Dear All,
I am a complete newbie in classical music and I would like to ask you for some suggestions for classical pieces I could explore. In order to give you some impression of my taste it is what I already know and especially like:
- Bach: "Goldberg Variations" (Gould), "Well-tempered Clavier", and "Art of Fugue" (in this order)
- renaissance polyphony like Tallis' "Spem in Alium" or Josquin Desprez "Missa Pange lingua"
It would be great if you could suggest me some worthwhile things which I similar to the above. All the best,
Daimonion
some things you might find intriguing include the 36 fugues and L'art de varier of Antonin Rejcha; the great works of the earlier renaissance masters such as Dufay, Ockeghem & Dunstaple (whom i've always preferred to the later renaissance composers for whatever reason); Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and String Quartets op. 131 and 132; the madrigal-inspired Quartet No. 2 by Michael Tippett; the canons and fugues of Mozart and Schumann; Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica (based on the Art of Fugue); Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues. or maybe not. who knows.
I second dyn's recommendations (apart from the ones I don't know: Rejcha, or that particular Tippett piece.)
Bach: Clavierübung III and Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 for organ (and the rest of the organ works, too) I only have Foccroulle's complete set of the organ works, got based on recommendations from the organ aficionados around here, and I love it. And French Overture BWV 831 for harpsichord
Also the vocal music (Cantatas, Mass in B minor, Passions, Motets), solo violin & solo cello music, and concertos.
This is a superb disc of renaissance polyphony:
[asin]B008B3P4FO[/asin]
Ockeghem: Missa Cuiusvis Toni (Ensemble Musica Nova)
Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame (Ensemble Musica Nova or Ensemble Gilles Binchois)
Allegri: Miserere
Zelenka: Missa votiva, Officium defunctorum ZWV 47 Requiem in D ZWV 46 (all by Vaclav Luks & Collegium 1704), Miserere (Dombrecht & Il Fondamento)
I would highly recomend:
- Ockeghem especially Missa Prolationum
- late Beethoven music (some of the works with op. number higher than 100 - Quartets , Missa Solemnis, Symphony No. 9, late piano sonatas and Bagatellas op. 126)
- Bach vocal music (Mass in b minor for the begining)
on the other hand you may try some more obscure but intersting composers who write rather complicated music like Kaikhosru Sorabji or Matthijs Vermeulen
If you want to try some less abstract moods try Mozart piano concertos (No. 27, 24, 21, 20 for example), Haydn quartets, all the earlier Beethoven symphonies, or Chopin Nocturnes.
I suppose it is worth to listen to other intepratation of Goldberg Variation - the most exciting is for me the first recording of Pierre Hantai.
Adding to these excellent suggestions, you might browse the Gimell Records catalog (http://www.gimell.com/) (which is basically the label for the Tallis Scholars) and acquire some more Josquin - or pretty much anything there. I like their recordings of Jacob Obrecht and William Cornysh, among many others.
--Bruce
Quote from: Daimonion on January 23, 2013, 09:45:20 AM
Dear All,
I am a complete newbie in classical music and I would like to ask you for some suggestions for classical pieces I could explore. In order to give you some impression of my taste it is what I already know and especially like:
- Bach: "Goldberg Variations" (Gould), "Well-tempered Clavier", and "Art of Fugue" (in this order)
- renaissance polyphony like Tallis' "Spem in Alium" or Josquin Desprez "Missa Pange lingua"
It would be great if you could suggest me some worthwhile things which I similar to the above. All the best,
Daimonion
Interesting taste for a newbie!
I wanted to post some ideas, like Bach's B minor Mass, but then I saw that others had already mentioned a few.
Mozart's Requiem might be to your likings, too.
And some ideas for Medieval and Renaissance vocal works:
An English Ladymass: medieval chant and polyphony, sung by a ladies' quartet called Anonymous 4:
http://www.amazon.de/English-Ladymass-Ges%C3%A4nge-Polyphonien-Jahrhunderts/dp/B0000007DL/
A nicely priced boxset by the Hilliard Ensemble, 8 discs with Renaissance choral works from French and Flemish composers:
http://www.amazon.de/Franco-Flemish-Masterworks-Hilliard-Ensemble/dp/B008BT104M
Dear All,
Thank you very much for all your responses, which are very helpful and which will organize my listening schedule in the following weeks. Some of your suggestions refer to the pieces I already know and do like, which includes:
- Palestrina's masses
- Chopin's nocturnes (well, I am from Poland)
- Bach's mass in b minor
- Allegri's miserere
All the best,
Daimonion
i shamefully completely forgot to mention Zelenka despite me listening to a lot of his music lately. the vocal music in particular makes it easy to understand why he was a composer Bach among others expressed high admiration for.
As for now I am enjoying Antoine Reicha's 36 fugues - thank you very much for this suggestion! It seems that I like fortepiano fugues:-) All the best!
Tomás Luis de Victoria, Misa O magnum misterium
Hindemith, Ludus tonalis
Stravinsky, Mass
If you like religious music, then try:
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and never to be forgotten, the most unusual composer of the 16th-17th centuries...
