Where to start with classical music

Just logged on to the Classic FM web site and found a section called "100 CDs You Must Own"

Couldn't resist, so dipped into a sample of Beethoven, Strauss, Holst, Elgar.

Other recommendations much appreciated

I don't know about the Classic FM guide (I'm afraid I don't care for the station - mainly down to their playing just a part of a work but describing it in a way that implies they've played the whole thing). I used to rely on the penguin guide when I first started collecting, but then I didn't have sites like this. Now, and given I often know what I like, I find it much less useful.

My universal recommendation for starting off is the Beethoven symphonies from Mackerras and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic - 5 discs, dirt cheap, super performances.

I'd then check out the classical threads worth reading thread, which I've bumped to the top.

regards, Tam

Thanks Tam! Perfect.

You should start with 20th century music and work your way back. It's easier to comprehend your contemporaries than it is your predecessors. These are the sounds you heard on tv and at the movies as a child.


Stravinsky Firebird Rattle/Birmingham

Copland: Appalachian Spring/Fanfare For The Common Man/El Salón México/Danzón Cubano by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and New York Philharmonic

Percy Grainger Plays Grainger by Percy Grainger, David Guion, Charles Villiers Stanford, Richard Strauss, and Percy Grainger


Debussy: La Mer / Nocturnes / Jeux / Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestre - The Cleveland Orchestra / Pierre Boulez by Claude Debussy, Pierre Boulez, and The Cleveland Orchestra

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 (Classical); Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major, Op. 100 (Nov 14, 1995) by Sergei Prokofiev, James Levine, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 by Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein, and Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam

Thanks Mike, very much appreciated. Just seen your thread on essential New Orleans. Both New Orleans & Chicago blues do it for me, so I will try your recommendations too...

quote:

Originally posted by mikeeschman:
You should start with 20th century music and work your way back. It's easier to comprehend your contemporaries than it is your predecessors. These are the sounds you heard on tv and at the movies as a child.

I second that suggestion.

If you're someone that likes reading about music as well as listening to it, I can strongly recommend Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise, a survey of 20th century 'classical' music that emphasises it's links with other forms. The introduction sets the tone, describing a meeting between George Gershwin and Alban Berg. The book is supported by an excellent blog so you can listen to excepts of the music he is talking about as you read.

duncan

Foot Tapper - trust me on this buy Beethoven V and VII combined together on DG by the Vienna Phil conducted by Carlos Kleiber. It's on Amazon. About £13 but for the 2 performances on one CD it's a bargain. Oh make sure you get the standard red book version not the SACD hybrid - unless you have a SACD player that is!

Fender (Strat)

Watching this develope, I will cast a vote in a different direction:

There is a set of Bach with Pinnock and the English Concert of the Six Brandenburg Concertos and Four Orchestral Suites [plus in some issues various other concerti]. These are superb modern Historically Informed Performances in first rate modern recordings, and make a splendid entry point for the classics.

Also, you will find that in spite of their complete recommendability, they are to be found at ultra-budget price these days.

In terms of knowing some of the music, it is certain that you will recognise a good deal, so much is Bach still part of modern culture, even modern popular culture. I suspect Bach would have been very surprised by this, but I would put this music in front of any of the achievements of the twentieth century, and it still speaks to us directly.

I tend to think that JS Bach was actually the father of modern music. There is older music, but it tends to appreciated by specialists, whereas Bach is enjoyable by any! Do you know the famous Air on a G String? That is in there for a start, though in its original and most beautiful form ...

ATB from George

I have a CD of works by Bach's sons that I quite enjoy.

Interestingly I knew I had my hifi about right when I played classical music and it finally sounded good. I have the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra playing 4 seasons in my living room right now.

I find I quite like the smaller orchestras that play baroque stuff. 1000 strings don't do it for me as well as a few. You get a sense of the instrument more with less.

I am still a beginner as well, and just when one of the few classical music stores in Brisbane is closing.

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
There is a set of Bach with Pinnock and the English Concert of the Six Brandenburg Concertos

It's certainly impossible to go wrong with Bach.
I have to recommend one other set of Brandenbergs that is the best Bach i have ever heard anywhere, and is also the best recorded classical recording I have ever heard. The band is young, and they play original instruments. The trumpet player in the 2nd Brandenberg sets a new standard for the world to follow, and the 1st positively makes me dance!

After my ninth hearing of this disk, I told my wife we had to go to Italy to see them. They are absolute rock stars :

Bach Brandenberg Concertos 1-6
Il Giardino Armonico
Teldec

This is what all my musician friends are getting for Christmas this year (my daughters too).

quote:

Originally posted by Foot tapper:
Other recommendations much appreciated

BBC Radio 3 can be an excellent way to discover classical music.

...and Jazz too come to think about it! : )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/index.shtml

nymph

AS usual a lady makes the most sensible suggestion!

It is so obvious that this is the best way forward ...

