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Grex > Classicalmusic > #45: Most Popular Classical Music - acquiring a basic LP collection | |
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keesan
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Most Popular Classical Music - acquiring a basic LP collection
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Apr 3 02:04 UTC 1999 |
Now that my turntable is turning properly again, I have been going through
my randomly acquired record collection, weeding out duplicates and
triplicates, and notice that some pieces seem to be quite a bit more popular
than others. Things like Beethoven's symphonies, Brandenburg Concertos.
I am considering actively acquiring more of the best musical compositions.
Any suggestions what the top 100 classical compositions might be? I liked
Brahm's Third but not his First Symphony, and would appreciate hearing
opinions on the best few works of each composer as well as the most popular
composers.
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| 194 responses total. |
keesan
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response 1 of 194:
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Apr 7 22:52 UTC 1999 |
Ok, I will prime the pump. I had multiple copies of Handel's Messiah, Water
Music and Fireworks Music. They are all superb. Did Handel write anything
else that everyone should own? (Not that I have every heard anything by him
that is not worth listening to).
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coyote
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response 2 of 194:
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Apr 11 21:59 UTC 1999 |
Did Handel write the Creation? I've only heard short segments of it, but it's
supposed to be quite nice.
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keesan
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response 3 of 194:
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Apr 11 22:58 UTC 1999 |
Thanks, I will check it out at the library. I like Handel but have only
those three pieces (I had multiple copies). What are Mendelsohn's best liked
compositions? I have Songs Without Words, Two Concertos for Two Pianos and
Orchestra, and The First Walpurgis Night.
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jmm
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response 4 of 194:
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Apr 12 00:18 UTC 1999 |
Don't neglect Mendelsohn's lovely Midsummer Night's Dream!
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davel
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response 5 of 194:
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Apr 12 01:17 UTC 1999 |
Mendelsohn's Elijah, also. Handel has quite a lot of other really nice music
which I hear on the radio but haven't gotten around to identifying and
obtaining, besides ones already mentioned. Judas Maccabeus and some
coronation anthems come to mind among choral music, but he wrote some
wonderful instrumental stuff besides Royal Fireworks and Water Music.
I hesitate to get into this item; I'd just be listing either stuff I happen
to have or my favorites, & in general I don't know the literature
systematically enough to have much justification. But I'm interested in what
others have to offer.
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md
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response 6 of 194:
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Apr 12 04:03 UTC 1999 |
Mendelsohn's "Italian" symphony is very nice. His violin
concerto, too. The Hebrides, or "Fingal's Cave," overture
is popular.
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md
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response 7 of 194:
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Apr 12 04:34 UTC 1999 |
Here's a version of a list I made up for an item in the old
music cf about what music you'd take to a desert island.
The selection is very personal: it includes some things that
most people would regard as neither popular nor great and
omits many masterpieces. It includes no opera at all.
Barber:
Adagio for Strings
Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Piano Concerto
Violin Concerto
Bartok:
String Quartets
Concerto for Orchestra
Piano Concerto #2
Beethoven:
Piano Concertos
String Quartets
Piano sonatas
Symphonies
Chamber music
Berg:
Violin Concerto
Brahms:
Haydn Variations
Piano Concerto #2
Symphonies
Tragic Overture
Violin Concerto
Copland:
Appalachian Spring
Symphony #3
Debussy:
La Mer
Nuages
Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun
Piano music (esp Preludes Book 1)
Elgar:
Cello Concerto
Holst:
Egdon Heath
Mendelssohn:
Hebrides Overture
Italian Symphony
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Violin Concerto
Moussorgsy:
Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel's orchestration)
Mozart:
Later symphonies
Later piano concertos
Rachmaninov:
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Symphony #2
Ravel:
Concerto for Left Hand
Daphnis et Chloe
Ma Mere L'Oye (both piano & orchestra versions)
Le tombeau de Couperin (both piano & orchestra versions)
La valse
Schubert:
Impromptus, sonatas, and other piano music
Die Schone Mullerin
Winterreise
"Death and the Maiden" Quartet
"Unfinished" Symphony
Symphony #5
"Great" C major Symphony
Schumann:
Piano Concerto
Symphony #3
Shostakovich:
Symphony #10
Sibelius:
Symphony #2
Symphony #4
Symphony #5
Symphony #6
Tapiola
Stravinsky:
Petrouchka
Le sacre du printemps
Symphony of Psalms
Tchaikovsky:
Symphony #4
Symphony #5
Symphony #6
Violin Concerto
Vaughan Williams:
Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
The Lark Ascending
Symphony #3
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davel
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response 8 of 194:
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Apr 12 11:20 UTC 1999 |
heh. Not my list at all. No Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, Mozart, Haydn, Handel,
............ ?
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md
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response 9 of 194:
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Apr 12 11:39 UTC 1999 |
There are some marvellous pieces that I loved ages ago
but haven't kept up with over the years. Clarinet and
bassoon concerti by Carl Maria von Weber, for example.
Also, Handel's various pieces for recorder(s) and
harpsichord, often transcribed for flute and piano;
Mozart's horn concerti; Rossini's overtures; Haydn's
symphonies and string quartets (minor omission there!);
Haydn's trumpet concerto, with that theme in the third
movement that you'll recognize the instant you hear it;
Dvorak's "New World" symphony; Sibelius's Finlandia;
Smetana'a Moldau; Grieg's Piano Concerto; Holst's Planets.
