If you like this you'll like........

As suggested elsewhere this is a thread to help people select classical music, where they can draw on other peoples experiences. A bit like David Mellor (urghh) but better because ZG'ers know more

If we get enough responses we could make it a sticky.

Anyone want to start?

 

.. ooo. can I play?

If I like..

Beethoven's pastoral symphony no.6, I would like....?

Bach's Easter Oratorio......?

Vivaldi Stabat Mater......?


NB I like the beethoven the best.

 

Try the setting by Pergolesi. Lots of good recordings of it, but this one by Allesandrini and the Italian Concerto is superb.

 

If you like Beethoven's Pastoral, I expect you would like all his other symphonies... but the line from him to Bach and Vivaldi is a pretty long and fragile one, so while you may very well enjoy the Easter Oratorio and Stabat Mater I don't think it would be possible to predict that happy outcome from your liking for the Pastoral.

Here's my offering: anybody who likes the Sibelius symphonies will very probably enjoy those of New Zealand's finest composer, Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001), who was himself a great enthusiast for Sibelius' music and who studied under Vaughan Williams at the RCM. There are three of them; the First (1949) is pretty derivative of Sibelius, but well worth a hearing for all that. The Second, from only two years later, is to my mind a far more individual and therefore satisfying work, and perhaps the finest symphony yet to have come from the southern hemisphere. The Third (1961) shows the influence of Stravinsky and Nielsen, and is a tougher nut - I'm not sure that I have really got to grips with it yet. There are three CDs currently available (the three symphonies just fit onto a single disc), of which I have heard two. I favour the recent Naxos version with the New Zealand SO (a fine orchestra at the moment) under James Judd. And it's only a fiver, of course!

 

Hi Nick,

I only have a small number of classical albums, which is why they are varied.

I take it that the sibelius symphonies are the Bach symphonies?

It sounds like I need more symphonies by bach or maybe lilburn.

Im not sure about wanting more stabat mater type stuff.. but its nice to know of some more music in the same veign.

I really like the Beethoven the best.

 

If you like Beethoven, you'll probably like Hummel, a near-contemporary. Not as 'challenging' as Beethoven, but plenty of nice tunes.

His best-known work is his A Minor Piano Concerto. The version I have is a long-since deleted vinyl recording on Turnabout, but there's a version on Naxos which may be worth a listen (and is only a fiver anyway)

 

Afternoon bottleneck
could I suggest you have a quick look through "A beginner's guide to Classical Music" at the top of this page which covers Sibelius, Bach, Beethoven and much else besides (thankyou tones).
The next obvious thing to do is have a listen to the rest of the Beethoven symphonies, 9 is still one of my (and others) all time favourites but has big choral writing which may or may not please. Then, if you still like symphonies, Brahms - start with no.1

 

Mmm. Worth trying Beethoven's Violin Concerto perhaps? Sibelius is really quite a long way distant from Beethoven or indeed Bach to be honest...

Anyone got any suggestions for something with the same joie de vivre and energy as Nielsen's Symphony No. 1? NickM: Lilburn sounds interesting, I'll keep an eye out

 

Never heard Hummel's piano concerto but I have heard his trumpet concerto which is very enjoyable.

Michael.

 

Hummel was one of those chance discoveries for me. I heard one of his works at my father-in-laws house without knowing who the composer was. At that time (late 70s/early 80s) Hummel was very thinly represented in terms of recordings, and the piano concerto was the only one I could track down. I sometimes hear the odd 5 minutes or so of it on the dreaded Classic FM and wonder briefly 'who's that by?' before remembering it's Hummel.

 

if you like the Stabat mater and feel like going a bit contemporary may I suggest

SZYMANOWSKI - Stabat Mater by Simon Rattle and the CBSO on EMI same goes with the violin concertos by the same conductor/orchestra.

Also since he has been mentioned I thoroughly enjoyed the Sibelius cycle which has been put out by BIS over the last few years (Vanska as the conductor and Lahti SO). IMO these symphonies are essential for anyone interested in the art form.

Also since several people mentioned him in a rather poor light in the other link currently going on regarding classical - Boulez on DG - his discs including Respons, Sur Incises and Pli Selon Pli (3 separate discs) prove Boulez can produce excellent music.

 

The Hummel trumpet concerto is one of the two "greats" of the repertoire, the other being the Haydn. They were written for the same man, Anton Weidinger, trumpeter of the Esterházy orchestra and born tinkerer, who developed a keyed trumpet to overcome the problems of the natural instrument. The Haydn was written for the MkI if you like, and the Hummel for MkII. Both are a must in any collection, and often come on the same disc. My personal favourite is my Delos vinyl recording of Gerard Schwarz, but Hakan Hardenberger also does a good job on a Philips CD.

Too much trumpet can all sound the same, but the baroque stuff can be really quite spectacular. The Vivaldi double trumpet concerto is the best known, and there are also some excellent Telemann concertos for the instrument. The ace record/CD (hard to find these days) is an Erato one that pairs the greatest of them all, Maurice André, at the peak of his powers, with Nev and the Academy. The resulting musical fireworks are quite stunning, especially the opening adaption of a concerto by Tartini, which demonstrates that some people simply aren't human like the rest of us. The vinyl (bought in 1975) is one of my very favourites.

 

You could try Beethoven's piano concerto's, 1,4 and 5 are my favourites, the violin concerto, and the Romances. Could I also suggest Schubert's Symphonies. No 8 The unfinished and no 2 in Bb are lovely. There's more about them and some samples here
Try Mendehlssohn as well, his Italian and Scottish symphonies are really nice, well in keeping with the Pastoral which started all this.

 

For melody, Tchaikovsky is unbeatable. Any of the following:

The ballet suites
Serenade for Strings
Variations on a Rococo Theme
Overtures "Romeo & Juliet" and "Francesca da Rimini"
Capriccio Italien
Marche Slave

Not to mention the other Russians:

Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherezade
Borodin - In the Steppes of Central Asia
- "Proince Igor" overture
- Polovtsian dances
Moussorgsky - Night on a Bare Mountain
- Pictures at an Exhibition

 

Seconded. I would also recommend Bizet's Symphony in C, a very enjoyable light-hearted piece.

 

Cesar Frank's symphony in D and the Saint Saens organ symphony are jolly good also

 

Agreed, but I'll never forgive him for opening his 1st Piano Concerto with such a stonking great tune and then leave you hanging for the rest of the first movement waiting for it to return, bigger and better, only to find that it never does . There are even a few "ahh, it must be now..." moments that fizzle out, it's almost as if he was enjoying the deception. It's one reasons I don't especially like that concerto.

The other master of tunes (allthough in a quite different way) has to be Puccini. The big arias from his operas are some of the best tunes ever written.

Michael.

 

As "to master of tunes" you must mention Verdi, who would be number one in the European song contest, if he had the possibility. Things like La donna est mobile or Celeste Aida, to mention a few.

 

Yes - Verdi is up there with Puccini.

 

Sorry if I've caused confusion; no, Sibelius is a more modern Finnish composer, very different from Beethoven and even more so from Bach! Perhaps I should have put my Lilburn suggestion in a separate post. If I were you, I'd leave him (Lilburn) awhile yet. I'd say that his music is probably for those who have heard, and like, a lot of 20th century works.

Back to Beethoven. If you like him, apart from hearing more of his music (especially the Fifth Piano Concerto, known as the "Emperor") why not try working both backwards and forwards in time from him? This might require a bit of research to put him in a musical historical context, but doing that research is likely to add greatly to your appreciation and enjoyment of the music (it's amazing how learned you eventually become just by reading CD booklet notes!).

I would concur with others in suggesting that you are likely to enjoy the symphonies of Schubert (especially numbers 5 and 8), who is the next great composer on the timeline going forwards... and at least some of the music of Mozart, who I would offer as Beethoven's greatest immediate predecessor: you might well enjoy his Clarinet Concerto and Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra.

Assuming that you are in Britain, bottleneck, you probably have a reasonably local library which lends CDs, so that you can find out what you like without spending money. They should certainly have most of the works mentioned so far in this thread.