Ten Guilty Pleasures

Started by Christo, July 19, 2018, 04:55:54 AM

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Christo

July 19, 2018, 04:55:54 AM
Music that might not be 'the greatest ever composed' but has a special personal meaning - for sentimental or other good reasons. My own pick:

1. Gustav Holst, Capriccio
2. Gabriel Pierné, Divertissement sur un thème pastoral
3. Frederick Delius, La Calinda (from: Koanga)
4. William Mathias, Celtic Dances
5. Marc Lavry, Israeli country dances Op. 230
6. Malcolm Arnold, Serenade for guitar and small orchestra
7. Walter Leigh, Harpsichord concertino
8. Anne-Marie Ørbeck, Pastorale and Allegro
9.  Ottorino Respighi, Overture Belfagor
10. Federico Moreno Torroba, Hogueras

(With only Spotify in my luggage, this is the kind of stuff I'm playing at the moment).
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Daverz

#1
July 19, 2018, 07:40:11 AM
Those sound more like simple pleasures than guilty pleasures.  I always thought that a guilty pleasures was cheesy music that we can't help loving, like Turangalîla or the Franck Symphony.

Maestro267

#2
July 19, 2018, 09:34:08 AM
We must rid ourselves of the concept of guilt over the music we enjoy.

71 dB

#3
July 19, 2018, 10:52:13 AM
Quote from: Maestro267 on July 19, 2018, 09:34:08 AM
We must rid ourselves of the concept of guilt over the music we enjoy.

I totally agree!  ;)
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aligreto

#4
July 19, 2018, 12:15:49 PM
Quote from: Maestro267 on July 19, 2018, 09:34:08 AM
We must rid ourselves of the concept of guilt over the music we enjoy.

Simply true!

vandermolen

#5
July 19, 2018, 11:17:34 PM Last Edit: July 19, 2018, 11:24:29 PM by vandermolen
Quote from: Christo on July 19, 2018, 04:55:54 AM
Music that might not be 'the greatest ever composed' but has a special personal meaning - for sentimental or other good reasons. My own pick:

1. Gustav Holst, Capriccio
2. Gabriel Pierné, Divertissement sur un thème pastoral
3. Frederick Delius, La Calinda (from: Koanga)
4. William Mathias, Celtic Dances
5. Marc Lavry, Israeli country dances Op. 230
6. Malcolm Arnold, Serenade for guitar and small orchestra
7. Walter Leigh, Harpsichord concertino
8. Anne-Marie Ørbeck, Pastorale and Allegro
9.  Ottorino Respighi, Overture Belfagor
10. Federico Moreno Torroba, Hogueras

(With only Spotify in my luggage, this is the kind of stuff I'm playing at the moment).

Don't think I've heard Marc Lavry mentioned here before but I like his 'Emek' although don't think it's a guilty pleasure.

I think that my pop music choices, which my daughter regards as 'naff' is more of a guilty pleasure (I have a Spice Girls CD in my car  :o)

But here goes anyway but no guilt involved:

Dukas: Sorcerer's Apprentice
Ravel: Bolero
Arnold: Tam O' Shanter
Ronald Binge: Elizabethan Serenade
Holst: Jupiter from The Planets (although, like Holst, Saturn is my favourite)
Ron Goodwin '633 Squadron'
Rimsky Korsakov: The Flight of the Bumble bee
Gliere: Russian Sailor's Dance
Walter Leigh: Harpsichord Concerto
Ben Haim: Fanfare for Israel

"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

DaveF

#6
July 20, 2018, 01:34:55 AM
Quote from: Daverz on July 19, 2018, 07:40:11 AM
... cheesy music that we can't help loving, like Turangalîla or the Franck Symphony.

Two excellent starters, to which I would like to add:

Rimsky: Capriccio espagnol
Massenet: Le Cid ballet music
Tchaikovsky: 3rd suite
Berlioz: Rob Roy overture, aka Harold en Ecosse
Bruch: G minor violin concerto
Berg: G minor violin concerto  :o
MacCunn: The Land of the Fountain and the Mud
Funiculi funicula, arr. Schoenberg
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

Christo

#7
July 20, 2018, 01:44:12 AM
Quote from: DaveF on July 20, 2018, 01:34:55 AM
MacCunn: The Land of the Fountain and the Mud
Funiculi funicula, arr. Schoenberg
Tell us more!
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

DaveF

#8
July 20, 2018, 02:05:46 AM
Quote from: Christo on July 20, 2018, 01:44:12 AM
Tell us more!

