(no subject)

[emmuzka]

i feel that i need to educate myself with classical music. Could you recommend some classics that i need to know or that are your personal favorites. Im after general classics like wiener walz, moonlight sonata or ave maria. Help?

Comments

[arye-sarin.livejournal.com]

My definite favourite is Andante Festivo by Jean Sibelius. It's not even long,so it's easy to start. Otherwise I like Mozart the best. I guess. Hard to pick.

[rowanna73.livejournal.com]

This album pretty much sums it up. Even if there are really good pieces, much of it is almost too popular and over-used. But they are definitely need-to-know!
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.550521

In addition, every Finn should know Sibelius' music, like Swan of Tuonela or Carelia Series. His symphonies might be not so easily absorbed as his more popular pieces.

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

Tshaikovski is my favourite classical composer. And Chopin, although I find his pieces a little too overstimulating when I'm tired (which is, like, always these days). Debussy is great too, impressionistic and often quite meditative.

My favourite classical piece is probably Delibes' Flower Duet from Lakmé. Aaaand then it got tragically overused in commercials, for which I'm eternally bitter. :[

As far as opera arias go, I'm also quite fond of Bizet's Au fond du Temple Saint from Pearl Fishers. It's my mom's favourite.

I've uploaded both arias for you, and a little extra something here. (The file that says Arvo Prt is Arvo Pärt. Attack of the evil umlauts! *snerk* Never mind, it works now.)

[rosabel.livejournal.com]

I love Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85. Just sends the shivers down my spine.

I have to admit to having fallen in love with it after watching the movie Hillary and Jackie, which is about Jacqueline Du Pre, whose performance of the cello concerto is very well known.

Otherwise, I'm a Beethoven and piano girl. So, if you grab any Beethoven's Piano Sonatas from a library, you can't go wrong. They usually put the "best" stuff in there, meaning shortish piano pieces, such as the Moonlight Sonata (my absolute favorite is the third movement in that!) and Sonata Pathetique.

I've been also getting into Claude Debussy (check out his Clair de Lune, it's probably his best known piece). The reason for this is an awesome, awesome album by The Art of Noise called The Seduction of Claude Debussy, which is basically a biography of Debussy, with narration, similar musical styles, dance beats and even rap.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Holst's The Planets
Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
The 1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky)
Handel's Water Music
Beethoven's 5th symphony
Pachelbel's Canon (Pachelbel)
Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky)
Hungarian Dance #5 (Brahms)
Rite of Spring (Stravinsky)
Toccata & Fugue in D Minor (Bach)

I have most of these: http://cimorene.tartufoli.net/classics.rar (password "bunnies") (This doesn't have the 5th, Water Music, or Pachelbel's Canon in it, but it has the entire soundtrack of Fantasia, so there's also Beethoven's 6th, The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, Ave Maria by Schubert, and some other stuff.)

[pikku-gen.livejournal.com]

Täällä on Straussin Also sprach Zarathustra, joka on yksi "nörttiklassikoista". Jos et tiedä missä tämä on ollut tunnarina, et ole oikea scifihörhö. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

I love the Dame Kiri Te Kanewa (sp?) version of Flower Duet, but I do not know who it is singing with her. Tragically overused yes, but still a wonderful piece.

Is there a version of the music that is considered *the* version? Would love to know.

[pikku-gen.livejournal.com]

You mean Kiri Te Kanawa? /know-it-all

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

*snerk* Oli tosi hienoa kuulla tuokin livenä Turun filharmoonikkojen scifi-konsertissa. Yay for teh nörttiorkesteri! :D

[sua-lay.livejournal.com]

You could skip all the usual opera stuff from Mozart and listen to his Requiem. It's absolutely gorgeous. :)

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

taa, taa, tadaaaa! dum-dum-dum-dum!

Siinä on mahtipontisuus rehellisimmillään :)

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That's much harder to find than Finlandia or Katelia suite, btw. I get much hits with "sexy girls has shaky orgasm duding sex" and I don't thank that that will be a correct hit ;)

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the list! I recognize most of them, but it's not like I would have knows of which names to search!

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these! I think I like the most the Russian and Hungarian style dances with a lot of violins :)

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

*Downloads Mozart's Requiems at random*

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

P.S. Mozart - Summer Overture

OMG! O_O!!! *loves*

[arye-sarin.livejournal.com]

I have it on cd, but no idea how to transform it into mp3 and to you. Perhaps Lagen could help but right now he is too busy to do anything but the necessary at home. Me being helpless little creature right now and Lagen going to store, trying to figure out the tv-problem (funny that is, we don't even watch it very much, but when the bloody machine is broke, you notice how much you need it. Dvd's would probably be enough, but impossible to watch those either), fixing furniture, taking care of Tötterö, shopping, bringing me a glass of water when I need it (helpless indeed!) etc.

And if you cound instrumental movie soundtracks into classical music, I strongly recommend it too. Or even if you didn't. Start with Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Patrick Doyle, the obvious John Wililiams etc.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too! I love classical music that you can sing and dance along to. Hungarian Dance #5 has been a favourite since I learned it from a Commodore 64 video game when I was a kid. :D

[pikku-gen.livejournal.com]

Presiis. ;)

[morningfine]

Here!

I kind of dig opera a lot. Opera and Strauss waltzes, so I tried to pick some essential ones from those fronts. And I think there may be a repeat or two from what other folks have recced, but... kertaus on opintojen äiti, yeah? ;)

[lorem.livejournal.com]

Beethovenin ysi. Siitä kannattaa lukea wikistä tai muusta vastaavasta paikasta ennen kuuntelua.

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

Että pitää oikein tietää, mitä kuuntelee? JA sitten pitää varmaan myös varmistaa, että ei ole tullut ladanneeksi mitään panhuilu- tai bulgarialainen pioneeriorkesteri-versiota ;)

[lorem.livejournal.com]

Juu. B9 on varsin monimutkainen ja raskas, mutta samalla myös vaihteleva ja yllätykellinen, kappale. IMHO parasta, mitä ihmiskunta on koskaan tuottanut. Minulta löytyy myös Multimedia Beethoven -niminen CD, jossa sinfonian voi kuunnella niin, että ruudussa pyörii samalla kommentteja. En kyllä tiedä, että toimiiko tuo nykyaikaisissa tietokoneissa, mutta CD:n voi myös lykätä soittimeen ja kuunnella pelkän sinfonian.

[(Anonymous)]

Ok, cool, good to know.