ATB from George

quote:

BBC Radio 3 can be an excellent way to discover classical music.

An excellent suggestion. Listen to some of the "Composer of the Week" series and you will gain an appreciation of just what they are trying to communicate.

I would not support trying 20th century music first. Some of it is very difficult, unstructured and atonal. I would go instead for George's Bach suggestions, followed by Mozart, Haydn and then Beethoven. And then, wherever your fancy takes you. If you take to it, you should enjoy a wonderful musical journey.

Regards,
Ken

The occasional listen to BBC Radio 4's 'Desert Island Disks' programme gives some nice, and often popular snippets of classical music, as well odd bits of modern music you might not know, although sometimes just lets you know that some people have no taste what-so-ever, (David Davis choosing Phil Collins on the show today).

It certainly helped me when I started to listen to classical music.

Personally I found Vaughan Williams a very easy composer to listen to. His influence on film music makes his work quite accessible to someone coming from rock, as I was. If you like Holst, he is from the same period of English composers.

The Lark Ascending, 5th Symphony, and Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis are all good starting places. I love the 3rd and 4th symphonies, but would not recommend them to start with.

Classical music does seem daunting when you see a history of hundreds of years to choose from, but is very rewarding as you get to know the movements that appeal to you.

Jamie

I found the film Amadeus a great help in exploring Mozart and have collected Piano Concertos, Sonatas and Symphonies.

Well at 35 in grad school in 90 I was tired of rock and started to listen to classical here in LA. Hearing short announcer intros about the history, composer or players was invaluable, but if I missed that I tried to guess the country of origin and composer or time period. All I'd really had was a few years of basic music in grade school. It was great fun to guess. Radio is the best way into it. then try a live concert, up in the rafters or last minute rush.

You can't be ho hum about Beethoven's 5th if yer a rocker. OR his 9th. And the early Stravinsky ballets are critical. Bach can be done sonorously or modern. Great stuff when you get the right recording whatever you get into.

We have an announcer named Jim Sjveda (sp?) who has written a cheeky favorites guide book and he has great taste in performers and pieces.

Classical music is an enormous field .. I would consider myself a fan but equally I don't like a lot of the stuff that is generally listed as classical music ... so if you try the suggestions and don't like them don't give up.

Classical music is as different as Frank Sinatra versus Elvis Presley versus AC/DC versus Kraftwerk versus rap ... so if you dislike Frank Sinatra it does not mean you will dislike pop music.

All the suggestions so far are very good but the best is probably to listen to the radio. [By the way the suggested Kleiber Beethoven 5 and 7 is super -- great performances of 2 of Beethoven's best symphonies].

Also try the following book ....

The Classical Music Experience With 2 Audio CDs by Julius Jacobson II

It comes with 2xCD's and also access to the Naxos website for downloads [?? or streaming audio ??] of the music discussed [at least my version came with this option but so far I have not tried it, so check that this option is still available] ...

I have been listenning to classical music for ages and ages and my taste has changed [developed ?? or just changed ??] over the years.

If you try the 'easy listenning' classical stuff and it does not move you try Stravinsky 'Rite of Spring'.

James H.

P.S. Naxos is a budget classical label....

ends==

You could also look at this thread ...

The Planet Suite - Most Audiophile

James H.

these will provide a great deal of enjoyment and education in a painless venue :

"Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music" by Euroarts.

i have bartok's Concerto for Orchestra with pierre boulez

and mozart symphony no. 41 with hartmut haenchen and am greedily looking for more.

each dvd consists of a musical lecture where the conductor deconstructs each major theme in the work followed by a complete performance.

these are highly recommended.

I enjoy a good tune and find some heavier classical stuff hard to listen to so my recommendations are perhaps on the lighter side.
Mozart's Clarinet Concerto is a heaven on earth piece for me.
Beethoven's 7th gets me going and wondering why it sounds so familiar because nobody else I talk to has heard it.
Strauss (father and son) can get me dancing, crying, or sometimes standing with an air baton depending on how many drams I've had. I can't stay in my seat when I hear the Radestky March and Fledermaus, Tales from Vienna Woods, Roses from the South are sublime but perhaps too light for some of the hard core classical buffs her.
And never forget Vivaldi. The Four Seasons still get me shivering.

Perhaps all a bit clichéd but it's what I love.

A classical newbie’s perspective here…

I started to listen to classical music more seriously about five years ago and I was pretty much in the same position as you – I knew a couple of pieces, and although I was intrigued, I had no real idea on where to go. I am still a casual classical fan by the standards of many on this board. For example I generally don’t have any duplicated pieces as I am still slowly exploring the repertoire, and “classical” only represents around 10% of my CD collection. At some point in the future I may start to compare performances.

There are already some good suggestions, but here are a few tips of my own.