Perhaps he's not known outside the UK, but Hamish MacCunn was a short-lived Scottish composer active around the end of the 19th century.  His one hit is The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, a concert overture written at the age of 18, which is splendidly vigorous and has a lovely big tune in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjyTHvxodFU

And Schoenberg really did make an arrangement of Funiculi funicula, with a typically silly 2nd Viennese accompanying ensemble of violin, mandolin, guitar, contrabass euphonium, piccolo etc etc.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

The new erato

#9
July 20, 2018, 03:17:05 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on July 19, 2018, 11:17:34 PM
Don't think I've heard Marc Lavry mentioned here before but I like his 'Emek' although don't think it's a guilty pleasure.

I think that my pop music choices, which my daughter regards as 'naff' is more of a guilty pleasure (I have a Spice Girls CD in my car  :o)

But here goes anyway but no guilt involved:

Dukas: Sorcerer's Apprentice
Ravel: Bolero
Arnold: Tam O' Shanter
Ronald Binge: Elizabethan Serenade
Holst: Jupiter from The Planets (although, like Holst, Saturn is my favourite)
Ron Goodwin '633 Squadron'
Rimsky Korsakov: The Flight of the Bumble bee
Gliere: Russian Sailor's Dance
Walter Leigh: Harpsichord Concerto
Ben Haim: Fanfare for Israel
I play Dido a lot in my car!

vandermolen

#10
July 20, 2018, 04:21:22 AM
Quote from: The new erato on July 20, 2018, 03:17:05 AM
I play Dido a lot in my car!

Excellent! I like her too ('White Flag'). One of my teaching colleagues taught her maths at an independent school in London.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

#11
July 20, 2018, 10:42:52 AM
Quote from: DaveF on July 20, 2018, 02:05:46 AM
Perhaps he's not known outside the UK, but Hamish MacCunn was a short-lived Scottish composer active around the end of the 19th century.  His one hit is The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, a concert overture written at the age of 18, which is splendidly vigorous and has a lovely big tune in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjyTHvxodFU

And Schoenberg really did make an arrangement of Funiculi funicula, with a typically silly 2nd Viennese accompanying ensemble of violin, mandolin, guitar, contrabass euphonium, piccolo etc etc.
Agree about Hamish MacGunn, but never heard of this Schoenberg arrangement before, many thanks for explaining.  :)
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Mahlerian

#12
July 20, 2018, 10:53:19 AM Last Edit: July 20, 2018, 11:22:49 AM by Mahlerian
Quote from: DaveF on July 20, 2018, 02:05:46 AMAnd Schoenberg really did make an arrangement of Funiculi funicula, with a typically silly 2nd Viennese accompanying ensemble of violin, mandolin, guitar, contrabass euphonium, piccolo etc etc.

Perhaps silly is the wrong word here?  While I might agree that the arrangement is silly, I don't think there's anything silly about a given instrumentation.  Unless of course one thinks of Herzgewachse as silly also...

https://www.youtube.com/v/Pz98sU_rPK8

I also wonder at the description of several things in this thread as "cheesy."  My touchstone for cheesiness is that spectacularly overwrought Spector arrangement of Paul McCartney's The Long and Winding Road:

https://www.youtube.com/v/fHqBL0WIRRY

(Which I don't really enjoy much)

My point is that I don't think of cheesiness in terms of instrumentation or timbre so much as the interaction of these things with a particular composition.  Yes, the Turangalila Symphony is riotous, raucous, joyful, and extremely extroverted, but I personally don't think of it as cheesy, though perhaps parts of it are somewhat over-the-top.

Maybe there is a definition of "cheesy" that extends to complex avant-garde works that aren't especially populist or popular, but I'm not familiar with it.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

Zeus

#13
July 20, 2018, 01:17:51 PM Last Edit: July 20, 2018, 01:24:35 PM by Bubbles
I like plenty of classical music that's not exactly high-brow.  Here are some guilty pleasures:

1) Rawsthorne - Practical Cats
2) Canteloube - Suite "Dans la montagne"
3) Yo Yo Ma - Obrigado Brazil
4) Falla - El Amor Brujo
5) Tan Dun - Internet Symphony
6) anything by Alfano
7) anything by Lyapunov
8 )  Orff: Carmina Burana
9) Alberga: Dahl's Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs (narrated by Danny Devito!!)
10) The Three Tenors In Concert

Not sure how cringe-worthy this stuff is. Did anything make you cringe?  I could probably dig up some more cringy stuff with a little more effort.
"There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. There are simply different ways of doing it." – Emmanuel Radnitzky (Man Ray)

Mahlerian

#14
July 20, 2018, 01:50:48 PM
Quote from: Bubbles on July 20, 2018, 01:17:51 PM
I like plenty of classical music that's not exactly high-brow.  Here are some guilty pleasures:

1) Rawsthorne - Practical Cats
2) Canteloube - Suite "Dans la montagne"
3) Yo Yo Ma - Obrigado Brazil
4) Falla - El Amor Brujo
5) Tan Dun - Internet Symphony
6) anything by Alfano
7) anything by Lyapunov
8 )  Orff: Carmina Burana
9) Alberga: Dahl's Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs (narrated by Danny Devito!!)
10) The Three Tenors In Concert

Not sure how cringe-worthy this stuff is. Did anything make you cringe?