There are other pieces I've grown attached to more recently
that need to occupy my soul for a while longer before I'd
be comfortable recommending them to anyone. At the top of
that list would be Mahler's 6th symphony. The consensus
seems to be that it's Mahler's masterpiece, but I don't
think it's his most popular music. Just the opposite, in
fact, because of it's extremely pessimistic take on life.
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md
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response 10 of 194:
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Apr 12 11:46 UTC 1999 |
There is some Mozart on my list in response #7, btw.
I have to add Mozart's Serenade for Thirteen Winds,
sometimes called the Gran Partita. And, if you want
popular, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
There are many web resources. You can find lots of
recommendations in the "Classical CultureBrief" section
of http://www.culturefinder.com/ some of which were
written by yours truly.
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keesan
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response 11 of 194:
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Apr 12 12:54 UTC 1999 |
This will keep me busy for a while, thanks. (Can someone tell me if there
is a way to print responses directly other than printscreen?) But please
don't stop.
I liked Leonard Bernstein's Candide overture, did he write anything else
similar? I liked the 2 2 3 rhythm.
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md
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response 12 of 194:
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Apr 12 14:27 UTC 1999 |
Bernstein didn't write anything much like the Candide overture,
that I know of. The closest you might come to it are the overtures
to Rossini's operas, and a couple of overtures by Russians:
Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmila" and Kabalevsky's "Colas
Breugnon" (sp?), especially the latter. Also, Brahms's "Academic
Festival" Overture and Barber's Overture to "The School for
Scandal" might please you.
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keesan
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response 13 of 194:
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Apr 12 18:20 UTC 1999 |
I have Academic Festival Overture on the back of one of my three copies of
Variations on a Theme by Haydn, will listen to it, thanks. I had thought the
Candide was Dvorak at first because of the rhythm. The Festival Overture says
it is based on student songs, none of which I recognize.
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keesan
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response 14 of 194:
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Apr 12 18:26 UTC 1999 |
The Overture is a keeper, which puts me back to two copies of Haydn
Variations or Symphony #3. I have to find a second shelf, quick!
I liked the Rachmaninov Paganini and also Concerto #2 (two copies).
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md
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response 15 of 194:
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Apr 13 12:24 UTC 1999 |
One odd thing about Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody is that
when you come to the 18th variation every woman in the room
falls into a swoon, usually with a little sigh or a murmured, "Oh!
I love this!" Works every time, on all ages, sexual orientations,
political points of view, whatever. And all it is is a variation of
Paganini's theme: an inversion of it, to be precise. Go figure.
I notice I didn't include any Prokofiev in my list. His "Classical"
Symphony is very popular. His 3rd piano concerto is a
knockout. And of course Peter and the Wolf.
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faile
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response 16 of 194:
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Apr 13 22:55 UTC 1999 |
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but The Creation is by Haydn, not
Handel.
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davel
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response 17 of 194:
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Apr 14 11:35 UTC 1999 |
I've always been very fond of Prokofiev's Lt. Kije suite.
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coyote
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response 18 of 194:
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Apr 18 04:45 UTC 1999 |
Re 15:
Don't forget Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Ballet music!
Re 16:
Good thing you caught me there. I wasn't quite sure about that...
This item is so broad that it's hard to choose what to mention... I'm
surprised that nobody's mentioned Shostakovich's 5th Symphony yet, which is
one of my favorite, if not the favorite, of any symphony that I've heard.
Sibelius symphonies are quite nice too (I'm most familiar with 2 and 5).
Let's see... I don't anybody's mentioned Rimsky-Korsakov yet. Scheherezade
is quite famous and a great piece, but I've never heard any Rimsky-Korsakov
that I haven't liked. Berstein's Candide is wonderful (the music school's
production that's been running this weekend is fantastic -- if you haven't
seen it yet, you'd better rush to catch tomorrow's matinee). There's so
much more to mention; I'll get to it later to avoid producing a very long
list.
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keesan
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response 19 of 194:
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Apr 18 16:05 UTC 1999 |
Did Mendelssohn write anything bad? I just acquired Scotch Symphony with
Hebrides Overture. I have not found Sibelius interesting, what should I be
listening for? In fact I have not found much written since 1900 interesting,
but I am obviously missing something and would like to learn.
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md
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response 20 of 194:
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Apr 18 17:49 UTC 1999 |
Sibelius's Finlandia is very popular. The Swan of
Tuonela and Valse Triste used to be popular. The
symphonies might be an acquired taste, except
possibly for #2, which has always been popular.
Don't worry if you like pre-1900 music better than
post-1900 music. Most people feel the same way
about it, and there's enough excellent pre-1900
music to keep an LP collector busy for years.
Mendelssohn was extremely consistent. His music
might not all be equally popular, but I don't think
you'll find anything truly bad on LP. He was so
consistent, in fact, that he could write the
overture to Midsummer Night's Dream as a teenager
and complete the rest of it in his thirties, and it
all sounds of a piece. He never really "evolved"
in that sense.
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davel
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response 21 of 194:
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Apr 19 00:47 UTC 1999 |
There's also a symphony by Sibelius that I've been hearing on the radio a lot,
and which I'm coming to like a lot. Not sure what exactly it is, though.
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md
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response 22 of 194:
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Apr 19 11:05 UTC 1999 |
What does it sound like?
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davel
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response 23 of 194:
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Apr 20 00:05 UTC 1999 |
heh. If I say it sounds rather like breakers crashing on a rocky shore, is
that any help to anyone except me.
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davel
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response 24 of 194:
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Apr 20 00:06 UTC 1999 |
(That was *supposed* to end with a question mark. <sigh>)
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