Classical Music: Which Era/Composer do you prefer?

[Boris Godunov]

I'm looking for a good recording of that one. Any suggestions?

Good recordings of Bolero are impossible to find, because such a thing would be an oxymoron.

 

[Richard Cribb]

I listen to almost exclusively non-modern music (classical music to me is a much narrower category). I love JS Bach above all other composers, and I believe he was the greatest composer ever to walk the earth. At least half the music I listen to is Bach. My favourite music of his is probably the Christmas Oratorio. St Matthew Passion, Brandenburg Concertos, Goldberg Variations, Organ Works, all brilliant stuff!

I have some +30 Bach CDs, but not the Christmas Oratorio. Could you recommend some recording?

I'm looking for a good recording of that one. Any suggestions?

There are tons of good recordings of that piece.
My recommendation would be Sergiu Celibidache and Münchner Philharmoniker (EMI).

 

[Ciceronian]

I have some +30 Bach CDs, but not the Christmas Oratorio. Could you recommend some recording?

Definitely John Eliot Gardiner and the Montiverdi Choir. That's the one I've got, and it's great, a very powerful performance. Gardiner also always pays attention to an authentic performance, so the orchestra consists of ancient instruments, and the pieces are performed in a thoroughly Baroque fashion, not perverted into a Romantic style, as some earlier performers did. If you can't get hold of Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent or Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir are good deals as they are both almost as good as Gardiner.

 

[Richard Cribb]

Definitely John Eliot Gardiner and the Montiverdi Choir. That's the one I've got, and it's great, a very powerful performance. Gardiner also always pays attention to an authentic performance, so the orchestra consists of ancient instruments, and the pieces are performed in a thoroughly Baroque fashion, not perverted into a Romantic style, as some earlier performers did. If you can't get hold of Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent or Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir are good deals as they are both almost as good as Gardiner.

Thanks.
I am quite fond of Gardiner myself, so I will look for that one.

 

[classical_hero]

Good recordings of Bolero are impossible to find, because such a thing would be an oxymoron.

Excellent. The problem with this work is that it is so well known that it has become overplayed.

 

[Boris Godunov]

I was really only teasing...Bolero is fine, it's just, as you say, way overdone. Ravel was quite resentful of its popularity, as it overshadowed everything else he wrote. He did not intend Bolero as a serious performance composition--it was more an exercise in orchestration.

 

[Turner]

@vbraun - just look around. I'm sure you'll find a good copy.

@ BG - Yeah, I was surprised to hear that. But I can understand how he'd feel that way.

 

[Ciceronian]

Listened to the whole Christmas Oratorio in one go today, from start to finish, while translating some Tacitus. Pure bliss.

 

[aussieboy]

Wagner and Verdi.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Wagner, Orff, Elgar, Strauss, Mahler (particularly the 5th).

I think that Gustav Aschenbach was a tadzio bit creepy, though...

 

[Phlegmak]

Mussorgsky
Rimsky-Korsakov
Ippolitov-Ivanov
Debussy

Good stuff all.

 

[Panda]

Can't say I'm big on classical music, but I do enjoy Beethoven, Sibelius, and Händel.

 

[thetrooper]

Beethoven and Mozart above all.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Vivaldi rulz.
I like others too, but he rulz overall.

 

[Raisin Bran]

I don't know much on classical music but the best evah is Pachelbel with his Cannon in D minor

 

[puglover]

Indeed, Williams has rearranged Beethoven's work better than anyone else.

I just know that he did the soundtracks for (among other great movies) Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones.

 

[Cuivienen]

My favorite pieces are probably:

Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
Beethoven's 6th Symphony (The Pastoral)
Stravinsky's Fireworks for Orchestra

I also find Corelli's music wonderful to listen to though it requires a lot of effort to ignore how cliched it sounds. If only everyone else hadn't copied him

That covers pretty much every type of "classical" music. I tend to like Romantic music less than the other genres, however.

 

[Boris Godunov]

I don't know much on classical music but the best evah is Pachelbel with his Cannon in D minor

BOOM!

Hehe, it's "Canon in D" (not minor). I'm not quite sure how one would get a cannon to sound in any key, major or minor...

 

[Boris Godunov]

My favorite pieces are probably:
Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
Beethoven's 6th Symphony (The Pastoral)
Stravinsky's Fireworks for Orchestra

I also find Corelli's music wonderful to listen to though it requires a lot of effort to ignore how cliched it sounds. If only everyone else hadn't copied him

That covers pretty much every type of "classical" music. I tend to like Romantic music less than the other genres, however.

I dunno, I think you're missing out on a lot of the great "Romantic" era stuff. I mean, we're talking a huge range from 1825-1900 or so. I'm sure there must be something in those years that would appeal. Wagner, Brahms and Tchaikovsky are significantly different enough to encompass a wide range of tastes.

 

[Taliesin]

Baroque and early classical. Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi, Mozart, CPE Bach, Telemann, Corelli, Haendel, St-Georges, and Cannabich are the staples, with Bach, Mozart, and Haydn foremost. Also Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Smetana, Byrd, Puccini, and Rossini.

Specific favourite works are far too numerous to name, but my very favourites include the Brandenburg concerti, Bach's concerto for two violins in d minor, Goldberg variations, the Messiah, Mozart's 25th, 35th, 40th, and 41st symphonies, the entire score of the Magic Flute, concerti grossi of Haendel and of Corelli, Vaughan Williams' Concerto Grosso for strings, Tchaikovsky's orchestral suite for strings, Mozart's third and fifth violin concerti, Haydn's 104th symphony, and Smetana's Ultava (The Moldau).