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If you like Cato's Gesualdo sacred music disc lend an ear to Gesualdo's Madigial Book Six (Ll Complesso Barocco/Alan Curtis) and his Responsoria (De Labrintho/Ghielmi) - just outstanding.
Quote from: Daimonion on January 23, 2013, 09:45:20 AM
- Bach: "Goldberg Variations" (Gould), "Well-tempered Clavier", and "Art of Fugue" (in this order)
- renaissance polyphony like Tallis' "Spem in Alium" or Josquin Desprez "Missa Pange lingua"
Bach - other keyboard pieces would include the 6 French Suites (my personal favourites among Bach's keyboard music) and 6 Partitas (a lot of music there), and the Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor (already mentioned, though I prefer it on pedal harpsichord) and the Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue.
And the good thing about the keyboard music is you can have two for the price of - er, two - a piano version and a harpsichord version of each piece. Or should I say at least two ;)
Then, since you like the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Shostakovich '24' Preludes & Fugues - a more modern take on the same thing but definitely a hommage to Bach as well - must be worth a try (already mentioned above).
Then moving away from the keyboard, try the ever-popular 6 Cello Suites (maybe start with 4,5,6) - there's about 100 versions of this out there, Mork is a good modern middle-way interpreter, or you can get very good classic renditions such as Tortelier, very cheaply indeed.
Renaissance - I don't think anyone's mentioned Victoria, the Requiem performed by the Westminster Choir would be my top suggestion.
[edit] oh yes - I see Victoria has been mentioned above.
Quote from: Johnll on January 24, 2013, 06:29:45 PM
If you like Cato's Gesualdo sacred music disc lend an ear to Gesualdo's Madrigal Book Six (Ll Complesso Barocco/Alan Curtis) and his Responsoria (De Labrintho/Ghielmi) - just outstanding.
Yes, Book VI is probably one of the most radical works ever composed!
Good lord, what tremendously boring music.
Well, I feel forced to respone. I am trying the pieces suggested one by one (in a somewhat random order) and I do not find them boring. (For some I just conceive them simple, in terms of the number of instruments I mean, which is good for me, who, as a newbie perhaps, has problems with comprehending too many instruments at the same time) I do like the Shostakovich 24 Preludes & Fugues, for example (thank you for this suggestion)
Quote from: Daimonion on January 26, 2013, 01:49:23 AM
Well, I feel forced to respone. I am trying the pieces suggested one by one (in a somewhat random order) and I do not find them boring. (For some I just conceive them simple, in terms of the number of instruments I mean, which is good for me, who, as a newbie perhaps, has problems with comprehending too many instruments at the same time) I do like the Shostakovich 24 Preludes & Fugues, for example (thank you for this suggestion)
Well, look at it in a positive way. Jo Jo at least called this music
tremendously boring. So, it's still in a class of its own.
Anyway, to continue in a 'rather' boring way: tastes differ. To set your mind to rest: there are many people who find this music not boring nor simple at all. Personally, I cannot think of more satisfying music than J.S. Bach's.
If I were forced to sell many hundreds of cd's, then the discs of ca. 1800-1900 would suffer a hard time. Mind you: I like a lot of romantic music, but compared to the Medieval/Renaissance/Baroque/Classique/(Slightly)Modern periods, the choice will not be difficult.
Other interesting composers to investigate (if you can find the time ;)): William Byrd, Giovanni Gabrieli, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Heinrich Schütz and maybe you will also like the 20th century elaborate innovators of the so-called
Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and their followers):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Viennese_School
Oh, I forgot to add:
Wer Großes will, muss sich zusammenraffen: in der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Daimonion, I don't know if you have trawled the two threads "Personal essentials" and "desert island briefcase-full" (both in the Beginners sub-forum at GMG), but even coming to the forum having heard a big chunk of classical music, I found loads of interesting suggestions in both of those threads, the second of which is a kind of collaborative top ~100 that ended up a lot more interesting to me than most top-___ lists. For Renaissance polyphony and (very broadly) related, the "Early Music Club" thread is really excellent too. I feel shaky making any suggestions---to anyone, in fact---but I will definitely think of some benchmarks that I have loved and try to list them later today.
I just very recently got that Hilliard FRANCO-FLEMISH box set that Marc mentioned, and I think it's great. I'm almost certain you would enjoy that, and you can hear uncut works by several brilliant composers. The Hilliards' recording of Gesualdo's TENEBRAE (ECM, 2cd) was also a massive favorite well before I listened to much of the rest of the tradition.
Quote from: Daimonion on January 26, 2013, 01:49:23 AM
. . . I do like the Shostakovich 24 Preludes & Fugues, for example (thank you for this suggestion)
Excellent! I think it was someone other than myself who recommended the Op.87, but if I hadn't seen it rec'd already, I should certainly have piped in with it.
I'll repeat then (not that you aren't already busy pursuing excellent suggestions) the Hindemith Ludus tonalis. A voice different to Shostakovich, but a similar 'game'.
What a great list to get amazing expressions! :) :)