Classical Music - Help needed
dirk -- Sun, 10/21/2007 - 10:42
After 35 years of pop, rock and blues music, I recently have started to develop interest in classical music.
It is not so difficult to find a couple of good books as a guidance which music to listen to in order to discover the history, the composers and their great works in classical music.
However, all symphonies, suites, concerts, .. have come out in so many different releases on CD, and unfortunately so little on SACD.
The dilemmas I am faced with are the following :
1) As I am a big supporter of SACD, I would prefer to buy recordings in that format. By reason of technology advantages, should this be my prime criteria to select recordings or not?
2) If not, i.e. the performances themselves are more important, how do I find out about these better performances. There is a lot of data available in print and on the internet , but getting that data structured into helpfull information is a complete other matter.
Any comments and/or hints on how I should start my discovery into the Classics?
Your help is appreciated
Dirk
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Hi Dirk,
Did you check out the music section of AVguide? We have several best-of lists, a few focusing on the SACD format.
http://www.avguide.com/music/
I suggest you browse through the Golden Ear Awards list and Harry Pearson's Super SACD list. From there you can look through other lists to see if there's anything that catches your interest. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Ari Koinuma
Ari Koinuma
Web Producer
AVguide.com
Hi Dirk,
Those are two very good questions.
For me, the quality of the performance is the most important thing. I'm not a stickler for world-class sonics... although I do appreciate a certain level of dimensionality and naturalness in the sound. Two things I have trouble with are excessive tape hiss or noise (old recordings are interesting in historical context though) and poor digital transfers (especially a lot of the early CDs of classical).
If there is one central location for finding out about the great classical recordings, I don't know of it. The best thing is to figure out which specific works you're interested in buying, and then researching from there. Sometimes if you look on Amazon.com, for example, there will be an editorial review and perhaps a few reviews from seasoned listeners.
One thing that has been a boon for me is subscribing to Rhapsody. While I don't plan on remaining a member for much longer, they have a wealth of classical music. You'll find a lot of the "benchmark" performances on there, along with a lot of others. Rhapsody tells you what recording label the album is, and they almost always show the album cover. I love to sit down and compare tons of recordings of the same work to determine which one is my favorite interpretation. Then, I save it to my library (not available offline), and head over to Amazon to find out how much it costs. For example, Rhapsody introduced me to Nikolaus Harnoncourt's recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. If I were interested in his symphonies, that is the one I would buy.
Glad to hear of your interest.
One other suggestion: start by buying a few discs in different classical styles to determine what gets you into the music. "Classical" is a lot like "Rock": it is a term that covers so much ground that it is almost meaningless.
I would try:
1. Bach Goldberg Variations (piano)
2. Mozart 40th
3. Beethoven 7th
4. Schubert Lieder (songs)
5. Dvorak New World Symphony
6. Puccini Madama Butterfly (opera)
7. Vaughn Williams Symphonic Dances
8. Rachmaninov Symphony #2
9. Mahler Symphony #2
10. Stravinsky Rite of Spring
SACD will be no problem with the list above. You will note my symphonic bias, but hey, you have to start somewhere!
You may be beyond this exploratory stage, but if you have specific stylistic interests, do tell.
Good luck, and let us know if we can make other more specific suggestions.
CEO and Editorial Director, Nextscreen LLC
This TAS list of 2007's best recordings may also help:
http://www.avguide.com/news/2008/02/14/tass-andrew-quint-lists-2007s-10-...
CEO and Editorial Director, Nextscreen LLC
Well, this is a guy after my own heart.
I'm one of the magazine's biggest cheerleaders for high-resolution multichannel recordings and provided the first installment of "Multichannel Marvels" in Issue 180, a feature devoted to the best surround sound classical recordings. (The second column will appear in 183.) No genre does nearly as well as classical when it comes to high-resolution recordings: ArchivMusi.com had over 1600 for sale the last time I looked. There are also DVD-As and Blu-ray's just getting into the act.
The 180 column listed 7 of my personal favorite classical SACDs. The repertoire happened to pretty wide-ranging: Bach, Berlioz, Mahler, Stravinsky, etc so those might be a good place to start. Once you've found something specific you like I'd be happy to recommend others...
Andrew Quint
This is a very good approach to discovering classical music.
I have added a few other suggestions in CAPS.
ENJOY!
Jim
tmartin wrote:Glad to hear of your interest.
One other suggestion: start by buying a few discs in different classical styles to determine what gets you into the music. "Classical" is a lot like "Rock": it is a term that covers so much ground that it is almost meaningless.
I would try:
1. Bach Goldberg Variations (piano). THE BACH ORCHESTRAL SUITES AND BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS ARE NOT TO BE MISSED.
2. Mozart 40th. ANY OF MOZART'S LATER SYMPHONIES ARE WONDERFUL FROM THE 36TH ON. ALSO, TRY "EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK, HIS LATER PIANO CONCERTOS, THE MOZART REQUIEM, HIS CLARINET OR HORN CONCERTOS, (OK, I LOVE MOZART)
3. Beethoven 7th. WHILE THE 7TH IS CERTAINLY A MASTERPIECE, HIS "ODD" NUMBER SYMPHONIES, (3, 5, 7, 9) ARE REGARDED AS SOME OF THE BEST IN THE CLASSICAL REPERTOIRE. FOR PIANO, GO WITH THE MOONLIGHT, WALDSTEIN, AND APPASSIONATA SONATAS.
4. Schubert Lieder (songs). TRY HIS WINTERREISE WITH DIETRICH FISHER-DIESKAU
5. Dvorak New World Symphony. THE BEST KNOWN OF DVORAK'S WORKS.
6. Puccini Madama Butterfly (opera). THE PUCCINI OPERAS ARE SOME OF THE MOST ACCESSIBLE. I WOULD ADD "LA BOHEME" AND BIZET'S "CARMEN"
7. Vaughn Williams Symphonic Dances. TRY ALSO "THE LARK ASCENDING" AND "VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF THOMAS TALLIS"
8. Rachmaninov Symphony #2. EVER SEE "THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH" WITH MARILYN MONROE? TRY THE RACH #2 PIANO CONCERTO. ANOTHER POWERHOUSE PIANO CONCERTO, AND PERHAPS THE BEST KNOWN, IS TCHAIKOVSKY NO. 1.
9. Mahler Symphony #2. A GREAT WORK. ALSO TRY HIS 8TH IF YOU WANT TO BLOW YOUR SOCKS OFF.
10. Stravinsky Rite of Spring. THERE'S A REASON WALT DISNEY USED THIS PIECE.
I WOULD ADD A FEW MORE:
- BARBER ADAGIO FOR STRINGS (EVER SEE PLATOON?)
- CHOPIN BALLADES OR NOCTURNES (SOLO PIANO)
- DEBUSSY "LA MER"
- HOLST "THE PLANETS"
- MUSSORGSKY: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (IT SHOULD CONTAIN BOTH THE SOLO PIANO VERSION AND THE ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENT BY RAVEL)
- ETC.
SACD will be no problem with the list above. You will note my symphonic bias, but hey, you have to start somewhere!
You may be beyond this exploratory stage, but if you have specific stylistic interests, do tell.
Good luck, and let us know if we can make other more specific suggestions.