Not until The Three Tenors...though if you enjoy it, I don't have any interest in criticizing you for it.  Listen to what you love, no matter what anyone thinks!
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

musicrom

#15
July 20, 2018, 07:35:06 PM
I'll give it a go.

1. Schnittke - Sport, Sport, Sport (The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov)
2. Tchaikovsky - Valse sentimentale
3. Bizet - Symphony in C
4. Stravinsky - Symphony in C
5. Goldmark - Piano Trio No. 1
6. Mozart - Adagio and Fugue in C minor
7. Bernstein - Candide Overture
8. Vieuxtemps - Capriccio for Solo Viola
9. Poulenc - Les biches
10. Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker

SymphonicAddict

#16
July 20, 2018, 08:37:09 PM Last Edit: July 20, 2018, 09:01:59 PM by SymphonicAddict
1. Respighi - Orgiastic Dance from Belkis
2. Haydn - 2nd movement from the Symphony Nr. 101 The Clock
3. Saint-Saëns - Andantino from La Foi
4. Schmidt - Intermezzo from Notre Dame
5. Bax - Paean
6. Vaughan Williams - Prelude from 49th Parallel
7. Bach - Fantasy for organ in C major, BWV 570
8. Strauss II - Unter Donner und Blitz Polka
9. Alkan - Études, op. 39 Le festin d'Esope
10. Hindemith - Turandot from Symphonische Metamorphose von Themen Carl Maria von Webers

Bonus track
Shostakovich - The Assault on Beautiful Gorky from The Unforgettable Year 1919

... and there are many more!

Edit: Bonus track #2
Nielsen - An Imaginary Trip to the Faroe Islands

Sorry , I can't avoid it  ;)

vandermolen

#17
July 20, 2018, 11:34:37 PM
Quote from: SymphonicAddict on July 20, 2018, 08:37:09 PM
1. Respighi - Orgiastic Dance from Belkis
2. Haydn - 2nd movement from the Symphony Nr. 101 The Clock
3. Saint-Saëns - Andantino from La Foi
4. Schmidt - Intermezzo from Notre Dame
5. Bax - Paean
6. Vaughan Williams - Prelude from 49th Parallel
7. Bach - Fantasy for organ in C major, BWV 570
8. Strauss II - Unter Donner und Blitz Polka
9. Alkan - Études, op. 39 Le festin d'Esope
10. Hindemith - Turandot from Symphonische Metamorphose von Themen Carl Maria von Webers

Bonus track
Shostakovich - The Assault on Beautiful Gorky from The Unforgettable Year 1919

... and there are many more!

Edit: Bonus track #2
Nielsen - An Imaginary Trip to the Faroe Islands

Sorry , I can't avoid it  ;)

A thumbs up from me for Respighi's 'Orgiastic Dance', Nielsen's Faroe Island trip which I enjoy very much, especially in Sir Alexander Gibson's recording and most certainly Bax's 'Paen' which I often play - it's a work I really enjoy.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#18
July 20, 2018, 11:36:29 PM
Quote from: Bubbles on July 20, 2018, 01:17:51 PM
I like plenty of classical music that's not exactly high-brow.  Here are some guilty pleasures:

1) Rawsthorne - Practical Cats
2) Canteloube - Suite "Dans la montagne"
3) Yo Yo Ma - Obrigado Brazil
4) Falla - El Amor Brujo
5) Tan Dun - Internet Symphony
6) anything by Alfano
7) anything by Lyapunov
8 )  Orff: Carmina Burana
9) Alberga: Dahl's Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs (narrated by Danny Devito!!)
10) The Three Tenors In Concert

Not sure how cringe-worthy this stuff is. Did anything make you cringe?  I could probably dig up some more cringy stuff with a little more effort.

Thumbs up for Rawsthorne and I must hear the 'Internet Symphony' which sounds wonderful.
Three Tenors my favourite cheesy choice so far.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#19
July 20, 2018, 11:55:15 PM
Round 2

Fanshawe: African Sanctus
The Choir Boys: The Choirboys
Karl Jenkins: Palladio
Howard Goodall: 'Eternal Light' A Requiem
Bax: Paen (not really a guilty pleasure)
Saint Saens: Danse Macabre
Gounod: Funeral March of a Marionette
Shostakovich: 'Tea for Two' (Tahiti Trot)
Bliss: 'Welcome the Queen'
Walton: Crown Imperial
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).
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