Classical Music - Are there any aficionados on here?

[VeryOldMan]

Are there any?
It all seems to be Pop and Taylor Swift on the board!

Drop a post on your favourite performers, composers or pieces of music.

Elgar 2 tonight. That's a wonderful piece.

Anybody going to any Proms? I'll be there on Monday.

I'm going Monday and Tuesday. My friend wants to see the pianist on Monday, and I'll never miss a chance to see Turangalîla.

Unfortunately I'm away for most of the summer. I might catch a couple in September, but otherwise I'll have to catch the good ones on radio 3.

We used to be R2 listeners but it's gone downhill so much we've swapped over to ClassicFM. I'd have difficulty selecting a favourite or favourites as there's such a variety.

I even enjoy the selection of modern music, mostly music scores from cinema. They may sound 'lightweight' compared to many but they're still enjoyable music.

Lovely idea for a thread

Overall I'd say my favourite composer would be Elgar

My favourite work to perform was Mozart Requiem

My favourite work to listen to is Carmina Burana - amazing version at the RAH last year

Love it.

There is a tremendous classical station in the city where I live.

www.wfmt.com/how-to-listen/

This is it. Available worldwide.

I haven’t been since whenever it was Barenboim and Boulez. 2012? Where have the years gone!

Thank you, VeryOldMan, for the prom reminder. I love Verklarte Nacht and it was beautifully played. Also enjoyed the Hallé playing Mahler 5 (only on TV though, haven’t been to the Albert Hall for some years after moving out of London).

Enjoyed it tonight. Lovely playing from both the soloist and the orchestra at times.

The Tuur was enjoyable, and the Bruckner had some brilliant moments, although I felt the pacing of the finale was off.

I hardly ever make it to the actual proms now but I often listen on the radio. Radio 3 is an incredible station. That you can hear every prom is remarkable.

I'm a piano player and I spend most of my time playing music that people pay me to play. However I am just about to start learning - purely for myself - The Goldberg Variations.

So, that should keep me busy for the rest of my days. 😁

Keep us posted on your progress HearTheMessenger. I call myself a pianist too despite being at such an embryonic stage that people would probably pay me to stop playing. Agree about R3. I know you don’t have to pay the licence fee for radio but I would happily pay more to fund it. Such great value.

Enjoyed the Messaien tonight. The pianist was fantastic. The orchestra played well. The conductor was trying to be a Dudamel wannabe unfortunately. Copied so many of his gestures, but entirely out of context and without the charisma to back it up. He didn't seem to have sorted out the architecture of the piece and was just doing "directing the traffic" - which is, of itself, quite a feat in this piece, but not up to the standard we should be looking at at the Proms. Made some of the movements drag in places.

The opening piece was, interesting. Not unpleasant, and had some nice moments. The electronic effects could pretty much have been done by the orchestra in many cases - particularly the organ sounds. There's a bloody great organ sitting right there! Shame the poor soprano's voice started to go right at the end.

The Swingles "encore" was actually good. Very complex rhythms delivered with aplomb.

Just started a long car journey as they were playing the Messaien on Radio 3!

The balance was markedly different to what we heard in the hall. Most notably, the Ondes Martenot was barely audible in the concert, but much more front and centre on the radio. Also, the massive loud endings were really toned down on the radio version - they were properly bone-shakingly loud in the hall!

@WaverOfSticksdid they play the Tom Service "half time" programme about the symphony? I listened to it on BBC Sounds and liked hearing Leonard Bernstein rehearsing the piece.

Another classical music fan here.

I agree that most film scores are fairly forgettable, but Aaron Copland wrote some lovely pieces for dance (notably Appalachian Spring) and films.

The Aaron Copland Collection - Music for Dance and Film

I love all of the American composers of that period: Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, etc. But Copland has a special place at the top of the list.

I'm a New Yorker, and live quite close to Copland's home, which is now managed by a non-profit that promotes his work and mentors young American composers. They have performances of his music there too.

I had added this link to the post above, but it got dropped for some reason.

Copland House

It's well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Ooh, I used to play the Dolly Suite with one of the boys at school sometimes at break time until whoever left the music on the grand piano in the hall took it away 😂 Happy memories! I only took piano lessons for a couple of years in primary school because I hated it but I could just about manage the top part as it was all treble clef and mostly the same an octave apart. Maybe one of the teachers took the music because I was so terrible 😂

Yes the music for OFMD mentioned upthread was very eclectic and interesting wasn't it?

Sorry, he announced they were playing Turangalîla literally as I turned the engine on, so I've no idea what came before!

I’m just jumping in here as I’m a baroque and choral fan despite knowing nothing about it.

MeAgainandAgain. You don’t need to know anything about it to love it. Loving it is enough. I find so much baroque and choral music brings me such happiness, tranquility and a sense of beauty and otherworldliness. The fact I don’t know much about it, doesn’t lessen the enjoyment.

That’s true! I know what I like. And if other people say ‘oh those are baroque and choral pieces’ then that’s good enough for me.

Also, as a non musician, I’m just stunned into silence at some of the pieces of music. Like, just how can they make those sounds? How can it go from in their head to paper to coming out of peoples mouths and out of instruments? How? Incredible.

Have you listened to the Bruckner I posted upthread? Not Baroque by any means, but simply wonderful.