Any classical music recommendations?

I heard something on the road today at work that floored me, made me ignore DC traffic, my headache, my burning cigarette in my fingers and took me to another place.. great stuff.

The problem.... I have NO clue who is was. I'll have to ask Raff, it is some Italian composer. I got that much, from my new assistant at work who is a classical nut and recognized it in less than 10 notes.  I'm going to like working with him.  A ethnic German, from Syria. 

asked the wife.. my layman description didn't help. I'll remember to ask him tomorrow who and what that was and hopefully remember to post it here.

King Crimson776 wrote: Ravel's Piano Concertos and Gaspard de la Nuit A list of my classical favorites: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/KingCrimson776/classical/

Interesting list. Nice to see Eugen Jochum and Sir Thomas Beecham in there, especially.

Rick Robson wrote: Rick Robson wrote: presdoug wrote: The last three symphonies of Anton Bruckner, No. 7,8,9.  Monumental and lyrical, he was the true inheritor of Beethoven 's symphonic mantle. Dark but spiritual in the same breath.       Unfortunately I couldn't find yet in other music genres a composer with his greatness...

Hey Ric, last night I heard for the first time the Beethoven Fourth Symphony with Karajan from the 1980s and I thought of you! Quite impressive.

Here is what I treat myself to in the “classical” category .. my sincere apologies for the occasional lack of accents and the frivolous spelling of some names J

·          Änglagård: Almost anything

·          Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique and more

·          Igor Borodin: Almost anything

·          Mikaelas (?) Čiurlionis (some sonatas?)

·          Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring

·          Claud Debussy: Almost anything

·          Antonin Dvoržak: Some

·          George Gerschwin: Almost anything

·          Edvard Grieg: Some

·          Georg Friedrich Händel: Some

·          Gustav Holst: The Planets

·          Zoltán Kodály: Some

·          Anatoly Liadov: Almost anything

·         Mendelssohn: Some

·          Modest Moussorgsky: Some

·          Rimsky-Korsakov: Some

·          Jacques Offenbach: Almost anything

·          Sergei Prokofiev: Some

·          Maurice Ravel: Some

·          Sergei Rachmaninoff: Some

·          Renaissance: Scheherezade and more

·          Respighi: Pines and Fountains of Rome

·          Anton Rubinstein: The Ocean symphony

·          Camille Saint-Saëns: Almost anything

·          Tchaikovsky: Almost anything

·          Yes: Fragile

Edited by Argonaught - November 30 2014 at 13:01

A pretty fantastic piece of piano music Franz List - The Dante Sonata... for structure, detail, variety and all round spell binding fascination Bruckner's 4th.

I particualrly like finding music in hi res. Recently a whole lotta stuff got itself made available SACDs going for $5. Stocked up and replaced some 16 bit. What a difference in quality, I had a few - The Planets  on DVD Audio, Ludo's incomparable 3rd Symphony (plus the 4th and 5th but a more expensive but worthwhile inclusion. The 7th and 8th are old recordings by Brenboim but on DVD Audio they really come out.

The hi res 24 bit format really makes a difference, -  My analogy between the two is watered down versus undiluted if that makes sense. 

But what a sonic difference. LvB's Tempest (SACD) sonata has such detail in the arpeggios especially near the end, a nuance, pianists delicacy that was really evident. Still subtle but all the more prevalent for the file size.

NP: The Thunder and Lightning polka in 16 bit which now sounds like a bootleg compared to the sonic difference between the two.

bump

presdoug wrote: The last three symphonies of Anton Bruckner, No. 7,8,9.  Monumental and lyrical, he was the true inheritor of Beethoven 's symphonic mantle. Dark but spiritual in the same breath.

I heard the first movement of Bruckner's 8th on the way to work this morning - it was excellent! 

Padraic wrote: presdoug wrote: The last three symphonies of Anton Bruckner, No. 7,8,9.  Monumental and lyrical, he was the true inheritor of Beethoven 's symphonic mantle. Dark but spiritual in the same breath. I heard the first movement of Bruckner's 8th on the way to work this morning - it was excellent!

Great! Wait til you hear the rest of it, the restless scherzo, the monumental adagio, and architectonic finale. Every note of that work speaks to me.

Many of my classical music favourites are well known to prog fans because they have inspired some of the classic bands of the Seventies. However, they are still worth mentioning:

Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain, Pictures at an Exhibition (both the piano-only original and the Ravel-orchestrated version)
Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring
Orff - Carmina Burana
Smetana - Ma Vlast (the whole cycle)
Grieg - Peer Gynt
De Falla - El Amor Brujo
Ravel - Bolero
Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Dvorak - New World Symphony

To those who love choral music, I would also warmly recommend late Renaissance composers of polyphonic music such as Orlando di Lasso, Tomas Luis da Victoria and, of course, our very own Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

I dig a lot of the orchestral avant-garde from last century, though that's about it. Some pieces I'm really keen on: