Post: #76

There's a semi-opera adaption of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a Renaissance work called The Fairy Queen, and its by Henry Purcell. It has some extremely beautiful and witty lines in the non musical parts. The story has a theme of the inconstancy and insanity of love. It reminds me something C.S. Lewis said, that Eros (sexual love) is naturally funny, and shouldn't be taken with such a serious attitude. It's sensual, with lots of inuendos, but it seems somehow wholesome. The music is from the Renaissance, so it may not be to even a classical music lovers taste. I really liked it, though.

Post: #77

Chopin's Four Ballades (especially no 1), Nocturne op. 9 no. 1+2, and Fantasie Impromptou.

Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody.

Debussey's Arabesque and Clair de Lune are amazing.

Holst's Planets is great as well (I've seen it performed live and would thoroughly recommend it).

I also like pretty much anything by Einuadi Ludovico and Two Steps From Hell (if you can call them classical).

Post: #78

Gentlemen, I present the most profound work of divinely inspired music ever written:

Mozart's Requiem Mass





Listen to the whole thing, you won't regret it.

It was the piece of music ever written by Mozart, but he died before he finished it, so one of his understudies had to complete the work.

I sang in a choir once, and this was part of our works for the season. You will get tears in your eyes when singing this and a chill will run down your spine.

It is the ultimate reminder that we are all going to die one day, and that you might as well live the best possible life on Earth to earn your spot in Heaven.

As a Catholic and a music lover, this music moves me like no other.

Post: #79

Yes, Shostakovich

Post: #80

Faure - Pavane, Op. 50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQDoN40-_C4

Post: #81

Nielsen's Helios Overture

Quote:Besides his well-known six symphonies, the Danish composer Carl Nielsen wrote many short orchestral works, one of the most famous being the Helios Overture.[1] In 1902, Nielsen signed a contract with the publisher Wilhelm Hansen, which allowed him to go to Athens, Greece, to join his wife Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, who was one of the first sculptors allowed to make copies of the bas-reliefs and statues in the Acropolis Museum.

Anne Marie, who had been granted the Ancker Award, was studying Greek art, while Nielsen, being a man of many interests, was interested in archaeology.[2] The local conservatory placed a study room with a piano at Carl Nielsen’s disposal. Here he could sit and compose when he was not on excursions in the surrounding mountains with or without Anne Marie.[2] Nielsen's stay in Athens gave him the inspiration of a work depicting the sun rising and setting over the Aegean Sea, an overture which he called Helios. He began work on it in March 1903, and finished it on April 23 the same year.[1][2]

The score is written for three flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings.

The work begins as the sun ascends over the Aegean Sea, while strings, divided horns and woodwind sound a melody. This rises out of the darkness to a full orchestra, where fanfaring trumpets begin a striding theme, which returns later in the piece. From there woodwinds begin a graceful tune, from which brass sound. Strings begin to play, which draws the orchestra into a reprise of the striding theme and its fanfare. In the final measures, the music subsides as the sun sinks over the horizon of the sea. The average playing time is between ten and twelve minutes.

On the score, Nielsen wrote:

"Silence and darkness,
The sun rises with a joyous song of praise,
It wanders its golden way
and sinks quietly into the sea." [3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Overture





Had the pleasure of watching it performed live at the beautiful Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal. A very fond memory.

Post: #82

bump

Post: #83

Happy to see a lot of hammers already on this list...Bach, Liszt, Vivaldi, Dvorak's New World...

Liszt's music in particular has always struck me as extremely masculine, especially compared to a fellow Romantic like Chopin. His symphonic poems deserve attention:







Play attention at 2:32 and note how the entire introduction builds up to it...and then right at 2:32 the whole thing collapses into a triumphant heroic theme.

No discussion of great pieces would be complete without mention of Stravinsky's Firebird:



This one takes a few listens, but highly worth getting to know. He began composition in early 20th century in Ukraine...amazing to get an insight into the cultural richness of Imperial Russia before WWI and the revolution.

And a major throwback...There are simply too many Bach pieces to know...you could spend a lifetime studying just Bach. I would make the Violin and Cello partidas a high priority though. Here's the EM for violin, it's quite famous (I used to play the entire suite on guitar...):




The famous Chaconne from the d minor suite, played by Heifetz, who I (and many others) consider the greatest violinist of all time:

Post: #84

Here's the old Lithuanian bastard running a masterclass on this piece:

Post: #85

Prokofiev, Romeo And Juliet

Post: #86

(08-06-2017 08:28 AM)Monty_Brogan Wrote:  Prokofiev, Romeo And Juliet

Prokofiev; a highly eccentric, revolutionary, and underrated composer.

I'll always have a special place in my heart for Peter and the Wolf, I grew up on this on vinyl:





To think that there was a time when young people could grow up with this instead of SJW propaganda normalizing faggotry and other poison.

I'm also partial to Prokofiev's "Love of Three Oranges":





Very easy to recognize the influence Prokofiev had on movie composers like John Williams. Certain passages of Three Oranges remind me of space scenes in Star Wars.

Post: #87

Timely bump Veloce.
Yesterday I caught part of a piece by Maurice Ravel on the radio. I still haven't tracked town which one it was, but when I heard it the similarity to that of Stravinsky was obvious (Rite of Spring and Firebird are probably my favourite pieces of all time).
I see they were both part of a group known as "Les Apaches" (the Hooligans).

I've always said if Igor Stravinsky was born a hundred years later he would've been in a metal band. Looks like most of these "Hooligans" would've been.

Post: #88

(08-06-2017 05:17 AM)Veloce Wrote:  Liszt's music in particular has always struck me as extremely masculine, especially compared to a fellow Romantic like Chopin.

Maybe that's partly why he has a (probably false) reputation as a womanizer: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-Frans-L...-womanizer

Post: #89

Get to know this piece. It took me 3 or 4 full listens to really "get it".





At 8:04 the crescenedo officially begins, nearly a minute long, starting quiet and unassuming but somewhat quickly builds up to a glorious and drawn out 10 seconds of pure tension from 8:44 until it's resolve at 8:54 and the ensuing, highly romantic passage that he's been giving you tastes of for the entire piece, but only here at this moment does he really give it to you.

In a similar vein as Liszt, though undoubtedly more long-winded is Wagner. Perhaps one of the most heroic of composers (I may have posted this before but it's worth a repost):





The opening bars set just a specific kind of mood. It's an introduction that almost out of nowhere kicks your ass into gear with an explosion of tension at 1:35 and resolves at 1:43 and launches into this theme, wandering, very nostalgic, the type of piece that makes you think of triumphs and romantic times in your own life. Pieces like this make life worth living.

If you have the stomach for it, Mahler's 9th is absolutely worth knowing, but this is a commitment that requires a lifetime to really comprehend. I hear something new every time and I've got at least 30 listens in on this piece. It should be listened to, like all symphonies, all the way through. You will need to dedicate 90 minutes of your day to this as it is not background music and requires your full attention.

So that not always being the case, I'll leave you with this, the final Adagio movement, conducted by the only man truly up for the job. This is a movement about a man saying goodbye to life, in the most real and bittersweet way possible:

Post: #90

I always had a soft spot for this piece - heard a man playing it after church yesterday, excitedly ran up to him and asked him the name of the piece. To my chagrin, he only spoke Ukrainian, but I was able to make out "Mozart" and "Turkish".