera, his voice just can't stand up to it. I do like the "Sacred Arias," CD he did, though. Its good, quiet Christmas time around the fire music, when you don't want anything too heavy. I sort of miss my love for them though.
RA: It sounds like your tastes are much more modern than mine. Surprise! ... not. Just like our tastes in books, I guess. :) I'm not really into a lot of atonal, dissonant stuff that Phillip Glass tried. He did a Requiem and even I had difficulty with it. Its... bizarre.
I agree with you that a lot of music snobs do dismiss Copland far too easily, and they shouldn't. Just because he focuses on an American experience and uses instruments not typically found in orchestras shouldn't turn people off him. It is Copland who showed me how truly soulful a trumpet solo could be, when before I just found them unsubtle, pushy, abrupt. But the "Quiet City," trumpet solo made a convert out of me.
If you try Mahler, do start with the Fifth Symphony. Or just listen to the fourth movement of it. That part is very different from the rest of the piece, but its just one of my absolute favorites.
Lori: Any good Gregorian chant CDs you could recommend? I'm definitely trolling for one.
Charissa: Queen of the Night Aria! Yay! :)
You saw the Estonian Chamber do Part's Te Deum live, RandomAnthony? Holy you-know-what. Colour me envious. Waaaaant!Yes, Martine...it was awesome...let me think...probably closer to fifteen years ago, I'll ask my friend James, he was with me...at a synogogue in Hyde Park in Chicago...magical evening. Surprisingly not crowded, too...
Kelly, the Glass/Bowie thing is awesome...almost like Steve Reich (who I also like). Thanks for the Mahler tip!
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The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin.
"It is almost Friday night. Outside, the dark is getting darker," and here and there around the city ninety-two men and thirteen women are getting dressed to go to work. First they bathe and put on their underwear. Then they don special black-and-white apparel. Then when the one hundred and five people are completely ready, each takes a musical instrument and travels to midtown. There, at 8:30 tonight, they will work together: playing.
In these pages Karla Kuskin and Marc Simont combine their talents to give us a delightful and unusual inside view of one way an orchestra prepares."
ah yes - the lovely, lovely, lovely Ludwig Van. Great for listening whilst playing "Hogs of the Road"
Jackie, what's that great book with the mice family that lives in the orchestra hall? With the father who conducts the orchestra or whatever? Or was it Opera? I like that one, too.
Yep, that's it! Thanks, Librarian!
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Nah, that would be bezoomny, Charissa. Although some would probably find it quite horrorshow.
Deal, Kelly! I'm going into town tomorrow and will make a stop-over at the classical music shop to check out and probably buy The Planets.As for the romantic thing, I was mostly kidding. I know you like Beethoven; that makes you a full-blown Romantic. I also know you enjoy reading Romantic fiction, although I do remember you saying that Jane Austen's Persuasion was a bit too Romantic for your taste. But really, it was a joke. I can see that Swan Lake isn't everyone's cup of tea, no matter what other romantic/Romantic music they may like. It is saccharine. I'd already admitted that. :-)
Anyone into Bach solo violin? I adore it but it always feels like being rolled through eternity in a barrel.
I always bring me droogies as the Durango-95 is quite comfy. And besides, they have thumbs.
Classical music was ruined for me at the age of ten. My mother and father (blue collar guy) divorced and my mother promptly started dating my now step father (white collar guy). I was forced into a dress and made to go to the symphony regularly, to sit still and stay quiet. Torture!I had a friend once try to give me music appreciation lessons and I found that I could enjoy it if he sat there next to me and explained to me the story while I listened. So, unless one of you is willing to volunteer to sit there and tell me the story behind the piece...count me out.
Donna thanks for those recommendations.The one I always go to is Gregorian Chant, The Choir of the Carmelite Priory, London 425 729-2
I was forced into a dress and made to go to the symphony regularly, to sit still and stay quiet. Torture! Yeah, I'm with you on this...I try not to torture my kids with classical music too much. I dont' want to ruin classical music for them forever. I torture them with all my other music.
Rebecca, I like Bach solo violin, but more in small doses, I guess...
Bunny, Isabella: Thank you for the Gregorian chant recommendations. I plan to check those out this evening, ASAP. :)Isabella: Of course tastes differ, and its probably best left at 'to each their own,' right? I still have nostalgic appreciation for Bocelli, like I said, and if I'm in an Enya-esque relaxing mood, I still can mellow out to some of Sarah Brightman's stuff. Just not my favorites anymore, that's all. :)
Martine: Deal! Going to buy the Rachmaninov now! I shall report back soon.
RA: I kind of wish my parents had dragged me to the symphony instead of looking at me weird when I played classical music and asking me, "Don't you own anything produced in the last fifty years?" constantly while I was growing up, and making me feel odd for liking it. Then again, my mom comes from a country music/60s-esque background, my dad from the same plus some basic classic rock, and that's about it. My mom and I did go to musicals together, but that was about the extent of it.
