PGC Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 My favourite pieces change over time, but I always enjoy Schubert's Trout Quintet. I like a lot of Shostakovich, especially his film music and of course his Second Waltz. Then there is almost everything Mozart wrote, the Strauss family, Beethoven, the list goes on and on. David A stunning piece of music. The part I like most is the theme from the fifth movement - it also happens to be the theme tune for the comedy Waiting for God. An ambition of mine is to lead the music in a church service with a small chamber ensemble to accompany the Mass setting, and while the congregation are queuing for communion, to have the chamber ensemble play the piece and see if anyone spots the irony of having the theme from the comedy played while, literally, waiting for God! Phil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Apart from 'Fantasia on a theme on Thomas Tallis' by RVW as already mentioned, and a few others I've added a like to, I would also add;- Grieg's Peer Gynt, and Holst's Planets. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGC Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Classical music is in the ear of the beholder, I am currently listening to this, which to me is classical music >> Gershwin is one of the first cross-over composers, and to my mind, the best. Definitely classical music, and very good classical music at that. Phil 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I enjoy a wide range of classical music but two of my favourites are, Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 - Andante, I have this as my alarm in the morning which always starts the day well. Also Rossini - La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie), Always puts me in a good mood listening to this. cheers Graham. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGC Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 try a bit of this...https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6f2sa0pMJlw a bit of early music played on some great instruments.. can't see Classic FM playing it though. You just never know - they seem to be learning that there is a lot of good music outside of the 100 top tunes. On occasions I've tuned to them of an evening to find they're playing music that really isn't what I would expect to find I their repertoire, on one occasion they played a Stanford Symphony in it's entirety! Another great composer, and really only known for his church music, which is so sad as he wrote some brilliant orchestral music. Phil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandra Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 As I write this I am listening to "The Wound Dresser" by John Adams. Adams is a favourite composer of mine particularly the opera "Nixon in China". I also love the music of Anton Bruckner, particularly the unfinished 9th symphony. However my greatest loves are the operas of Handel and Wagner. In my opinion the greatest Wagner opera is "Parsifal" and the greatest opera by Handel is "Giulio Cesare". Sandra 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 My GP always has music playing from his PC when I visit him. One day he had Gorecki Third symphony playing. At the end of the consultation I asked him about the music. I then asked if "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" was really appropriate for some patients. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGC Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 My GP always has music playing from his PC when I visit him. One day he had Gorecki Third symphony playing. At the end of the consultation I asked him about the music. I then asked if "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" was really appropriate for some patients. Before I moved outside of the M25, the family GP was also a family friend, and a lover of Chopin. He had all the works on CD in his surgery, and my appointments would always be double length while we discussed music, especially what I was singing at the time as I was with London Symphony Chorus. The GP also had a wicked sense of humour and on one occasion, on a visit to discuss the results of some blood tests, when I walked in to the surgery he immediately announced "I know the answer to your problems". Thinking I was just about to learn I'd only got 6 months to live or similar, he suddenly said "The blood's gaining ground on the alcohol" For a few seconds I didn't realise what he was saying and when it dawned on me, he had a big smile on his face. A good friend and Doctor missed a lot. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian J. Posted February 22, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 22, 2015 Classical is a broad church, in style, space and time. This is classical to me, but definitely not inspired by 'classical' in the common sense of the term: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 As I write this I am listening to "The Wound Dresser" by John Adams. Adams is a favourite composer of mine particularly the opera "Nixon in China". I also love the music of Anton Bruckner, particularly the unfinished 9th symphony. However my greatest loves are the operas of Handel and Wagner. In my opinion the greatest Wagner opera is "Parsifal" and the greatest opera by Handel is "Giulio Cesare". Sandra I really do agree with you about Adams and so sorry that there was only one performance of "Death of Klinghoffer" in London last year, I'd hoped to catch it. Interesting that Alice Goodman who wrote the libretto is an Anglican priest. Anything directed by Peter Sellars is worth experiencing - he opened the window onto Handel Baroque operas for me. Try