1) Books – the Penguin Guide is OK for recommendations, but only if you know what it is you are looking for. As a beginner you want something that highlights a few works by particular composers and explains a bit of the personal and cultural background as well. The best book I found was The Rough Guide to Classical Music. I picked up the Penguin Guide for a couple of quid in a charity shop – it was a couple of years out of date (I think hardcore enthusiasts buy it every year, so old ones are available.) You will read people discussing the importance of a good performance. I still find this quite difficult as a newcomer, as you don’t really have a reference until you buy your first recording. Once you have this reference, you can start to compare it to others but to me it seems that the first recording sets the standard for you. The books help you choose a good starting point.

2) Concerts – classical music usually has a lot more impact live. Go to a couple. If you live near London, the Proms are cheap.

3) Radio – Radio 3 is a great way to hear stuff, but it can be a little “dry” and obscure to the newcomer. Check out the radio listings and see if anything interesting is on.

4) Listening – the hardest thing for me initially was the concentration you need to apply to long pieces if you are used to listening to rock. If you are already interested in 20 minute prog epics you may have a head start here! Give stuff a few tries because it can take a little time to get into.

5) Buying – the best thing about classical music is that it is cheap. Many CDs are available for £5 in the bigger branches of HMV. So you can afford to experiment a little.

6) Finally the music… you say you like orchestral so a few I found that appealed initially were:
- Beethoven – symphonies 5,3 and 9
- Stravinsky – Rite of Spring
- Vaughan Williams – Tallis Fantasia
- Elgar – Cello Concerto
- Sibelius – 2nd symphony
- Bartok – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
- Shostakovich – symphonies 5 and 7

Like you, I thought I would hate opera and chamber music. I still don’t really like opera (and I am wary of things with a lot of choral singing), but chamber music is a different matter. The four musicians in a string quartet are about as close to rock band format that classical gets, and the interlinking lines are relatively easy to follow compared to a full orchestra. I also found that piano music is sometimes a good way into a composer’s work (for example, Beethoven’s “named” piano sonatas – Pastoral/Moonlight etc)

The other thing to remember is that you will start to develop your own tastes – so don’t expect to like everything you hear, any more than you would expect to like everything in another genre.

quote:

Originally posted by Ghom:


4) Listening – the hardest thing for me initially was the concentration you need to apply to long pieces if you are used to listening to rock. If you are already interested in 20 minute prog epics you may have a head start here! Give stuff a few tries because it can take a little time to get into.

That's why listening to the radio, and listening casually, is the best advice. Just expose yourself without concentrating too hard. After a while, what you like will make itself known to your subconscious. No pressure to like anything.


This publication was helpful to me. http://www.fanfaremag.com/ It covers a lot of esoterica but once you start to know your way around, you will be more open to new ideas.


DMC

quote:

Originally posted by Ghom:
A classical newbie’s perspective here…

...2) Concerts – classical music usually has a lot more impact live. Go to a couple. If you live near London, the Proms are cheap.


Like you, I thought I would hate opera and chamber music. I still don’t really like opera...

Great post. How did I forget to mention going to concerts?

Stick with opera. It's a big leap coming from a rock/folk/funk/whatever background: trained voices can be a real barrier. It took me years and years to get it, even after being into classical music for quite a time. A girlfriend who aimed to be the next Maria Callas helped. I didn’t last long, I was never going to be the next Aristotle Onassis, but she got me interested in this mad art-form for which I will be eternally grateful. Cheap standby tickets at ENO also helped, it really has to be seen live.

duncan

Thanks for all the excellent advice, especially Tam for your other classical threads.

The first 5 CDs have arrived, courtesy of Amazon.

Started with New Year's Concert in Vienna by Vienna Philharmoniker/Karajan & Kathleen Battle on DG. I am still absolutely stunned. This is just fabulous.

For someone, who until this afternoon only listened to blues/pop/rock, this is every bit as good as the latest Kings of Leon album (Only by the night). This is the highest compliment I can offer.

Now on my second classical music disc...
Beethoven Symphonies 5 & 7 by Wiener Philharmoniker & Carlos Kleiber.
No. 5 was so moving it brought tears to my eyes. I didn't know that classical music could do this to a grown man. No 7 is also proving to be phenomenal, though in a different way.

Still have Elgar Cello Concerto, Elgar Enigma Variations, Holst the Planets, plus Sibelius, Tchaikovsky & Glazunov violin concertos to go - all on EMI Great Recordings of the Century.

Looks like my musical repertoire has just expanded to include a love of major classical works.

This is going to be fun!!!

Hello Foottapper,

it makes me happy that you did enjoy your first classical recordings.

Beethovens 3rd is also very fine, you should not miss it.

If you like beautiful melodies, the Czech composers Smetana ( Vltava/ Die Moldau ) and Dvorak ( Symphonies 8 and 9 ) are worth a listen.

Very colorful music are the "Pictures at an Exhibition" from Moussorgsky/Ravel, I prefer the version with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Fritz Reiner.

And please, do not forget Franz Schubert. His 8th symphony is imo one of the greatest pieces of music ever made.

Best wishes

Manfred