GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => General Classical Music Discussion => Topic started by: Benny on January 23, 2008, 06:05:18 PM

Title: Winter music
Post by: Benny on January 23, 2008, 06:05:18 PM
Your suggestions of winter music....

Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: Bogey on January 23, 2008, 06:55:59 PM
On a bitter cold steely day:

Shostakovich Symphony No. 11
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: springrite on January 23, 2008, 07:03:18 PM
I like listening to Sibelius on snowy days. Winter Legends by Bax is another favorite.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: Brian on January 23, 2008, 07:08:43 PM
Tchaikovsky's First Symphony - "Winter Daydreams"

Cute subtitle aside, it really is appropriate.  :)
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: not edward on January 23, 2008, 07:10:39 PM
Tapiola is always what springs to mind first for me.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: orbital on January 23, 2008, 08:49:00 PM
Sviridov's Snow Storm has been my staple winter music for two years now. It has an aching beauty (not the Romance alone, but the whole work) that somehow just clicks to a winter storm.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: val on January 23, 2008, 11:42:17 PM
Schubert: Winterreise.

Dufourt: Les Hivers.

Poulenc:  Un Soir de neige.

Sibelius: Tapiola.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: canninator on January 24, 2008, 12:55:21 AM
Bax-November Woods
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: springrite on January 24, 2008, 01:16:10 AM
Quote from: canninator on January 24, 2008, 12:55:21 AM
Bax-November Woods

This is a work I always listen to in late autumn -- October, usually in my part of the world.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: Norbeone on January 24, 2008, 04:35:28 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 23, 2008, 07:08:43 PM
Tchaikovsky's First Symphony - "Winter Daydreams"

Cute subtitle aside, it really is appropriate.  :)

Seconded.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: anasazi on January 24, 2008, 04:39:55 AM
Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky" cantata or "Lieutenant Kije" suite work for me.  Many others too.  Probably more Russian composers than not.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: ChamberNut on January 24, 2008, 04:51:45 AM
Sibelius - Symphony No. 1

When I heard it in concert last November, there is a theme in the first movement I believe, where it sounds like a cold wind gently howling through (string effect). 
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: MN Dave on January 24, 2008, 04:56:12 AM
When I think winter, I think Sibelius.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: gmstudio on January 24, 2008, 05:09:57 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on January 24, 2008, 04:56:12 AM
When I think winter, I think Sibelius.

Ditto.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: Marcel on January 24, 2008, 01:13:14 PM
Sibelius: Symphony no. 6
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: Grazioso on January 25, 2008, 04:17:50 AM
Outside of the obvious candidates, Kokkonen's 4th symphony is suitably gray and bleak.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: gomro on January 25, 2008, 04:04:05 PM
Quote from: Benny on January 23, 2008, 06:05:18 PM
Your suggestions of winter music....



Feldman's Three Voices, not least because of the fragmented lyric: "Snow falls...snow falls..."  But the strange harmonies and rhythms work very well watching the snow fall outside, lyric or no.

Wuorinen set Dylan Thomas' Winter's Tale to music, but I've never been in love with the results. On the other hand, his String Trio works for me as winter music.

For some reason, I associate Xenakis' Pleiades with winter. Maybe I first heard it during that season, I know not.

Stockhausen's Oktophonie and Subotnick's Four Butterflies make good electronic winter music, as well as Winter from W. Carlos' Sonic Seasonings disc.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: Kullervo on January 25, 2008, 09:47:32 PM
Nørgård's Winter Hymn and Frostsalme — both choral works built around the same (very beautiful) melody.
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: springrite on January 25, 2008, 09:54:48 PM
Quote from: gomro on January 25, 2008, 04:04:05 PM

Wuorinen set Dylan Thomas' Winter's Tale to music, but I've never been in love with the results.

I do like the result!
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: gomro on February 10, 2008, 07:29:19 PM
Quote from: springrite on January 25, 2008, 09:54:48 PM
I do like the result!

As much as I like most of Wuorinen (I just got the new Naxos release of the Dante Trilogy) Winter's Tale just never did work for me. Still, to each his own...
Title: Re: Winter music
Post by: Ephemerid on February 10, 2008, 07:42:12 PM
Sibelius goes without saying.  I second Feldman's Three Voices.

To add:

Debussy - Footprints in the Snow (Preludes)
Debussy - Snow is Falling (Children's Corner)