Favourite classical music...

[Yellow Saddle]

We got to see him at Leicester Cathederal last year, hair on the back of your neck job. Also had tickets for Birmingham last week but was unable to go.

If you have half an hour then may I suggest you watch the video of the whole album

Shall do, thanks.

 

[rich p]

Almost anything post-Mozart (apart from Beethoven).
For summink mellow, quintessentially English to read a book with, Finzi's Clarinet Concerto is hard to beat.

 

[Fnaar]

View: http://youtu.be/E2j-frfK-yg

This is also one of Miss Goodbody's favourites.

 

[theloafer]

Bach: six french suites played by Joanna Macgregor. I often read to this wonderful collection and I find her interpretation so soothing. I suffer from migraine headaches and find this particular album a great help to listen to at a soft volume...She played at Bath Classical Musical Festival some 3 years ago and unfortunately I missed but I am sure she is wonderful live.

thanks for this reallt enjoyed it in my fav,s

 

[andyfraser]

It might surprise some here that I love classical music. Beethoven and JS Bach are favourites but I also love Wagner, Mozart, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Samuel Barber, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsy, Grieg. I could go on and on. Like some others, I can't read with classical music on. I end up listening to the music.

 

[runner]

Another big fav and a great classical album is Mozart: The piano Sonatas by the wonderful Mitsuko Uchida and here is a fine example.....

View: http://youtu.be/pD59nWEi4GI

 

[sight-pin]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItSJ_woWnmk

 

[srw]

Bach: six french suites played by Joanna Macgregor. ... soothing.

I like piano concertos too - can't beat a bit of Bach.

John Dowland lute music played by Julian Bream.

Bach on the piano! Dowland played by Bream! Classical gas! Symphony of bloody sorrowful bloody songs! Aargh! Give me air!

Bach keyboard music has to be played on the harpsichord - the piano didn't exist until after he died. And if you want Dowland find a proper lutenist like Paul O'Dette.

My advice to anyone who wants to learn about Classical Music (or even just find something enjoyable) is always simply to turn on Radio 3. Don't bother with Classic ephemeral, unless you want to hear the same thing this year as you did 20 years ago played in exactly the same undemanding way.

For reading and a mental workout, I either listen to Renaissance choral music (Palestrina, Tallis, Byrd, the list is endless) or baroque organ or harpsichord music (Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Couperin Buxtehude - another endless list), or more recently jazz inspired by classical (Uri Caine, David Rees-Williams) or folk. But then that's the sort of thing I listen to whatever my mood.

I haven't properly analysed our record and CD collection, but at a rough guess it peaks at around 1600, then again about 1700, then dies away until about 1900. Some Beethoven is worth listening to, but anything later up till the 20th century really needs to played rather than listened to.

 

[srw]

As long as it's the full thing. So many people only know O Fortuna and think that's it...

Call yourself an early specialist? Any real specialist would disdain Orff and go straight to source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana

Anyway - two words for you: Gothic Voices. Their Radio 3 concert tonight was a beaut.

 

[Ganymede]

Call yourself an early specialist?

I think you're in the wrong thread.

 

[andyfraser]

Bach on the piano! Dowland played by Bream! Classical gas! Symphony of bloody sorrowful bloody songs! Aargh! Give me air!

Bach keyboard music has to be played on the harpsichord - the piano didn't exist until after he died. And if you want Dowland find a proper lutenist like Paul O'Dette.

All of my Bach keyboard music recordings are on either harpsichord or pipe organ so generally I agree.

But then the version of Air On The G String from the Hamlet ads was played on piano and sounded pretty good. Another good one was Beethoven's 3rd 1st movement played on electric guitar from an electricity advert from the late 80s or early 90s.

Bottom line, there's right and proper but if you enjoy something not played on the correct instruments then that's fine and no one is harmed.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Miss Goodbody learned to play the oboe with the Blues & Royals.

Whilst mounted?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I've pretty eclectic tastes so could listen to R3 all day. If it weren't for those pesky operatic overblown warblers, that is. No problem with choral and church vocal music, it's just their use of the voice.

 

[srw]

But then the version of Air On The G String from the Hamlet ads was played on piano and sounded pretty good.

Yes, but it also had a jazz double-bassist and a percussion section. If it wasn't Jacques Loussier it was someone doing a very good impression of him.

Bottom line, there's right and proper but if you enjoy something not played on the correct instruments then that's fine and no one is harmed.

Agree - as long as you don't think that's the only way or (necessarily) the right way. For instance, in the runup to 6:30 this morning Radio 3 played a performance of one of the Bach Partitas for keyboard on piano, and the pianist approached it as if it was by Debussy. Which rather devalues Bach, in my opinion. Listen to that and then someone expert (Trevor Pinnock) playing the same music on the harpsichord and you begin to understand (a) why Bach is the greatest composer of all time, and (b) why by playing him on the piano you do him an injustice.

 

[srw]

I have quite a few of their CDs.

Only "I have quite a few of their CDs". You disappoint me. I was hoping at least for a "Caroline Trevor is one of my best friends" or an "I had that Christopher Page in the back of my cab once." or a "I once rogered Covey-Crump in a dark back alley"