Help me add some classical music to my playlist

[MEbenhoe]

I really like some of the classical music I've heard. It can be relaxing and a good change of pace at times. However I have no clue what is good to get. So far on my list are Beethoven's 5th Symphony, 9th symphony, and Flight of the Bumblebee, Pachelbel's Canon in D, and the William Tell Overture. Pretty weak list, so help me add to it.

[Shajen]

Wagner has some good stuff. Ride of the Valkyres and all that.

Uhm, the best place IMO to start is the "classical music's Greatest hits" stuff you see at like Barnes and Noble, or music stores. Seriously. You get a wide selection of music in various styles for pretty damned cheap.

GL with this.

[turnipmonster]

do you want symphonic music, or any classical?

some of my favorites
bach: the goldberg variations (get glenn gould's recording of this!)
bach: st matthew's passion
shostakovich: any of his string quartets
bartok: any of his string quartets

other composers: brahms, ravel, debussy, chopin (all have written spectacular works for solo piano)

both mozart and hadyn's string quartets are classic works (I'm writing a string quartet for my wedding, so I've beeen listening to a lot of them).

incidentally, the naxos label is really great for getting inexpensive classical cds.

[BOTW]

Bach Violin Concertos
Handel's Messiah
Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Mozart Requiem & Piano Concertos
Brahms Piano Concerto no 1
Wynton Marsalis Baroque Music for Trumpet

[partygirluk]

Get all of Beethoven's other Symphonies - they are all excellent. I actually think 9 is the the most overrated piece of music in history.

Also, try Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 14 (AKA the moonlight sonata)

[MEbenhoe]

[ QUOTE ]
do you want symphonic music, or any classical?

[/ QUOTE ]

I prob lean more towards the symphonic, but I would say any would do.

[swede123]

Several good suggestions already. You can't really go wrong with Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. Someone also mentioned Debussy, who's made some of my favorite works: Claire de Lune, La Mer being two of them.

Classical guitar is pretty cool as well. Look for works by Vivaldi, Villa-Lobos, and Albeniz. It's often times not symphonic stuff, but I find it one of the most relaxing types of music.

Cheers,

Swede

[lu_hawk]

Handel's Largo from Xerxes is one of my favorite songs, classical or otherwise.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
Get all of Beethoven's other Symphonies - they are all excellent. I actually think 9 is the the most overrated piece of music in history.

[/ QUOTE ]

I completely agree. 7 is superior to 9, and perhaps all the others.

[Bad Beat Coming]

Besides poker, my undergraduate degree is actually in music theory. So here's a subjective list:

Beethoven's 3rd and 7th Symphonies.
Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites
Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique
Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony (Pathetique)
Mahler's 5th and 6th Symphony
Mozart's 40th and 41st Symphonies

and the single best piece of music ever written, by far:

Appalachian Spring, by Aaron Copland. This should be #1 on every list.

[jason_t]

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 3
Bach - Goldberg Variations
Chopin - Preludes
Haydn - Symphony No. 94 Surprise (off the top of my head, the number could be wrong)
Beethoven - Kruetzer sonata for violin and piano
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9
Beethoven - Diabelli Variations
Bach - Violin Concertos

[droolie]

Bach brandenberg concerto #5
Handle water music
Ravel Bolero
vivaldi 4 seasons
mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 (This is my all time favorite work)

It's important to get the entire piece when buying classical music. You may want to buy a "best of" to get the flavor of a particular composer but then go out and get the entire piece. Many complition discs will not include all parts of a work but will instead give just the most dramatic part. They'll have the overture or the allegro but not the rest which is like the cliff notes version of a great novel. The great composers wrote their masterpieces with the expectation that the entire piece would be taken togther. They build on a theme and it changes and expands as the piece develops. By not hearing the entire peice you will miss out on a lot of the experience. It's akin to listening to the Beatles "A day in the Life" but turning it off before Paul sings "Woke up got out of bed..."

I would seriously consider buying box sets of mozart, bach and beethoven that are "complete" sets of symphonies or piano concertos. They are can't miss composers that you are sure to love. Other greats that are worth exploring include Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Richard Wagner, Franz Schubert, Johanne Brahms, etc.. if you go through their catalogues you will surely find some titles that ring a bell. I recommend checking them out and when you find one you like getting a box set and digging in. They are all very different from different periods and you'll probably find you prefer one type of classical music to another.

Check out this link if you want some serious info...
http://classicalmusic.about.com/b/a/136017.htm

[partygirluk]

Rachmaninov is a personal favorite. I particularly like his Piano Concerto No. 2, and Rhapsody on a theme of pagannini

[Chobohoya]

A lof of good stuff has been mentioned so far, especially by Bad Beat.

