Wow! I never expected such a massive influx of responses to my
mundane lil' ol' post. Thanks to all of you for your welcomes and your
recommendations. I've got a plethorah of new selections to investigate
now, which means I also have a lot of downloading to do!
Now that I have so many great listening ahead of me, I'd like to share
a little bit of my classical music personality and preferences. My
obsession with music in general has dated back to before I can remember.
I'm also a singer (big band, and the standards), so I've always had a
love for older, rarer music, music that the general masses look at as
novel or dated. But there's a hidden magic in old music that a nostalgic
guy like me just can't shake. You know, I'll probably regret saying
this once the tarring and feathering commences, but I think my first
real contact with classical music was watching the Ren & Stimpy show
as a kid. The cartoons were great, but even greater was how they used
classical music to add dramatic effect. So, I tend to be particularly
taken by really dramatic pieces with prominent recurring themes (such
as Dvorak's "New World Symphony", which Ren & Stimpy would cue up
constantly, especially the second movement). A few years back, I
purchased a set called "50 Classical Masterpieces" (for only 5 dollars,
for Pete's sake!), and I really enjoyed it, but I had not been actively
pursuing the music since just weeks ago, when I started listening to
Beethoven again and realizing how beautiful his works are. Incidentally,
does anyone here have the 5 disc set of Beethoven's nine symphonies,
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, lead by Herbert von Karajan, under
the Deutsche Grammaphon label? If not, I highly recommend it! It's
well worth every cent of the thirty dollars it costs. But I digress.
My love of a catchy theme and dramatic quality led me primarily to the
Classical and Romantic periods. Some of my favorites are pretty elementary.
I haven't branched out into the more obscure composers yet, but I'm
working on it! My absolute favorites list would have to include the
following...
Grieg---The Peer Gynt Suites, and his first piano concerto
Strauss (don't know if it's Senior or Junior)---Blue Danube
Waltz, Tritsch Tratsch Polka, practically everything I've heard
of his
Chopin---Black Keys Study, Minute Waltz, and The Revolutionary
(I get chills everytime I listen to that one)
Tchaikovsky---Piano Concerto No. 1, Romeo & Juliet Overture
Rossini---Barber of Seville, William Tell
Bizet---Carmen
Schubert---Unfinished Symphony (I love his use of themes in the
first movement)
Debussy---Claire de Lune (the most romantic piece of music I've ever heard.)
Rimsky-Korsakov---Sheherazade
Beethoven---Moonlight Sonata, Eroica Symphony, Pastorale Symphony,
5th Symphony, and Ninth Symphony.
Mussorgsky---Night on Bald Mountain
Wagner---Ride of the Valkyries
Dvorak---the aforementioned New World Symphony, and a string
quartet I heard on the radio but sadly, I can't remember what
it was called.
Mozart---Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (I know I butchered the spelling
of that one), and his 21st piano concerto
Handel---Water Music, Fireworks Music, and Messiah (one of the
great triumphs of baroque choral music)
Gershwin---Rhapsody in Blue
and from what I've heard of it, The Planets, by Holst
Gee, I sure hope I didn't leave anyone out! That's definitely my
essentials list in as small a nutshell as I could condense it.
Barrett Reynolds <[log in to unmask]>
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