Don't forget Vladimir Horowitz, the greatest classical pianist of all time and the best natural pianist of all time Glen Gould who said he only practiced once per week and when he was asked what he thought of Jazz, which I enjoy, he said it was a waist of some very good notes.
Classical music newbie needs your suggestions
I purchased around 300 like new classical albums last summer. Music from a wide range of composers. I also purchased around the same amount of operas. (I may sell those).
I’m finally retired and able to pursue a lifelong desire to understand and enjoy classical music.
Pieces that move you to tears, or pluck heart strings. Your all time favorites.
The albums you’d take to that desert island.
Any suggestions are welcome.
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So there. Some great suggestions, but I'm not going to add any more as they've already bust your budget two times. @drawding I bought up all the used golden period classical vinyl in the late 80s for £1 a disc or less. It's all being sold at collectible money now as many have come to realise a lot of digital recordings suck and are going back to vinyl. The market is streaming vs. vinyl now. But most current vinyl has nothing on the Deccas etc of the late 50s and 60s. |
@clearthinker ... £1 Maybe you got them all in the UK? : ) Apologies if your comment was sarcastic this comment is based upon taking your statement literally. I am near a US West Coast major metropolitan area. I find great classical vinyl all the time (maybe not near mint with a perfect sleeve ... but after a good clean, very nice with some gems along the way ... plenty of London blue backs). I pay way less that £1 per disc. More like a £1 ($2) for 10 albums. Sometimes I get 100s for just the price of loading them up and taking them away. You just have to keep your eyes out and explore methods other than Discogs or eBay. In my case it helps to be within a hours drive of ~ 8.5 million potential sellers. In America at least, there is a YouTube vinyl collector with a store front (Noble Records) that refuses (based upon his comments on past Youtube videos) to even take in classical records at any price. So yes, though if vinyl popularity keeps up, it will be tougher to find good deals, they are still out there. Especially in America. |
I had a college friend share his appreciation of classical music with me. Since it sounds you’re beyond that, I’d now say to find a copy of Ted Libby’s NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection. (Ignore the “CD” part of the title.) The greats are the greats, and Libby is informed as well as accessible. Opera, too. Just organize your collection in your favorite manner (I use composer’s birthdate, which gives you a visual timeline of eras) and read the liner notes and Libby’s commentary as you listen. |
I was a rock n' roll kid- Bob Seger and Uncle Ted Nugent. The first classical tune that caught my ear was Pachelbel's Cannon in D. I was 18 yrs. old then. Mozart came next and as a student of music (piano and trumpet) I began to slowly mature into more and more complex classical music. At 60 years old I find my greatest joy listening to the old masters- Handel, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. I prefer the composers that tried to emulate God by composing purer, higher, nobler music. I also like French vanilla ice cream and hate butter pecan so there's that. |
I admire your quest. This forum may be a bit overwhelming, as most people are listing their personal favorites which you may or may not connect with. |
You are in for a musical experience you never dreamed of - especially when listening on a good sound system! I strongly recommend that you sample the extensive classical selections on YouTube,. The sound quality is surprisingly good with a quality headphone pair, and you will discover many vintage recordings from the golden era of classical stereo. There will be occasional annoying commercials - but the quality and variety of the music is fascinating. Of particular interest are live recordings posted from Germany and Japan by the YouTube classical community, usually supplemented by worthwhile comments. I have been particularly impressed with the performances by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony of works from the French repertoire. Also noteworthy are the amazing live performances of the Bruckner 7th and 9th Symphonies by Sergiu Celibidache and the Münchner Philharmoniker. Happy listening; your musical adventure is just beginning. |
Rather that rattle off a list of my favorite pieces of classical music (we’d be here all day), I would advise you to do a couple real-world things to inform yourself so you can figure out what you like (of music on-hand now) and what might thrill you in future purchases: 1 - Take the time to read the liner notes. With classical it matters greatly who the composer is (of course) and who the performers are (of course, again) -- but in the larger sense, it matters what era of classical music you’re hearing (ie, baroque style vs classical style vs romantic style vs things that came in w/the 20th century). 2 - And when you hear something that thrills you, note what instrument it is (or instrument grouping: chamber vs symphonic). If you find yourself loving the cello (for example), there were fabulous pieces written for it all over the past 300 years 3 - And finally, note any composers whose works appeal to you, and any performers who impress you most. You can later on pick up more recordings based on those factors. A friend was here yesterday and really liked a classical recording I was playing (an orchestral piece by Frederick Delius). I don’t know him to own any classical, so I asked, "If you like this so much, why don’t you own any of it?" His answer baffles me: "Because I don’t know enough about it to know what I would like." All he has to do is spend some quality time youtubing classical of various types and eras--and pretty soon he’d have a very good idea what he likes. Your 300 recordings are the equivalent of that. |
