Help with classical music

[BillVol]

I know very little about classical music other than I enjoy listening to it. I can only identify a couple of songs, symphonies, like Beethoven 5th. That's about it.

Of course even I know that Mozart was the best. Usually, if I am hearing one of his works, I can guess it is him. But I don't know the names of any of his symphonies.

Can anyone here name some of the best composers ever and their most famous/best works? It would be fun to get these titles and listen to them.

[Daisy]

Re: Help with classical music

I have three favourites

Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._2_(Rachmaninoff)

Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(Saint-Saëns)

Vaughan Williams' Lark Ascending

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lark_Ascending

[tandfman]

Re: Help with classical music

Of course even I know that Mozart was the best. Usually, if I am hearing one of his works, I can guess it is him. But I don't know the names of any of his symphonies.

Mozart wrote 41 symphonies. Some of his best did not have names. In fact, relatively few symphonies have names. And those that do are not necessarily better than those that don't.

[Pego]

Re: Help with classical music

I very little about classical music other than I enjoy listening to it. I can only identify a couple of songs, symphonies, like Beethoven 5th. That's about it.

Of course even I know that Mozart was the best. Usually, if I am hearing one of his works, I can guess it is him. But I don't know the names of any of his symphonies.

Can anyone here name some of the best composers ever and their most famous/best work? It would be fun to get these titles and listen to them.

There is so much wealth, it is impossible to list composers and compositions. My advice to you is to set the radio (car, home) on PBS or in some bigger cities classical commercial station and keep listening. You'll find out yourself what you like or dislike.

[Conor Dary]

I have been asked this a few times:

Anything by Mozart. Or Haydn. Then there is J.S.Bach, some of my favorites: Mass in B minor, the Brandenburg Concertos 1-6. The Goldberg Variations performed by Glenn Gould.

Also Archangelo Corelli's Concerto Grosso 1-12 are also wonderful.

[tandfman]

Re: Help with classical music

There is so much wealth, it is impossible to list composers and compositions. My advice to you is to set the radio (car, home) on PBS or in some bigger cities classical commercial station and keep listening. You'll find out yourself what you like or dislike.

Good advice, but I think you mean NPR.

[Daisy]

Re: Help with classical music

Good advice, but I think you mean NPR.

True. But come on guys, at least give us a couple of your favourite pieces. Maybe we'll discover some new stuff between us

[Conor Dary]

Some of my other favorites are Wagner's Ring cycle, the Solti recording from the 50's, especially the first in the series Das Reingold.

Also Elgar's Cello Concerto with Jacqueline Du Pre.

[Friar]

Everybody recognizes them:
(Dvorak -Sym#9 , New World),
(Elgar - Nimrod, Enigma),
(Vivaldi - Four seasons).

[BillVol]

We have a great classical music station here in town. When we lived for six years in the big city of Atlanta (against my wishes), I used to complain to my wife that Atlanta did not have a station to compare with Chattanooga's WSMC.

http://www.wsmc.org/

You can listen to WSMC online at the above link.

Thank you for the posts. I have a lot to learn, but I'm on my way to YT with the info from this thread.

BTW, I hate to do this, but there is an historical connection between the University of Tennessee and Sergei Rachmaninoff, for real. Anybody know it?

[Pego]

Re: Help with classical music

Good advice, but I think you mean NPR.

True. But come on guys, at least give us a couple of your favourite pieces. Maybe we'll discover some new stuff between us

All right, some of mine, but it's a tip only.

Mozart's Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, Requiem, Figaro, Don Giovanni - but really, anything by Mozart.
Beethoven's piano sonatas, at least four symphonies, a couple of violin and piano concertos.
Almost anything by Bach, Brandenburg's concertos on top-probably.
Almost anything by Vivaldi.
Schubert's chamber music, Unfinished symphony.
A lot by DvoÅ™ák, his cello concerto on the top.
Violin concertos by Bruch, Mendelsson, DvoÅ™ák, Tchaikovskiy, Brahms.
Piano concertos of Tchaikovskiy, Grieg.
A lot by St.Saëns and Debussy.
Guitar by Albeniz and Granados.

From the twentieth century Rakhmaninov, Puccini, Falla, some others, not much ops: .

[Pego]

We have a great classical music station here in town. When we lived for six years in the big city of Atlanta (against my wishes), I used to complain to my wife that Atlanta did not have a station to compare with Chattanooga's WSMC.

http://www.wsmc.org/

You can listen to WSMC online at the above link.

Thank you for the posts. I have a lot to learn, but I'm on my way to YT with the info from this thread.

BTW, I hate to do this, but there is an historical connection between the University of Tennessee and Sergei Rachmaninoff, for real. Anybody know it?

While online, I listen mostly to WCPE in Raleigh. There is a preset in WMP.

[jazzcyclist]

1812 Overature by Tchaikovsky
Symphony #9 by Beethoven
Also Sprach Zarathustra by Strauss
Symphony #40 by Mozart
Fanfare for the Common Man by Copland
Carmina Burana (O Furtuna) by Carl Orff
Toccata and Fugue by Bach
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) by Wagner

[Pego]

Toccata and Fugue by Bach

That was played at our wedding ceremony .

[tandfman]

Symphony #15 by Beethoven

He wrote only 9 symphonies.