Besides what he mentioned: (these are all symphonies, except Copland)
Beethoven's 6th
Copland's Billy the Kid and Rodeo
Dvorak 9th
Mozart 38-41
Mahler 1
Shostakovich 5 & 7

If you decide to get into solo pieces, try and get recordings by the best musicians. People have their favorites, but some great ones are: (for violin at least) Itzhak Perlman, Jascha Heifitz, Oistrakh, Henryk Szeryng, and Joshua Bell.

Some solo stuff:
(violin)
Beethoven's, Brahms', Mendolssohn's, Tchaikovsky's and Bruch's Violin concertos.
Beethoven Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 9
Sibelius Concerto in D minor
Paganini: 24 Caprices
Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

(piano)
Anything by Chopin. Seriously.
Beethoven Sonatas 14, 17, and 21
Prokofiev concerto no. 3
Rachmaninoff no.3

Should be a decent start.

[frank_iii]

[ QUOTE ]
Bach brandenberg concerto #5

[/ QUOTE ]

Any of the 6 would be an excellent choice!

I'd also recommend, in no particular order:

Bach - Sonatas & Partitas (Heifetz recording)
Bach - Double Concerto (Heifetz & Friedman)
Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique
Paganini - 24 Caprices
Schoenberg - Suite for Piano, Opus 25

[turnipmonster]

more classical guitar:

Fernando Sor, Franscisco Tarrega, Leo Brouwer. Brouwer is one of my favorite composers for guitar, very modern stuff.

--turnipmonster

[MEbenhoe]

[ QUOTE ]
Classical guitar is pretty cool as well. Look for works by Vivaldi...


[/ QUOTE ]

Just downloaded the entire work of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, hope its good.

[Rhone]

There have been a lot of good suggestions. I'll just add a few thoughts. One Bach recommendation I don't think I saw here is the Mass in B-minor. Really beautiful piece.

For something a bit more, um, interesting, try Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring". The uppercrust Parisian audience rioted at the first performance in 1913.

Oh, and while I realize arguing about which of Bethovan's symphonies is the best is like arguing about abortion or the middle east peace process (you're not going to change anyone's mind), what the hell, I'm going to add my two cents. The 9th is not overrated. Grossly overplayed, yes, but it is a fantastic piece. But my personal favorite is the Pastoral, the 6th.

Rhone.

[frank_iii]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, and while I realize arguing about which of Bethovan's symphonies is the best is like arguing about abortion or the middle east peace process (you're not going to change anyone's mind), what the hell, I'm going to add my two cents. The 9th is not overrated. Grossly overplayed, yes, but it is a fantastic piece. But my personal favorite is the Pastoral, the 6th.

[/ QUOTE ]

Woo hoo! The only Beethoven symphony I listen to.

[Allan]

Here is good list to look at. While some of the recordings may not be the favored performances by some but you'll get a worthy performance in good sound.

Classics Today 100 Cd's to build your library (http://classicstoday.com/features/100cds.asp)


Enjoy,

Allan

[Allan]

The problem with these greatest hits compilations is that the performances usually suck meaning there's a good chance you actually won't enjoy what you're listening to.

Allan

[Shajen]

[ QUOTE ]
The problem with these greatest hits compilations is that the performances usually suck meaning there's a good chance you actually won't enjoy what you're listening to.

Allan

[/ QUOTE ]

Eh, I was trying to give him a starting point is all. He said he wasn't sure what he liked and I used those to start my little collection off.

Anyway, your advise is more wise.

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Allan]

Unless you are a completist you really don't need a box of complete Mozart Symphonies. #35 on should be fine. That early stuff is trash.

Allan

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
bach: the goldberg variations (get glenn gould's recording of this!)
bach: st matthew's passion

[/ QUOTE ]

Great choices. I'm listening to Passion right now. Weird.

[Allan]

I agree with Turnip that Naxos is a great label for classical CD's. Most of the standard rep in there catalog is decent. What they really are excellent for is stuff that doesn't get recorded often. This includes things like obscure works by big composers as well modern repertoire that maybe only has one competing recording.

Their catalog of historic recodings is awesome. Great stuff there.

Allan

[jason_t]

There is a CD containing Symphonies Nos. 25, 26, 27, 29, 32 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting is amazing.

[Allan]

I thought someone would call me out on those. I do enjoy those works, especially 25 and 29. My point was that if you got something from 35 on you couldn't go wrong but if you're spending a lot of money getting a complete set that contains the real early stuff you might be wasting money.

Allan