remember there is always the contrast between recording quality and performance quality. this said, these are my go-to-performances [i value performance quality over recording quality] but there is some overlap described below- Fritz Reiner/CSO rca red seal 1960 recording of "Scheherazade." if one has Stendhal's Syndrome at all, this one will rend your heart when you hear the violinist's [Sydney Harth] solos. this is a lean-sounding vividly up-front recording but with tremendous liveness, you are virtually atop the podium here, you can hear the musician's clothing rustling, breathing, chairs and music stands creaking, sheet music shuffling, you can hear REAL MUSICIANS at work here playing at the peak of their abilities, with Reiner leading them with controlled fury. this performance is among the most brisk of all the recordings of this work i've heard [over a dozen], and stands head and shoulders above the rest. Neeme Järvi's [RSNO] performance of alexander nevsky cantata opus 78 is cinematic, vivid, it brings something akin to a real war between and around your loudspeakers. also a bit thin-sounding and a bit distant, a bit veiled, but the visceral rendition is what matters here. this is a fair aural document of a thrilling performance that is emotionally involving. the 1975 Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orch. version has richer sonics with good clarity but it is IMHO, relatively speaking a leisurely reading, less a war than a collegiate argument. gustav holst's "the planets" suite is a tougher nut, in that there is a wide variety of performances and recordings to choose from, highly variable in performance quality and recording quality, i really can't choose well among them, but have settled on ones by Sir Georg Solti/LPO 1978, Stokowski/KAOI 1956, [1971] Zubin Mehta/LAPO - this last one is breathtakingly hypnotically visceral esp. on "mars, the bringer of war" with those low brasses grabbing one by the ears and not letting go. unfortunately, this one is also a bit thin-sounding in the bass range [otherwise a very "rounded" sound here], needed more low end. the Solti version has less violence but more suavity. there is some tape overload audible in "mars" and "uranus" esp. on the cymbal crashes, the noise floor seems artificially low and the quiet parts are VERY quiet which seems to make the brasses stand out brightly. this recording has good body/low end. the Stoky version seems to both be idiosyncratic in the way of many of Stoky's recordings but also seems to draw a line between the suave extreme of the Solti version and the violence/menace of the Mehta version. the 1956 Stoky recording has pretty good [if thin] audio quality for its day, recorded up-front with strong presence/studio sound more than hall sound, it being a very early stereo recording. there are other recordings of these 3 pieces that have much more sumptuous sound but the performances IMHO [your mileage may vary] just aren't quite up to the required intense feeling that these pieces need to be conveyed as fully as their composers likely intended.
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My personal favorite composers (in no particular order) are Mahler, Bruckner, Beethoven, Bach, Copland, Berg, Bartók, Stravinsky, Debussy, Chopin, Brahms, Schubert, Shostakovich, Mozart, Hindemith, Glass, Schoenberg, Prokofiev, Haydn. If I'm not listening to orchestral works, then I'm usually listening to string quartets or solo piano (I don't care much for harpsichord (very limited dynamics for my taste) or "historically accurate" pianofortes (these sound like out-of-tune19th century whorehouse pianos to me)). Occasionally I'll listen to operas by different composers, or lieder by Schubert. My favorite recordings: George Szell - Beethoven Symphonies cycle Jenny Lin - Shostakovich: 24 Preludes And Fugues, Op. 87 (Vladimir Ashkenazy does a pretty good one, too) John Wilson, BBC Philharmonic - Copland: Orchestral Works, Volume 1 - Ballets Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra - Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 In D Minor, WAB 109 Carlo Maria Giulini, Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Mahler: Symphony No. 9 In D Glenn Gould - Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (1954 recording) Boston Symphony Chamber Players - Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale (with John Gielgud, Tom Courtenay, and Ron Moody); Octet For Wind Instruments; Ragtime Claudio Abbado, Vienna Philharmonic - Mahler: Symphony No. 4 In G (with Frederica Von Stade) Claudio Abbado, Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé - Symphonic Suite, Op. 60 Diogenes Quartet - Schubert: Complete String Quartets Neeme Järvi, Scottish National Orchestra - Prokofiev: The Complete Symphonies Leonard Slatkin, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra - Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition, Night On Bald Mountain, Khovanshcina (MFSL) Aram Khachaturian, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Khachaturian: Spartacus, Gayaneh; Glazunov: The Seasons Herbert Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra - Hindemith: Orchestral Works Jeroen van Veen - Glass: Complete Piano Etudes Etc. etc. etc. If you'd like a little more info about musical works and their composers, you can't go wrong with The Vintage Guide to Classical Music by Jan Swafford. A very easy read to get you grounded in classical music. (If you prefer more detailed information, try getting the latest edition of Grout's History of Western Music as a used book (it's a fairly technical college textbook though). Another great reference for classical music of all kinds is the Harvard Dictionary Of Music.) If you stick with it, I think you're in for one of the greatest adventures of your life. Have fun and good luck. |
Many good suggestions. However, I would like to offer a different approach. You say you already own 600 Classical music recordings; half of which are opera. That’s a lot of music. Start out by listening to what you already have before spending a lot of your time and energy searching for and buying more recordings which you may or may not like……initially. You also say that you want to “understand” as well as enjoy Classical music. To me, and not meaning to be presumptuous, this tells me something about you as a listener. There is a great deal to “understand” in Classical music, just as in any serious art form. This does not mean one has to get into any kind of heavy analysis. Understanding is sometimes the path to enjoyment. Just as in Jazz, one of the most interesting aspects of Classical music which is worth having at least some understanding of is its history and evolution. From the Renaissance era to the Baroque and all the way to the present, the music composed in any one period builds on what came before. The music of the great composers in any one historical period was influenced by the music of composers who preceded them. Some understanding of this, if only by way of simple familiarity with the music, is particularly helpful for a newbie because music from the music’s earlier historical periods tends to be more accessible than that from later (more recent) periods. Some familiarity with the music from an earlier period helps with the appreciation of the music from a later period which tends to be more challenging to listen to. I would start by reading the liner notes of recordings that you already have and do a somewhat casual cataloguing by the date of the music’s composition. Liner notes are a great source of info about the composer; historical and otherwise. IOW, as has been suggested, perhaps start with Bach, then Handel or Mozart before tackling Stravinsky or Alban Berg. The world of Classical music is huge and is truly a wonder. Have fun and keep an open mind. Enjoy!
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