Quote:
Originally Posted by Lisnaholic
^ Thanks for your interest, josht. That's very kind, but I'm not particularly looking to get into classical music right now. I usually like music that is sombre and "thin", if you know what I mean - not too many instruments at any one time, and not that lush orchestral wash which really puts me off classical music. So I've kind of enjoyed Rachmaninov, The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams, and a couple of violin concertos.
Prob the very first pieces that tempted me to examine classical music were Ravel's Bolero and the bits of Beethoven's Ninth in A Clockwork Orange.
^ HaHa! I kind of guessed his efforts wouldn't be highly regarded.
And how about you, josht ? You haven't answered the question for yourself, or mentioned any particular favourites.
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Fair enough
I started playing the piano as a 7 yr old, but I didn't really start becoming a music fan until I was 13 or so. I tried figuring out what all the fuss was about by listening to a lot of pop/rap, and while I liked some of it this was also about the time I started learning to play some great classical pieces. I started to play/love Chopin, Rachmaninoff, then Beethoven, then I discovered Liszt and he was my favourite for awhile. I soon quit the piano for various reasons, but my love for the genre was well in place and I found it much more interesting than anything I'd heard from other genres (again, mainly pop and 'entry level' rap). The next 7 years or so, from 15-21, it was pretty much all I listened to, although I didn't start branching out too much from the Romantic era (especially piano music) until I was 19 or so. Then at 22 I started realising that there was lots of other great music in other genres if one looked for it, so now at 24 I've started exploring other genres too -mainly Jazz- but I still have a long way to go and Classical is my go-to (although really I've only scratched the surface with this huge genre). Favourites so far include:
Stravinsky: Orpheus, Apollo, early ballets (Firdbird/Petrushka/Rite of Spring), Symphony of Psalms, Scenes de Ballet, Pulcinella.
Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder, Eine Alpensinfonie, Metamorphosen, Tod und Verklärung, Morgen.
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Romeo et Juliette, La Damnation de Faust, Les Troyens, Requiem.
Liszt: Piano Sonata, Annees de Pelerinage, Variations on Weinen Klagen Sorgen Zagen, various small works.
Chopin: Ballades 2 and 4, Preludes, Polonaise-Fantasy, scattered works from various collections.
Beethoven: Late Piano Sonatas, some earlier ones.
Brahms: A German Requiem, Piano Concerto #2, various late solo piano works, some other choral works.
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7, Tapiola.
Schumann: Fantasy Op. 17, Kreisleriana.
Debussy: Images (piano), Estampes,
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.
Prokofiev: Piano Sonata #8, Piano Concerti 2 and 3.
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6.
Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead, Piano Concerti 2-3, Etudes Tableaux (especially Op. 39).