Kelly, I thought that Sarah Brightman did hit the E sharp at the end of "The Phantom of the Opera" but couldn't sustain it. The synthesizer sustains it for almost all of the actresses who play the role, I believe. It's so high for any Soprano to sing and sustain six shows a week (as the primary Christine does six shows and the secondary does two).When Josh Groban isn't singing pop, he can have a very lovely tone to his voice. Unfortunately the pop singing is ruining it, IMO. And he's a speech level singer, I believe, which is odd for a classical singer.
I dunno. I'm probably talking out of my ass here.
EDIT: Hmm, maybe he's not a speech level singer. It sounds like it, but he's not listed on their web site as a famous client. Val Kilmer, Jeremy Irons, and Melanie Griffith are, though.
Kelly, I hope you like them, and let me know how Donna's are, I can't get to it tonight. Meanwhile, there are so many parents who would beg for their kids to listen to classical music, so it's Murphy's Law that you didn't get them. :)
Sarah: Well, this is just a piece of backstage gossip, but my voice teacher was among the girls competing to replace Sarah Brightman when she left, and supposedly she heard that while she was there, backstage. The music director told her, when they thought that she was going to be the one picked out of audition to be the next Christine (was in the last two.. then something about the casting director being an old roommate she had a fight with, I don't know) that Sarah Brightman didn't even hit it in the first place. I /know/ she didn't do it for the shows, certainly not. You're right there.
I believe you. But it's weird, though, that ALW would write a piece of music his beloved couldn't sing, since he wrote the role for her specifically.When I was in high school my dream was to play Christine. But after the fifth time seeing Phantom, I think I really hate the show now. We saw it in NY a couple of years ago (what else is there to see on a Monday night?) and you could tell that even the actors were sick of it. They all seemed so bored. And the production value, which used to be uber cool in the eighties and early nineties, was cheesier than a Disneyland production.
I got dragged to a few concerts as a child cos my mum was in the London philharmonic choir. One time I met Yehudi Menuhin and tried to thieve his violin. :D
Sarah: Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure that the whole Phantom show was ALW putting on display the fact that he'd fallen in love with an idea of Sarah Brightman rather than the woman herself. He's pretty obviously cast himself as the Phantom there, as well, and if you've ever seen ALW or heard him talk... thaaat's a pretty unlikely reflection as well. :) It's all about illusions. The E sharp is probably just another thing that she could do in his dream world. Maybe she could /almost/ do it, and with his lovers' ears he stretched the truth a bit. Fobbed off the producers with some tale about it fitting into the surreality of the piece when they said she couldn't do it, and added in the synthesizer. This is obviously conjecture, but I'm pretty sure I'm not all wrong here.And yes, that show is awful overdone tripe, and it always was. We were just too young and blinded by the lights to know it. :) However, since it was the first show I ever saw on Broadway and as such is a treasured childhood memory, my inner child can still get into it... if I space my listenings/seeings far faaar apart.
Martine: I have the 2nd Piano Concerto by Rachmaninov! Lang Lang and the Vienna Philharmonic. I don't know if I chose right in my performer, since Lang Lang is known to be rather orgasmically excited in his playing style (seriously, if you've never seen the man play, look him up on youtube, its hilarious), but we'll see how it goes. :)
And yes, that show is awful overdone tripeAmen.
LOL, Kelly. I'd bet you were spot on! Hee!
Tripe, Isabella. Not tribe. Hee.And Cats was crap too. Just because it's long-running doesn't mean it's good. I think we'd agree with that on a lot of things. Just because something appeals to the masses (Da Vinci Code, anyone? Thomas Kincade?) doesn't mean it's good art.
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I would only wish I had written the DaVince Code if I could have done so under an assumed name that nobody could ever find out. And the only time I would use that name would be to sign the royalty checks.Money and sales figures often have little to do with the excellence of anything. Sheesh, one only has to look at TV on an average night to dispel that notion.
You're absolutely right, Isabella. I for one am very sorry that I've contributed to Dan Brown's payday.You're also right about different tastes. For example, I love Harry Potter!
I didn't mean to make fun of your spelling. It was just cute because it completely changed the meaning of the sentence. I really admire the number of languages you must speak, and the fluency with which you speak them!
And if you are trying to say you would be ashamed of writing it?I would.
Why would you write something you would be ashamed off?
I wouldn't. I was just positing a what if.
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Jellicles do and Jellicles would
Jellicles would and Jellicles can
Jellicles can and Jellicles do....
:::stabz self::::
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.... the hell happened in here? :)Is it just late and I'm tipsy and hallucinating or are we now talking about water wings?
I particularly love Copland, Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Part, and a bunch of others I'm sure I'm forgetting. Oh, Sibelius. Forgot him. And I'm sure a ton of others.
When I lived in Chicago my wife and I had a subscription to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We had the cheapest tickets in the house, eight bucks a piece, waaaaaay on the top of Orchestral Hall. But live classical music is magical. And I miss it like crazy.
I listen to classical music a lot in the winter, it seems...nothing as awesome as lighting a candle in midwinter, turning off the lights, and listening to something like Brahms' German Requiem.
Anyone else like classical music? What do you like? Any recommendations?