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[Alphapenguin]

Does anyone out there like classical music? If so, can anyone recommend any personal favorites? I'm a bit of a n00b, but I've recently become rather fond of the genre, so if anyone knows of anything particularly outstanding for composition and melody, don't hesitate to post.

[Lines]

if you're into more contemporary classical, i highly recommend Eric Whitacre, but only if you like acapella choral music. we sang Lux Aurumque my senior year of high school and i've been addicted to his work ever since. another contemporary group i recommend is ES Posthumus, especially the song Nara. they pretty much sound like epic sountrack music and their music has been used for movies, but it wasn't written as a soundtrack. i hearts them very much.

here's some others:
Mozart - just about anything
Beethoven - ""
Tchaikovsky - wonderful ballets
Vivaldi - the Presto part of Summer (Four Seasons) is probably my favorite classical piece ever
Stravinsky - Rites of Spring and Firebird Suit are fantastic
Ravel - Bolero is wonderful, but the full peice is about 17min long, so if you don't like longer pieces, it's not for you
Mussorgsky - love him
Debussy - love him, too
Berlioz - ""

[Storm Rider]

In terms of contemporary symphonic music, look up Steven Reineke. I've played a few pieces and they're by far the best of any modern composer in my experience.

In terms of actual classical period stuff, I like Bach and Beethoven the most, but I can't say I listen to it much recreationally. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but I just pay more attention to other kinds of music.

[Valrus]

My stock recommendation in classical threads is Bart?k's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

If you want to be hardcore, try Sch?nberg's Pierrot Lunaire and/or Boulez's Le Marteau Sans Ma?tre.

[Dimmukane]

Brahms First, mothafucka.  and the Hungarian Rhapsody.
Rimsky-Korsikov (sic, I hate all these hard to spell names) Scherehezehade (also sic, dammit) was really good, Conan The Barbarian's soundtrack borrows a bit from this piece.
Antonin Dvorak's First
Mahler's second

that's all i've got for now.

[amok]

Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto #3

[Gryff]

I don't know anything about classical music, really, but I know I like Rachmaninov. Does that help?

[celticgeek]

Well...

What Linds said.
What Storm_rider said.
What Valrus said.
What Dimmukane said.
What amok said.
What Gryff said.

Philip Glass, and Steve Reich,

Also, I am into classical guitar:  Andres Segovia, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Villa-Lobos, and others.

Individual pieces:  Pachelbel's Canon in D, Bach's The Brandenburg Concertos, Ravel's Bolero. 

All of this should keep you busy for an hour or two. 

[Alphapenguin]

Thank you all. Rachmaninov is indeed teh awesome. I already liked Beethoven and Mozart, but gotta give the props. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky are pretty sweet as well (I've got Devil's Dance stuck in my head now). 

I never realized this, but Mussorgsky severely traumatized me as a kid (Night on Bald Mountain sequence from "Fantasia" gave me nightmares). Bastard.

Haven't had a chance to listen to the rest yet, but if they're anything like those I've already listened to, they're bound to be excellent.

[amok]

Tchaikovsky

Oh yeah, this post reminded me to get Symphony 6 (Pathetique) again. Fuckin' amazing.

[IronOxide]

You guys are forgetting Ives and Holst.

Take a peek at Three Places in New England and The Planets if you want to know where modern composition went terribly, terribly right.

I've always been a big fan of concert bands and wind ensembles, so I also have a good healthy love for John (Barnes) Chance. Variations on a Korean Folk song and Incantation and Dance changed the way I look at music.

The people already mentioned are all good, but I find Mozart's symphonies a bit trite. His operas are epic wins though.

[*Sights*]

-I don't think anyone has mentioned him, so listen to Erik Satie's music. The Gymnopedies alone are wonderful.

-Edvard Grieg is...good i guess...God, i fail at classical music lingo.

-Also, Jean Sibelius. He is as epic as Wagner, and won't get you funny looks from jews.

[Scytale]

Grieg and Wagner are my two favorites, especially Wagner.

[Storm Rider]

I've always been a big fan of concert bands and wind ensembles, so I also have a good healthy love for John (Barnes) Chance. Variations on a Korean Folk song and Incantation and Dance changed the way I look at music.

Dude, I played Variations on a Korean Folk Song in concert like, two weeks ago. Creepy.

