Classical music for complete morons

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Listening to a lot of bands, Spiritualized, Sigur Ros... I decided I'd like to try to get into some classical. I have absolutely no idea where to start.

It'd be cool if there was some ambient classical but really, I'm open to anything.

What'd be a good place to start?

― David Allen, Wednesday, 21 May 2003 00:57 (twenty-two years ago)

If you are looking for ambient classical look into Shenzhou by Biosphere or Murcof.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 01:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Arvo Part's always good, but look for a good recording -- the ECM releases will do ya.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 01:07 (twenty-two years ago)

gavin bryars - sinking of the titanic
steve reich - music for 18 musicians
fred frith - pacifica

― phil turnbull (philT), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 01:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, you know what you need to get your hands on is a copy of Ambient 2: Plateaux Of Mirrors by Harold Budd and Brian Eno. It is a very ambient album of slowly pedaling grand piano run through Eno's treatments. Very mellow, very pretty, a bit dark and mysterious perhaps. It is a very pleasant after sex record.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=8:25:36|PM&sql=Aykuf6j3h71u0

The record Harold Budd did with The Cocteau Twins is pretty good as well, it is a bit darker but still nice. It has Budd's signature piano with Robin Guthrie making weird ambient guitar noises over the top. I would not call it classical, but I would call it gorgeous deep listening music.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=8:25:36|PM&sql=Auyd9kept7q70

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 01:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes to both of Mike's recommendations above...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 01:24 (twenty-two years ago)

and after re-reading the amg album review for The Moon and Melodies I have concluded that Peter Stepek is completely off the money.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 01:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Listen to Beauty and the Beast by Wendy Carlos. Its frightening, it will drive you insane. And at time its very beautiful.

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 01:34 (twenty-two years ago)

get an Erik Satie piano works cd. very beautiful, spacious, proto-ambient classical

― JasonD (JasonD), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 03:09 (twenty-two years ago)

This may be left field, but if you like Sigur Rós, you might like Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor.

Also, it's not strictly classical, but check out some of Zbigniew Preisner's movie stuff. Requiem for my Friend is all huge church organs, sopranos and choirs (recorded in Warsaw Cathedral) and is a stunningly sorrowful take on the requiem structure. He's more versatile than that, too.

As you can see, I know nothing about classical either ;)

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 03:27 (twenty-two years ago)

You can't go wrong with Bach's Goldberg Variations.

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 07:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm still fond of Stravinsky's old-school favorites Petrouchka and Rite of Spring.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 07:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Orff's Carmina Burana will make you laugh at how many "rock" bands have ripped it off.

But the populist, rockist, obvious answer is: go for the Beethoven Sonatas. Moonlight, Pathetique, that sort of thing.

― kate, Wednesday, 21 May 2003 07:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I second the Eric Satie recommendation---one of the few classical cd's that I own is called "Classics for a Rainy Day" and has his best known works (you'd know it when you heard it) as well as Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez' (redone by Miles Davis/Gil Evans on Sketches of Spain) and stuff from Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Debussy, Ravel, Bach, and others. Like most classical stuff, it's cheap--only like $10 for 2cds

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 07:45 (twenty-two years ago)

wait, since when was Eno "classical"?
the hardest part of listening to classical for me is in getting the image of luxury cars swerving along mountains out of my head.
some things i like:

Debussy: "La Mer" "Nocturnes" "L'Apres Midi..." especially coming from Sigur Ros/Spiritualized angle
Bach "Goldberg Variations"
Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition" or "Night on Bald Mountain"
Ravel "Daphnis et Chloe"
Gorecki "Symphony #3"
Satie "Trois Gnossiennes"
Beethoven "Symphony #6"
Berlioz "Symphonie Fantastique"
Morton Feldman "The Viola in my Life" obv. more modern, but the gateway for me

― abeta, Wednesday, 21 May 2003 13:18 (twenty-two years ago)

i first got into classical music when i was listening to that sort of music a lot,and the first album i got was gorecki's third sympony...
its still probably my favourite piece of music of all time
its constantly namedropped by the likes of spiritualized and godspeed,so you may have already heard of it
anyway,you should be able to get it on naxos for very cheap,i'd wholeheartedly recommend
what i've heard of the other recommendations is really good as well,you can't go wrong really

― robin (robin), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

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