this link to Sellars talking on R3's Music Matters; I listened to it driving alongside the old S&D moorland alignment through Tow Law down the A68 last December. dh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Classical is a broad church, in style, space and time. This is classical to me, but definitely not inspired by 'classical' in the common sense of the term: I enjoyed that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatofludham Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) One piece that always makes me smile is Eric Fenby's "Rossini on Ilkla Moor", a musical "satire" where Fenby takes the Yorkshire National Anthem and resets it into the style of the composer Rossini. Worth a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMw1bEHHhpo Edited February 22, 2015 by wombatofludham 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian J. Posted February 22, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 22, 2015 I enjoyed that IMHO, Kashif did a wonderful job of integrating Queen's music into a very non-Classic Rock style symphony. It's so unlike other orchestral interpretations of existing music. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Accord Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Another vote for Vaughan Williams here, with my all time favourite being 'Five variants of Dives and Lazarus'. The Lark Ascending comes a close second, swiftly followed by anything from Peer Gynt as well as Schubert's Quintet in C major, D. 956 (Op. posth. 163). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I've never understood the musical definition of 'classical'. Architecturally it means something with recognisably derived features from the Greek and Roman orders. In music does it just mean 'academic' like, say, you might study Eng. Lit? dh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 If you want strict definitions, (or as strict as they can be) then the Classical period runs from 1730 to 1820. It was preceded and overlapped by the Baroque and succeeded and overlapped by the Romantic periods. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_period_(music) However classical has come to mean "not popular or light". 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatofludham Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Paul Lewis' "English Overture" as used by Westward TV for their start of broadcasting film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LL09E9IZ0M Richard Addinsell (Warsaw Concerto) "Southern Rhapsody" specially commissioned by Southern TV for their start-up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bba-ijyNUoI Continuing our TV themes, Eric Coates was asked to write a piece of music for Television Wales and West, predecessors of HTV. I think TWW got short changed because what Eric supplied was a rehash of his 1937 "Seven Seas March" with a new name. Naughty... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Th6hTsfas However, for the restart of BBC Television in 1946, he wrote an original piece called the "Television March" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gooBsCH6EXI And when ATV took to the air in 1955, they too got a brand new piece called, originally the "ATV March" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXDjocNiI90 Eric Coates is famous for of course amongst other things the "Dambusters March" and "Calling All Workers" Very British in style. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffers Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Some stunning choices showing up here and it just illustrates the musical richness that we can delve into just by playing a recording. Mention of the Richard Strauss Four Last Songs has reminded me of my wish to have the two final songs played at my funeral with me being carried out during the final one, this using the Gundula Janowitz/BPO/Karajan version which is the one that really does it for me. The whole work, to me at least, seems to be a tribute to the passing of German Romantic music of the 19th Century. An earlier poster mentioned the shredding emotional journey you make through The Dream of Gerontius. Another for me is Britten's War Requiem which also leaves you in pieces at the end. I have listened to two live performances of this, one of which SWMBO was in the chorus, and both times there was a stunned silence in the audience at the end with eventually just a polite applause starting up such was the impact rather than the raucous cheering you usually get as a work ends. Both of these are works I choose to listen to very rarely given the emotional contribution you end up making. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurenceb Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Apparently when Eric Coats was asked to write the score for the Dambusters he replied "funny I wrote it yesterday". The only film music he ever did. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jock67B Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) Evening Phil, Great thread which I have now trawled through completely, being led here by a post from Ian (OLdddudders). I started my love of classical music whilst winding the handle on an ancient record player for my Great grandfather, then in his nineties! Often as not it would be Puccini or Verdi, with Caruso, Gigli and Galli-Curchi singing. Beethoven was his preference when it came to orchestral music. He it was who taught me that "you'll know good music when you feel it in your guts" and as I have aged that has clearly been the case, as many pieces move me physically to tears. I have tried manfully to come up with 'a' favourite, and failed dismally - got it down to just over forty now! I was delighted to note that, at last, Wagner got a couple of mentions - I've grown into 'Parsifal' over the years, having first seen the 'Flying Dutchman' at Covent Garden late in the sixties. My late father, I'm certain, thought of himself as 'Lohengrin', riding to the aid of a damsel in distress whereas I saw him as a 'Siegfried' who literally feared nothing! Others have pointed out that we all have different tastes, and like good wine, the best music in the world is surely the music you like best in the world? I find that association often colours my views - a love of the Verdi Requiem (and me an atheist!) because I was lucky enough to be given tickets to see it with a fairly young Domingo singing, along with Raimondi and Bumbry, years ago in St Pauls Cathedral. I've subsequently seen it several times, once in Truro Cathedral which underlined how good the ecclesiastical acoustics were! I didn't dream I would come to like Gorecki for instance, but the sight of a young soprano singing the 'Sorrowful Songs' in the ruins of one of the factories associated with Auschwitz, completely changed my perspective. Look forward to following this thread because I have picked up several pieces, new to me, that will cause me to download them for further listening. Above all, enjoy listening, it's why the composers did the work in the first place! Thank you all, Kind regards, Jock. Edited February 22, 2015 by Jock67B 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I like a lot of Shostakovich, especially his film music and of course his Second Waltz.If we are going down that road then The Gadfly has to be very near the top of my list. Bernard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APOLLO Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) Classical music for me is anything after 1960, Stones, Beatles The Who etc. Mars (The Planet Suite) always reminds me of the 17.10 express from Manchester Victoria to Wigan Wallgate & Southport. A four track very fast mainline back then. Manchester to Wigan was 18 minutes dead, around 18 miles, and so nearly were we when the driver slammed the brakes on a little late on the Hindley - Pemberton Loop Line junction approaching Ince, a sharp right hand double junction curve on a high embankment. "Usual procedure" said my dad, though a little nervously. I was around 10 years old back then. Oh, by the way, the Loco was a Bank Hall Jubilee, 45698 "Mars". Some things you never forget. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8EwBTQhl3Y http://www.stormrail.info/jubilee-class-mars-a-short-history Went on the new electric service Glasgow Wigan NW - Manchester Oxford Road the other day. Lovely new EMU's, It flies down the WCML to Golborne then very slow round the junctions to the Liverpool Manchester line and then a bouncy ride across Chat Moss - Not a bit as exiting (or anywhere near as quick) as a good old Jubilee at full "crack" on the "proper" L&Y route via Atherton. Brit15 Edited February 22, 2015 by APOLLO 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
station cat Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Bach Motet 'Jesu Meine Freunde' What a wonderful thread this is 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 45156 Posted February 22, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) My late father was a professional musician and teacher. Taught in the week, and also played in various styles and establishments evenings and weekends - he was also a pretty good church organist. In fact, he taught me, but he also, as we have established, taught Jock 67B in his primary school days, and Jock recalls being taught by him using his signature lesson for primary schools of "Peter And The Wolf". He left me with a really eclictic musical heritage, as he would bring home all of the classical records from school, so that they could be played, enjoyed, and learned from. My particular favourite from that era was Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade which he interpreted in a quite brilliant way, which sticks with me now, and every time I hear it, I'm back in his classroom (as he was my music teacher for years). He was also quite keen on teaching Holst's Planets and again was very able to describe what he thought the composer was trying to achieve. My development from his legacy has meant that I can appreciate just about every "classical" piece, including Bela Bartok - but that took a fair bit of unraveling - worth doing, though. Edited February 22, 2015 by 45156 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 When I was teaching multimedia web development a few years ago for final year students the practical assessment was that they had to produce a disabled accessible multimedia website to sell a product - which I had to agree at the beginning of term.This worked quite well, as they had to include video, animation, photos, graphics, sound as well as coding it all in HTML. One girl chose craft card making, and produced a reasonable effort. the video was a speeded up version of making the cards. She'd backed it up with music.When she'd finished her demo I asked her what the music was, the conversation going something like: "It's classical - I know you like classical." "Do you know what the piece is?" "No." "It's Verdi's Requiem." "Oh." "Do you know what a Requiem is?" "No." "It's a mass for the dead." "Oh." "Do you know what the particular passage is?" "No." "It's the Dies Irae, Dies Illa. Do you know what that means in English?" "No." "It means Day of Wrath and Doom Impending. Now is that really suitable for crafting cards?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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