Classical Composers?

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So who here is into Classical music?
Which composers do you (enjoy|prefer)?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 14 February 2005 00:39 (twenty-one years ago)

the computer in "electric dreams"

― uidge mre, Monday, 14 February 2005 00:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Beethoven is by far my favorite classical composer.

Lately I've been discovering Strauss the Younger, who's fantastic.

Chopin is also splendid.

― ffirehorse, Monday, 14 February 2005 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Olivier Messiaen is my favorite composer. As a starting point, I'd recommend his Quatuor pour la fin du temps, a beautiful, apocalyptic chamber music piece, and follow that with his Trois Petites liturgies de la présence divine which is vocal / orchestral and full of strength and joy. He based a lot of his work on birdsong ---transcribing the music of birds into musical notation. A lot of people, even his most hardcore fans, find his Catalogue d'oiseaux (which is pure birdsong) almost impenetrable, but count me in the few who thinks it's an amazing piece of work. My favorite piano composition by Messiaen, however, is probably Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus which really showcases his abilities as an improviser. Strangely enough, Messiaen was renowned mostly for his organ works (which are all great, imo, and you should start with L'Ascension if interested) and not his orchestral stuff.

Another favorite of mine is Krzysztof Penderecki, whose Threnody For The Victims of Hiroshima always slays me. I love most of his music, but another highlight for me is The Dream of Jacob and most of his vocal works.

György Ligeti is another one of my favorite composers, though his works are the most eclectic, if you compared it to the body of work of my other favorites. He's excellent in all areas, imo. His Violin Concerto would be a good starting point, but I also like his "static" pieces based on micropolyphonic textures, such as "Atmospheres" and "Apparitions." He even has a couple of electronic pieces which are very interesting, "Artikulation" and "Glissandi." His piano concerto is amazing, too. And "Continuum" (for harpsichord) is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. The performer barely sounds human!

I also really like the string quartets of Alfred Schnittke & Sofia Gubaidulina.

I'd say avoid all of Stravinsky's "neoclassical" works, but I firmly stand by my opinion that "Firebird" and "The Rite of Spring" are works of genius.

A lot of people here might mention Schoenberg whose latter phase I despise with every cell of my body, but whose Verklärte Nacht is a work of undeniable beauty.

― Salvador Saca (Mr. Xolotl), Monday, 14 February 2005 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not an experienced fan of classical music by any means, but I know a little bit. I like Chopin for his delicate piano pieces. You know all those impromptus? Those were meant, I heard, to sound as if they were being improvised on the spot. A while ago I had some movements of Mahler's fifth symphony. I'm kinda tired of the 'death in venice' one, the famously romantic one, but the other ones are great. They have all these really wild dischordant horn parts and stuff. And in high school I liked Gustav Holst. He's got some great pieces, and you don't have to work so hard to appreciate them. I'd like to get my hands on some good Wagner, but there's probably some at my local library. So there are my 2 cents. I'm obviously a layman.

― Nick Uh-huh (boghead), Monday, 14 February 2005 04:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got a soft spot for Tchaikovsky and Bach (esp. "Come Sweet Death").

― Matt Chesnut, Monday, 14 February 2005 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I like my Bs-- Bartok, Berlioz, and of course, Bach and Beethoven. And... err... Bivaldi? I'm stretching now.

― Will M. (Will M.), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Berio

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Bliss, Bax, Boulez

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 11:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Bizet, Berg and Boccherini.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Bruckner

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Bellini

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Brahms

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Biber, Barber

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Buxtehude

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Bernstein

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(Hildegard of) Bingen

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Britten!

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Butterworth

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Byrd

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Bridge

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

C.P.E. Bach

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Borodin

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Berkeley

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

WF, JC Bachs

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Birtwistle!!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Branca

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I've created a bonster.

― Will M. (Will M.), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Boyce

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Busoni

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Harvegal Brian

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Get out yer fiddles for:

Bruch

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

erm

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Bloch

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:10 (twenty-one years ago)

He's a little bit Fluxus, a little bit Dada, it's:

George Brecht

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:12 (twenty-one years ago)

uhhhh..

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Babbitt

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Dammitt!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Balakirev

phew

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Insert joke about "organ playing":

John Blow

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Berwald

On a roll!

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 14 February 2005 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Berlioz C/D, S/D.

― Un investigador del siglo XXI (AaronHz), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

the computer in "electric dreams"
Didn't it mostly play Bach's "Minuet in G"?
What else did it do? That film seriously needs a DVD release, pronto.

― Un investigador del siglo XXI (AaronHz), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

A lot of people, even his most hardcore fans, find his Catalogue d'oiseaux (which is pure birdsong) almost impenetrable

Ooooh yeah! Seems intuitively like it might be sweet, and the recordings are invariably decorated with the quaintest pictures of little swallows and such. But this is some serious hard work. Yowsah!

I'm with you Salvador on Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus - this was probably the first piece of its ilk I found myself returning to really regularly. As for Messiaen for orchestra, that Boulez disk of Chronochromie/La Ville d'en haut/Et Exspecto Resurrectionem is utterly distinctive and excellent.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 14 February 2005 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

A while ago I had some movements of Mahler's fifth symphony. I'm kinda tired of the 'death in venice' one, the famously romantic one, but the other ones are great.

Yeah, I'm quite a Mahler fan, but sometimes those shrill strings can really grate. Reminds me of trips to the shopping centre when I was a kid and they'd be playing stuff like that as you go up the escalator past the fountains, looking down on all the chrome and marble, your head slightly spinning with tiredness and the smell of the carpets in M&S.

Have been enjoying a lot of Debussy recently, especially chunks of the opera Pelleas et Malisande, really seductive and somewhat err, tumescent music, but with this undercurrent of mournfulness that could totally shred your heart if it catches you in the right frame of mind.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe I mean the wrong frame of mind. Also Janacek gets played a lot, mostly the Sinfonietta (that amazing brass!) but increasingly the string quartets. And Shostakovich always gets a bit of a hammering too when I'm feeling gloomy.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 14 February 2005 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been working backwards, I guess because I latched onto Webern, Berg, Boulez, and Messiaen right away, which led me into Scriabin, Mahler, Stravinsky, Ravel, R. Strauss, and Debussy. Next on the horizon is Wagner, then Beethoven!

I'm completely unschooled, and I'm enjoying the hell out of just about every composer I listen to. And used classical viynl is so cheap and plentiful once you get away from the modern stuff.

― Matt B. (Matt B.), Monday, 14 February 2005 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, you can buy all that culture in bulk. I don't know if I should rejoice or cry.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 03:06 (twenty-one years ago)

haha, I was seriously LOLing at that B bit.

Dada mentioned Busoni, but no one said Bussotti!!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 04:17 (twenty-one years ago)

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