[ruyi]

wow. what a big question! hahaha do you know what kind of classical music you like? it's a pretty big um, genre, i mean it's as if you asked for recommendations on what kind of rock music to listen to.

i like music with impressionist influences...including music created in reaction to it! haaah. i guess it makes sense, because it's similar to indie music i like - full sound, maybe unconventional chordal progressions, etc. so i like debussy and ravel of course. it's kind of funny that they're immediately what come to mind, since they're kind of...not really impressionist? although i guess you could argue there aren't any, but anyways. a lot of their popular pieces are quite accessible if you're just getting started.

so yeah, what do you like? maybe we can help you better!

[jimbunny]

As far as Barnes' wind ensemble music goes, (if you can find anything at all) I'd go for his 3rd Symphony. Here is the fourth movement. The horn part near the end still destroys me every time I hear it (and I don't even play horn).

(Oh noes! The band nerds are among us!)

As far as orchestral music goes, I don't know a lot, but there are two pieces I'd recommend to anybody and a half.

1) Dvorak's Serenade for Strings in E Major, especially the second movement. A simple, haunting, dancing melody that sticks with you. Here, it's pretty imperative that you go with this recording, with Myung-Whun Chung and the Wiener Philharmoniker. I've heard others, and the experience is almost totally different.

2) Sibelius Violin Concerto. If no other piece of classical music has ever inspired a single emotion in you, this one just might. Plaintive, powerful, and, from what I'm told, insanely difficult.

[timehat]

I enjoy Reich, Bartok, Satie, Ravel, and Stravinsky a good deal.

[McTaggart]

I've really not looked much into it but all I've managed to find that I really like that could fall under classical is Steve Reich and Charlemange Palestine. The former's repetitive tape music and the latter's drones are more than worth giving a listen to see if you're into that.

[The Kangmiester]

I like Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Ludovico Einaudi as a modern pianist/composer that is v. good and should be listened to by all.

[Will]

Also, don't forget about Dmitri Shostakovich.  Try his 4th symphony on for size, see how it fits ya!  That one is one of my favorites, besides the Holst/Stravinsky/Rachmaninov recommendations which which I enthusiastically agree.

[Lines]

do you have a particular era you're interested? i can list you some more if there's a particular sound you like.

[Misereatur]

We have had several threads where I talked about how much I like Minimalism, Avant Grade and.. Second Viennese School composers.

[celticgeek]

It strikes me that even in Darkest Connecticut, there should be a classical music station available.  It might be worth listening to it, to get some idea of what sort of music you would like to check out further.

[Liz]

I just downloaded a whole load of classical music from CNET. All free, all good. Some of my favorites: (just go to music.download.com and search for them)

Athena Gala
David Blumberg
Emily M. Mitchell
Ivan Ilic
Volodja Balzalorsky
Nate Robinson

All of them play classical compositions (lot of Bach, Chopin, Brahms, etc), but Athena Gala is actually a film score composer. Her work is amazing, though- the song "Flowing" almost made me cry. All five parts of the her "Requiem..." are fantastic as well.

[ampersandwitch]

Do everything by Rimsky Korsakov.  I mean, it's so energetic, how can you go wrong?
Plus, Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre and Bacchannale are "hits," I guess.
Plus, try some Debussy.

[BillAdama]

I have trouble getting into classical.

Not that it's not great music.  Just, part of the fun of indie for me is constantly finding things that sound different.  I feel like the best classical musicians today focus on technical playing and those that are trying new things are just doing weird post-modern atonal stuff.  So either you're hearing just some recital of a canonized composer or you're hearing something so weird it's not accessible.

Maybe I'm just biased because I went to Oberlin and had to hear the elitism of the Conservatory students so much.

[ampersandwitch]

Yeah, that's probably it.

[Lines]

the Conservatory students at my uni act the same way. CCM does that.

if you want something different, you should probably look up John Cage. just because.

[Alphapenguin]

In response to those who've asked what kind of classical I like, it's all over the place. On the one hand, I go for epic stuff like Holst, Sibelius, and Rachmaninov, but I can appreciate more melodic stuff like Chopin, Vivaldi, and Debussy. Honestly, I'll listen to anything that isn't Wagner (on a matter of principle).

I do, however, have a soft spot for weird compositions, like anything John Cage ever did, or more specifically, stuff like Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody no. 1, and Brahms' Hungarian Dance no. 5.

Either that or I have a soft spot for compositions named after former Soviet satellite states with numbers at the end. Not sure which.

[Alphapenguin]

Oh yeah, almost forgot: thanks again, everyone, for posting. Huge help.