Ode to Joy: New Classical Music Thread

[Hamlet]

Thought I'd set up a thread for this as I seem to be listening to more classical music than ever before these days...


BEETHOVEN'S

"ODE TO JOY"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZJ1Tgf4JL8


Leonard Bernstein, first speaking and then conducting this monument to the human spirit, and if that's too pompous for you, just listen to this piece of uplifting music.

[Eric]

I'm glad there are still pervs that like "minority taste" classical music apart from me. "Ode to Joy" is fine, but there are thousands of pieces of music by composers that have catered for people sitting down in a concert hall (or at home with a CD or DVD player) and listening intently, and often several times, to pieces of music, as opposed to sitting in a muddy field and smoking pop in rainy Britain and being deafened by the throb of the drums of some "live" rock band or other, whose style has not changed since the 1960s.

As recently as half a century ago, classical music used to dominate serious musical discussions and tastes. Now the huge commercial pressures of the "music industry" have pushed classical music into a corner. People are being conned into sticking to pop & rock (under various trendy rubrics), not for them to develop their tastes, but to make yet more profits for the music industry. That's why they are policing and persecuting all those downloaders. There's nothing noble and anti-criminal going on; it's just the overweening greed of the music profits industry. So classical music has had to take a back seat and has been labelled "bourgeois" by the philistines.

I listen to music relatively rarely nowadays, but when I do there are several composers I always return to, e.g. Sibelius, Mahler, Shostakovich, Bartók, Dvořák, Szymanowski, Pärt, and several others. Often Neo-Romantic and Central & Eastern European. Occasionally the more experimental composers such as Alban Berg, Webern, Penderecki, Tormis, and so on. And I often return to Beethoven's Late Quartets, i.e. not his symphonies, but his chamber music. And some Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Grieg. Several other names.

There's masses out there. But you have to develop your tastes by listening several times to a piece. At first you may not "get" it. But gradually, it grows on you.

[John]

Carl Nielsen, Bach, Bernstein, I love them all.

[John]

[kpjayan]

I'm glad there are still pervs that like "minority taste" classical music apart from me.

But you have to develop your tastes by listening several times to a piece. At first you may not "get" it. But gradually, it grows on you.

There are others as well. But not necessarily for 'western classical music' ( as it is known here in India). I do listen to Indian Classical Music regularly, more of the 'Carnatic Music' of Southern India, which is slightly more complex with its beat, scale and meter patterns.

Even here, only a handful listens to classical music, as one need to acquire a taste for it, as you mentioned.

May be this thread will help me know a few more names from the 'western classical music' , beyond Beethovan, Mozzart, Brahms etc.

[Hamlet]

Barenboim was giving a lecture on Beethoven, and so by chance I'd just listened to the Ode To Joy, therefore it was as good a place as any to kick-off the thread.

You're right Eric, sadly, it's the nerds, weirdos, whateveroos' who beat the drum, in HMV I recently left "pop" and stood in "classical" and it's a different crowd for sure, but of course it's not for weirdos.

It's just part of being generally well-educated and curious about any and all types of art.

Members of my family have always been into classical music, so I never really had to seek it out, but because it was pervasive and not always welcome, I've not really pursued it in any structured way.

But I think you need that environment, at home or elsewhere sometimes to stand a chance of eventually "getting it"; not everything as you say is easy to acquire an appreciation of or about instant gratification.

Classical music takes time and patience and although I love pop, the best of pop, at least; I tend to restrict myself to specific artists as it's always "everywhere", in films, malls or shopping centres, radio and you don't have to seek it out it's sometimes more enjoyable if you don't overload!

I picked up a copy of THE PENGUIN COMPANION TO CLASSICAL MUSIC by Paul Griffiths, a few years ago, I'd probably recommend it as a valuable "way-in" resource. You can quite literally look up anything and everything quickly, but it's also quite expensive folks!

Youtube on the other hand is free and even if the quality is a bit naff, at least it's a way to sample and even discover new works/composers.


Edit to add: thanks for the clips John, appreciated.

[Hamlet]

I'm not sure whatthe first classical music I listened to seriously was, but you know, this stands a chance:-

Gustav Holst

"The Planets Suite"

Here's Mars...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I

[John]

[Old Possum]

[Ladybird]

I simply should stop here and write something as I adore classical music and especially Beethoven’s works. I can say that he’s my favorite composer. And his Ode to Joy is something increadible! I think everybody in our world have heard this melody at least once in their life. By the way recently a new disk of Beethoven’s compositions was issued. It’s performed by Maxim Rysanov, Kristina Blaumane and Jacob Katsnelson, who are great musicians as for me! For a great pity there’s still no video… Maybe I’ll do it by myself in some time…But now it’s possible to find it here: http://www.onyxclassics.com/cddetail...umber=ONYX4108

[Hamlet]

Thanks Ladybird, you can't go too far wrong with Beethoven hey?

I think that with classical music there's such a wide choice and so many little tics to our nature that it's often about mood-matching. I love it on some days, and on others I want to listen to pop...

Good to see this thread is still alive... and steadily growing, one to return to from time to time I reckon?

[Cleanthess]

What the heck, this is my favorite piece of music, music to dwarf Beethoven.

[Hamlet]

Beethoven was a dwarf?

When did this happen?

[Cleanthess]

Beethoven was a dwarf?

When did this happen?

Osamu Tezuka (of astro boy fame) to the rescue, from Ludwig B, his graphic bio of Beethoven:beetho.jpgPhoto on 2012-09-15 at 16.51.jpg

[Liam]

Arvo Part's latest composition Adam's Lament performed in Istanbul. Beautiful.

[Ramblingsid]

I have paddled in the great ocean of music for many years now and do have a few favourites. Oh the Mahler symphonies, almost anything by Vaughan Williams. And these days even Elgar. The cello concerto makes me cry

And I love Beethoven - the gloria from the missa solmenis is enough to blow your socks off

Rather fond of modern music as well Jonathan Harvey springs to mind for some reason. Even been known to watch some of the metropolitan opera transmissions at my local cinema - Satyagraha was simply wonderful.

So my views on music tend to be rather like this post - enthusiastic but not entirely coherent.