Whats your favourite classical music?

[Bernard Lamb]

 

I fully expected to be rather shot down for my choice, due to the sort of evil politics that kind of music later became associated with (through no fault of it's own)

Being part of an Anglo/German family I have a problem with the music of Anton Bruckner. I note that he is well represented in this discussion. I can't get away from associating the music, particularly the last three symphonies with a certain place and a certain time, namely Munich in the late 1930s and early 1940s. I would imagine that there is not this connection with historic events for listeners in the UK. I would not go so far as one comment I have heard, there has not been a decent performance of Bruckner 9 since 1945, but that is the sort of thing I have lived with over the years. It was the music of Bruckner rather than Wagner that was played on the radio when the man behind the evil politics died.

Bernard

[Waverley West]

 

The first is "The Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba" by Handel

 

This was the music chosen by me for my future wife to walk up the aisle to

 

 

 

 

Snap. Such a beautiful piece and so full of vibrancy and life.

[Gwiwer]

Plenty to choose from and as with other genres of music my favourite of the moment is often what I'm in the mood for!

 

Over half a century and more and having been brought up with classical music being played in the home on the wireless (remember them!) and the gramophone (them too?) in addition to both parents having in their day had some ability on the piano I was exposed to quite a range from Scarlatti to Shostakovich.

 

Long-term favourites which I can listen to over and over would be Holst's Planets Suite, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Orff's Carmina Burana (to which I subscribe to my father's theory that if everyone in the world played it simultaneously the planet would disintegrate from reverb when the choir hit the fortissimo D-major in "O Fortuna" ) and Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique.

 

Over and above those are two quite outstanding works.  Litolff's Scherzo from Concerto Symphonique must surely be the ultimate test of a pianist's dexterity and skill while Saint-Saens "Organ Symphony" is another like the Orff having lengthy and deceptively quiet periods before stridently taking the listener to another realm as the organ is unleashed.  We used the well-known final movement of that work as our wedding march and while my wife has never been so keen I had determined that it should be so from long before I even knew her and still threaten to smash all the glassware in the house when I play it at concert volume!!!

 

First the Litolff - and just look at the concentration followed by the relief at the end!

 

 

Then after much searching a version of the Saint-Saens I'm fairly happy with. It is played by a respectfully large orchestra though not the biggest and it requires a large orchestra including two pianists at one keyboard in addition to the organist.  Capturing the full organ on any recording will never match the vibrancy of a live performance where the sheer volume of sound should be awesome and earth-shaking.

 

This work also spawned a hit single ("If I Had Words") for Yvonne Keeley and Scott Fitzgerald and, yes, it was used in the film "Babe".

 

[billbedford]

I once bought an LP of popular classics for my mother. I can't say she was impressed, in fact she hated it and the record mysteriously disappeared while I wasn't looking.

 

I never understood her reaction, for me the band brought a refreshing honesty to some hackneyed pieces --

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7eTSLUg-zU

 

 

It's a pity they never tackled any Boulez

[geoffers]

Britten? War Requiem mentioned earlier. A really refreshing thread this. As for intellect - well I love listening to music and can fully engage with its emotions but I'm a c**p musician - leave that to the two sons and SWMBO - but at least my banjo playing keeps the neighbours cats out of the garden and from chasing the birds. Mind you the birds stay away as well.

[Jock67B]

Just thought of another piece that brought me to tears, and taught me a lesson that has stuck with me - when I landed in Essex in the sixties, the school (Latton Bush) in the then Harlow New Town, took us to the cinema to see Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, starring Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (still one of the purest of soprano voices despite her political leanings in my opinion) and Christa Ludwig (my favourite Wagnerian lead). The bulk of the opera follows traditions going back to Mozart's day and, to be honest I found it a bit boring - then we got to the final act and the scene known as the 'rose duet' which (despite at my age then thinking it odd that a girl played the prince!!) is quite the saddest piece I'd experienced. I simply could not believe the effect it had on me, with involuntary tears welling up! When Strauss first introduced the opera, his friends convinced him that it was so sad that he should add something at the end - this he did where a little chap run onstage to a lilting couple of bars to lighten the mood! If you haven't heard this, you really must try it, but I would suggest going straight to the piece I've mentioned. Ive got the box set of LPs and also managed to get a set of CDs of that very performance but I normally play the last side! Oh and the lesson I learned? - persevere, give everything a fair hearing and as great grandad said in his crude way 'you'll feel it in your guts'!

Hope I haven't bored you too much, but as I've mentioned before, music by association - all that started me off on this tack was Stewart's (45156) comment about his dad teaching me at junior school. What a wonderful subject that gives such joy to such a diverse group of people! I could never be depressed or bored when I've got my favourite music or books to turn to!

Kind regards,

Jock.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Jock67B

[geoffers]

A number of Gernam composers and conductors had associations with the evil man and his cohorts but not necessarily willingly. After all Bruckner and Wagner were long dead and Richard Strauss was pulled in rather reluctantly, as I believe, were the conductors Furtwangler and Karajan. The Russian man also used Shostakovitch who had to keep to the party line after once falling out of favour though he got his own back with the 10th Symphony which is reputed to be a musical portait of Stalin.

