Tchaikovsky is my favorite...1812 overture, symphony no. 6 (Pathetique), the Nutcracker, Piano Concerto no. 1 are my favorites and probably his most popular pieces. I tend towards composers from the Romantic period, for their soaring melodies, they're just more pleasant to the ear compared to the later composers. Just my opinion. Beethoven is great also.

quote:

Originally posted by Trancefxs Not a classic music listener, however some of my favourite films soundtracks include recent interpretation of classical music, check the OST of Oldboy (Yeon Wook Jo, film directed by Park Chan Wook),

Brillant soundtrack

quote:

Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov Ok, I'm looking to expand my collection again. I've picked up a fair amount of Mahler, Bach, Copeland, Rachmaninoff and Glass since last posting. With the Mahler (particularly "Das Lied von der Erde") I've started to get into a little bit of operatic choral stuff as well, so those suggestions are welcome too.

Gorecki - Symphony No. 3 [Sample]

Debussy - "La Mer" [Sample]

You can hardly go wrong with Debussy. Pretty much everything he wrote is beautiful, at least what I've listened to (quite a bit) -- although some of the piano works are a little hard to get into at first.

Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht [Sample]

Ravel - Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte [Sample]

Ravel - String Quartet in F [Sample]

Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto No. 2 [Sample]

If you like Romantic-era piano, Chopin is the guy to check out. Try getting a set of the Nocturnes. I think pretty much everybody enjoys those.

If you're into more modern stuff as well, you could try Milhaud's chamber music. [Sample]

Also, if you don't yet have Beethoven's Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth symphonies, you should get those (if not a full set of the symphonies). No classical music collection is complete without them.



So much to explore.

Lately... I've been really enjoying Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is a suite of English choral works.

Otherwise, I've also been hitting piano works pretty hard; mostly pieces by Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

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It's really too bad that Vivaldi has become so uniformly identified with the Four Seasons, because he has literally hundreds of other wonderful symphonic and choral pieces. If you enjoy Bach, it's worth it to explore Vivaldi. I think I could spend a few years, since I've only heard a fraction of his sum output.

(Alternatively, if you don't like Baroque, you may agree with a popular quote to the effect that "Vivaldi didn't write 400 concertos; he wrote the same concerto 400 times")

Haha, yeah Baroque isn't exactly my favorite. I don't have a real specific period preference, though there are a few composers that I do indeed enjoy.

Thanks for all of the suggestions in this thread! It's giving me a lot of samples to track down and listen to before my next library/iTunes visit.

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quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Gorecki - Symphony No. 3 [Sample]

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quote:

Originally posted by Arraias

+2

i like debussy, i find him quite easy to ge into. most people would know clair de lune in particular (with it's being in oceans eleven at least). la mer in it's whole form is fucking gorgeous, same goes for Nocturnes. Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is another masterpiece

and of course, you can never go wrong with phillip glass, koyonaqatsi floored me the first time i saw it.

for people who like the pianodriven compositions, satie would be another good example since he also has a couple of big 'hits'

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Last edited by montana on Jul-18-2008 at 14:54

I saw that Bartók had gotten no mention in this thread, so I will plug his piano concertos that I finally listened to today:

http://www.amazon.com/Bartok-The-Pi...s/dp/B0006OS5YS

If you like composers who can play around with rhythm and keys in surprising ways, you might enjoy a lot of Bartók's works.

I really enjoy the classical pieces that Oakenfold uses in his 94 Goa Essential Mix and Perfecto Fluoro mix... might want to check them out. If anyone has any suggestions similar to the classical artists featured in these mixes I'd appreciate any help

edit:
I might as well list some of my favorites from the mixes

Wojciech Kilar - Love Remembered
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Little Buddha
Eric Serra - Cute Name
Zbigniew Preisner - Craven Leaves

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Last edited by spc on Aug-20-2008 at 04:26

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I'm a big fan of Holst's Planet Suite. I'm not exactly an expert at classical, but that's probably my favourite classical "album".

WIN WIN WIN!!!

Holst was a genius at his craft.

Also, Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D Major is ASTOUNDING! Seriously, go torrent that shit right now or something. I'll try and dig up the link where I got mine from.

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