Classical?

Does anyone here like it? I don't like most of it, but the occasional bit really interests me. For example, I really like O Fortuna from Carmina Burana even though it's the single most overused soundtrack song in the world. I also like what the Kronos Quartet did on the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, especially Meltdown and Lux Aeterna. My problem is that I have no idea where to look for more non-typical classical like those since I don't know enough about the genre. If anyone has recommendations, I'd appreciate it.

Try the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange

Soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange is a good start, definitely.

The whole of Carmina Burana is pretty good, not just O Fortuna. Also Beethoven's 9th symphony 4th movement (choral) is excellent although again over played. Elgar's done some stirring stuff too.

Besides the huge variety of barock, classical and romantic pieces that's out there wating to be discovered, I enjoy very much contemporary ones. So if you really want to experience some new worlds (without drugs...), try Henze or Schnittke. They are modern, but keep doors open for us film-music threatened kids to come in. Especially that two always blast my mind away, cause they have shown me things beyond all my imagination.
And don't buy cheap CDs with cheap orchestras, the differences are enormous.

carmina burana rules!

i would also highly recommend mozart, marriage of figaro, because it has an awesome storm piece.

i am a big big fan of watching piano concertos. it is just so surreal to me to just watch someone press keys and here this beautiful noise be produced.

Funny that I'm reading this thread while listening to KMFDM's "Liebeslied" (containing samples of O Fortuna)...

I have lots of classical (EXCUSE ME, I mean "orchestral") cd's. My favorites are Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Stravinsky, and Grieg.

My favorite modern-day composers are John Williams, Joseph LoDuca, James Horner, and Danny Elfman.

Also, if you have one of those music-stealing programs, try searching for the techno remix of "O Fortuna". It rocks.

[Edited on Dec 15, 2002 by Anadox]

For some reason I don't like the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack at all. I'm an emotion-based person, so gimme my Romanticism and I'm happy.

Brahms, Respighi, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Saint-Saens, etc. Elfman has turned out to be a good writer, although I hear he's a dick and he just writes lead sheets and shoves the dirty work onto other composers. The Dances with Wolves soundtrack by John Barry is absolutely gorgeous, go buy it. I hate most John Williams stuff, but the A.I. soundtrack has some interesting minor-minimalist stuff going on. I wish him and Spielberg would both do weirder things.

Oh, man, don't get me started.. J. S. Bach rules...

[Edited on Dec 15, 2002 by mycophile]

Disney's Fantasia (1941) is a great tour through the major composers of the 19th and early 20th century.

Any Tscaikovsky - Nutcracker Suite is timely for the holidays. Romeo and Juliet Overture, Pathetique

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

Grieg's Peer Gynt and Piano Concerto in A minor

Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man (if you can momentarily disassociate it from the Beef Council or Stuart Anderson Steak House ads).

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue - again, may be familiar as the United Airlines ad music, but the piece in it's entirety is sexy and triumphant - it soars and it seduces.

I second the Grieg and nominate Saint-Saiens' "Danse Macabre" and Bach's "Reqiuem". Danny Elfman's stuff is fun and haunting; as is Eerie Von's instrumental "Uneasy Listening". Oh, and the Ode to Joy, Big B's 9th; I'm not sure which version is on the Clockwork Orange sndtrk, but the choral version on the Immortal Beloved soundtrack is awesome.

arvo part will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

i am not much for renaissance or baroque, but i like classical through romanticism. i like a few of the modernists, too.

romantics:
franz liszt, frederic chopin, richard wagner, gustav mahler, anton bruckner, nikolai rimsky-korsakov, modest mussorgsky - i'm a sucker for bombastic germans/austrians/russians.

modernists:
eric satie, arnold schoenberg, terry riley, philip glass - yay serialism! the style everyone hates!

I like some Albinoni, Mozart, Gorecki, my dad listens to classical ALL the time and I love it, but I never know who the composer is. I have fond memories of waking up to the sound of cellos and the smell of coffee.

Anadox said:

Also, if you have one of those music-stealing programs, try searching for the techno remix of "O Fortuna". It rocks.

Hm. I wonder if that's actually Apoptygma Berzerk's "Love Never Dies." it has Carmina Burana samples, and could be mistaken for techno...

Orff makes me think of Conan movies.

zappa did some semi-orchestral stuff that's very interesting, but i'm still deciding how i feel about it.

i have always loved debussy and ravel. satie was pretty amazing too. a lot of jazz musicians drew from these guys, which can't be a bad thing.

Too bad Raymond Watts sucks in the lyrical department. heh. I never really got into PiG.

Here are a few:
Rachmaninoff-brilliant
Moussorgsky
Bartok--Not for the faint of heart--also the composer who most influenced Zappa
Brahms
Tosca
Orff
John Cage

My tastes in classical tend to be on the dark side.
Some Kronos Quartet stuff is great.
Polish composer Penderecki is amazing (especially "Threnody" for the victims of Hiroshima).
Mozart's "Requiem" is great.
I also have a collection of Chopin piano pieces performed by Ashkenazy that is brilliant.
John Cage is good as well. I think Sonic Youth is really into him (among others I'm sure).
Many web sites (including Amazon) should have samples to check out.

I like Debussy, Saint-Saen, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Liszt, a lot of "classical" (the misnomer of which is pointed out above). I went through a period a few years ago when I first discovered orchestral music, where I couldn't listen to anything else because it sounded too simple. Luckily, got over it. Mozart is my absolute favorite though, especially his operas.

[Edited on Dec 17, 2002 by Imagined]

Mahler.


Mazaal for teh fourth.

Solti for the 9th

and bernstein for everything.

Oh, God I love Saint-Saiens' "Danse Macabre". As well as Mahler's works.

And orchestral pieces aside. I fucking love most of Wagner's Operas. For some reason Tristan und Isolde never struck me as all that great. But I'm not a big atonal freak.

Wagner, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, most of Bach's organ music

besides for a healthy dose of cage and feldman, i'm into schnittke, takemitsu, bartok, nancarrow, crumb, brahms, biber, bach, carter, babbitt, so many! i live for it!