[Gwiwer]

I once bought an LP of popular classics for my mother. I can't say she was impressed, in fact she hated it and the record mysteriously disappeared while I wasn't looking.

 

I never understood her reaction, for me the band brought a refreshing honesty to some hackneyed pieces --

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7eTSLUg-zU

 

 

It's a pity they never tackled any Boulez

 

In that same spirit I've long been a fan of this mob.  

 

[Anthony]

Like everyone else, I have followed this post with enormous interest, and I have noted that terrible non-PC word 'elitist' has appeared as so often - it has also stuck its head up on the 'Wright Writes' thread.  What is wrong with elitism - doesn't everyone strive to do better, hear the best (be it pop or classical music), buy the best they can, admire the best available and so on?  Isn't this just a normal human condition?

 

Anyway, back to the subject, and again like everyone else, one choice is impossible, so, in no particular order, and forgive the lack of links, but I have no idea how to go about it:-

 

Tallis - Spem in allium - a 40-part motet, which I sang one to a part - scary!

Beethoven - the late piano sonatas and string quartets

 

With all of the above, it is difficult to grasp how anyone can have the intellectual scope to conceive such pieces - particularly Beethoven when deaf

 

Rachmaninov - Vespers - again I sang this, and some of the Russians in the audience were reduced to tears.  It is a wonderful, moving piece, best heard sung by Russians

Schubert - almost everything, but in particular the late piano sonatas - interesting to think that if Mozart had died at the same age as Schubert, he would not have written most of his greatest music.

 

Trouble is, that's only the beginning, so I had better stop!

 

 

Anthony

[PGC]

Being part of an Anglo/German family I have a problem with the music of Anton Bruckner. I note that he is well represented in this discussion. I can't get away from associating the music, particularly the last three symphonies with a certain place and a certain time, namely Munich in the late 1930s and early 1940s. I would imagine that there is not this connection with historic events for listeners in the UK. I would not go so far as one comment I have heard, there has not been a decent performance of Bruckner 9 since 1945, but that is the sort of thing I have lived with over the years. It was the music of Bruckner rather than Wagner that was played on the radio when the man behind the evil politics died.

Bernard

 

As Bruckner died in 1896, I am at a loss to know why his music is related to events in the 30's. Is it possible someone could explain? I don't want to stir ill feeling, rather find out how some of the most sublime music has been mistreated or misrepresented.

 

A number of Gernam composers and conductors had associations with the evil man and his cohorts but not necessarily willingly. After all Bruckner and Wagner were long dead and Richard Strauss was pulled in rather reluctantly, as I believe, were the conductors Furtwangler and Karajan. The Russian man also used Shostakovitch who had to keep to the party line after once falling out of favour though he got his own back with the 10th Symphony which is reputed to be a musical portait of Stalin.

 

As I understand matters, von Karajan was basically told "you will conduct what we tell you, or you won't conduct at all", so he conducted, but unwillingly, until the war had finished, after which he was not hindered by politices and despotism.

 

I believe I also heard it said that von Karajan once said something long the lines of the power of his interpretation coming from having witnessed during the war the degrading depths to which humans could sink, and that he was determined to try and counter that through the beauty of music. If that's the case, I reckon he succeeded, and also proved that sometimes beauty emanates from evil.

 

Phil

[Ian J.]

As Bruckner died in 1896, I am at a loss to know why his music is related to events in the 30's. Is it possible someone could explain? I don't want to stir ill feeling, rather find out how some of the most sublime music has been mistreated or misrepresented...

 

The Nazi machine purloined a number of cultural elements to support its cause - sometimes with close links to their ideology, other times more tenuously. Composers like Wagner had anti-semitic elements in their outlook in life, I don't know about Bruckner, but to the Nazis it didn't really matter. The swastika was stolen by them from older cultures, and was for millennia before and still is a symbol of peace for Hindus. It's only our modern sensitivities that make it difficult to stomach it today.

[geoffers]

Bruckner was very religious and I don't think he was anti-Semitic. Suspect his music was purloined because of the magnificence of the sound which conveyed German forests and hills, and even when using the horns, the hunt. Cultural echoes of the Nazi ideal perhaps, of manhood, countryside, mountains (Eagle's Lair for instance) and maybe "pagan" rituals of the past. Bit heavy - sorry. I should state that I hear cathedrals of sound with Bruckner, space, fresh air, mountains, and forests but not associated with the Nazi Ideal. Didn't the Nazis also use Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zaratrustra as an ideal - the idea rather than the music? Perhaps also we should avoid comments on this as it may become too political.

 

Edited for spelling

Edited February 24, 2015 by geoffers

[MJI]

I like quite a few games soundtracks. This is where modern composers now tend to end up.

 

 

I would probably wind someone up by calling Ride of the Valkyries the helicopter song.

[melmerby]

Herbert von Karajan was a practising Zen Buddhist who did or did not join the Austrian Nazi Party in 1933 (depending who you read)

 

Unlike several other famous conductors he did not flee Nazism but stayed on to conduct during the German Nazi period.

 

Make of that what you will!

 

Keith

[geoffers]

Zen-Buddhist - I did not know that. Thanks.

[The Stationmaster]

Here you go -

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83J68Y7Z1nk

[45156]

Here you go -

That's the version of "The Planets" with which I was brought up, but today, I find the Berlin Phil arrangements to be a little on the heavy side (I'm not being in any way derogatory when I say that I find them Teutonic [for obvious reasons}). 

 

Talking of Teutonic orchestras, I do really look forward to the VIenna Phil's New Years Day concert on BBC2/BBC4, albeit that the majority of the music is by the Strauss family - I find it interesting to see and hear an orchestra which is still in the traditional configuration with the double bass section right at the back, instead if with the rest of the strings, and which also sticks to the early versions of many of the brass and woodwind instruments.  And of late, they do appear to have recruited some lady musicians (won't go any further with that one!)

Edited February 24, 2015 by 45156

[melmerby]

 

Talking of Teutonic orchestras, I do really look forward to the VIenna Phil's New Years Day concert on BBC2/BBC4, albeit that the majority of the music is by the Strauss family - I find it interesting to see and hear an orchestra which is still in the traditional configuration with the double bass section right at the back, instead if with the rest of the strings, and which also sticks to the early versions of many of the brass and woodwind instruments.  And of late, they do appear to have recruited some lady musicians (won't go any further with that one!)

They still mostly also "bow" in the German style as well for the Bass & Celli!

 

I watch from Freesat and send the sound to a surround sound decoder (it is IIRC 5.1 encoded)

The only problem is the digital satellite sound is usually slightly out of sync with the picture!

 

Keith

[45156]

They still mostly also "bow" in the German style as well for the Bass & Celli!

 

Yes, they do indeed - always looks a little cack-handed to me, but the orchestra has a reputation for doing things the old way, and why change if it works for them?

[runs as required]

Here you go -

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83J68Y7Z1nk

Planets?

That's a bit Stephensonian / LNW for a 'western' gent!

[Budgie]

It is absolutely impossible to decide on a favourite piece of classical music. However, I would list the following as amongst my favourites:

 

Beethoven String Quartet in C sharp minor

Schubert String Quartet "Death and the Maiden"

Schubert String Quintet

Charles Ives Symphony No. 4

Walton Belshazzar's Feast

Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1

[PGC]

Yes, they do indeed - always looks a little cack-handed to me, but the orchestra has a reputation for doing things the old way, and why change if it works for them?

 

They are changing, though; in 1997 they started allowing women players in their ranks. Whether they will change their playing style, however, remains to be seen, but I doubt it.

 

My friend, who has played in the Large Hall of the Musikverein, tells me it's supposed to be a virtually perfect orchestral acoustic, apparently it's something to do with the hall being shoe box shaped. I don't know about this personally - I would like to find out! Sadly, I suspect it's not going to happen, but you never know.

 

Phil

[Bernard Lamb]

Going back to Bruckner although he died in 1896 many of his symphonies were not often played for many years after his death. In some cases "proper" scores were not published until the period 1934-1944 or some would claim even later. For example the sketches he left for the finale of the 9th were not published at all until 1934. It was shortly after that when Siegmund von Hausegger played the 9th in Munich. The boss liked it and the music was  then played on a regular basis.

The music of Wagner was in the normal repertoire in many countries for many decades before the 1930s. The music of Bruckner, or in particular the now popular symphonies, was not. Without the Nazis would Bruckner have become popular?

Probably, but it would have taken far longer.

Bernard

[station cat]

That's the version of "The Planets" with which I was brought up, but today, I find the Berlin Phil arrangements to be a little on the heavy side (I'm not being in any way derogatory when I say that I find them Teutonic [for obvious reasons}). 

 

Talking of Teutonic orchestras, I do really look forward to the VIenna Phil's New Years Day concert on BBC2/BBC4, albeit that the majority of the music is by the Strauss family - I find it interesting to see and hear an orchestra which is still in the traditional configuration with the double bass section right at the back, instead if with the rest of the strings, and which also sticks to the early versions of many of the brass and woodwind instruments.  And of late, they do appear to have recruited some lady musicians (won't go any further with that one!)

 

 

I love the Vienna Phil NYD concert  (which owes a great deal to the Nazis http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/arts-feature/9395582/the-nazi-origins-of-the-vienna-phils-new-years-day-concert/)

[jjb1970]

Just finished listening to Schubert's 9th (yet again), no matter how many times I listen to it I always discover something new, it is like an old friend which always pulls off some surprise with every meeting. Tonight was my favourite recording, Claudio Abbado conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. This symphony is grandiose and powerful yet surprisingly lithe and subtle with some truly beautiful passages. I have loved this piece of music since discovering it around the age of 16, have multiple recordings and never tire of it.