Classical Music

My choir is preparing Bach's St. John Passion. That opening "Herr! Herr! Herr!" is so painful, and then you go through this massive two-hour thing and finally come to "Ruht wohl," and it just kills you. Learning Bach is possibly one of the worst things in the world, but it's tremendously rewarding once you get it. I tend to think Bach is more fun to perform than to listen to, and sometimes he's more work than it's worth, but he's written some impassibly beautiful stuff.

If you like Whitacre, you need to get to know Ola Gjeilo. His new album, Northern Lights, is on iTunes and extremely worth the $10.
Unicornis Captivatur: Luther College Nordic Choir, Unicornis Captivatur, Ola Gjeilo, Craig Arnold Conductor - YouTube
The Ground: Ola Gjeilo with the CWU Chamber Choir: The Ground - In the Moment (3 of 4) - YouTube
Contrition: CWU Chamber Choir, Ola Gjeilo, "Contrition" - YouTube
Tundra: Baylor University Bella Voce - Tundra - YouTube

 

Oh, how true...Learning Bach's solo violin sonatas on viola is a maaaaajor pain, but once you get a movement down, or even half a movement, it's really rewarding to be able to play it through with hardly any mistakes. And it's really fun.

 

Hey, fun thread!

I'm a big fan of Chopin, especially the Preludes and Nocturnes. More perfect study music could not be found - and sometimes I just play it for fun, in the background.

Also a fan of Scandinavian Late-Romantic/Modernist composers, like Sibelius and Nielsen. Although I have to be more in the mood for them, they still have some great pieces. Sibelius' "tone poems," like "Tapiola," are amazing, and even though I'm not usually a fan of symphonies, I like Nielsen's a lot - thinking about getting a new recording of his 5th actually.

My favorite "pet" (i.e., not well known) composer is Alexandre Boely. French baroque-style composer from the Romantic era, mainly noted for promoting Bach in France in the 19th century, but I absolutely love his Sonata in C Minor (Op. 1, No. 1). It's like Bach (who I also have a soft spot for, regarding certain pieces) and Chopin got together and had a love child.

 

I love how people who don't know anything about classical music think we all listen to the same stuff, or "It all sounds the same to me". Look at how many of us have posted on here and not one of us is on the same page! rofl!!

---------- Post added 1st Mar 2012 at 04:37 PM ----------

btw -- I went thru a bit Scandanavian period too! I obsessed over Grieg's and Sibelius' piano music: some really unknown gems in there. And I love, to this day, the 5th symphony of Sibelius.

 

On the subject of Sibelius, I love his 2nd symphony and have been lucky enough to have played in it. Especially the 2nd movement - gorgeous!!

 

Hooray, Sibelius and Nielsen fans! I'm not the only one!

Very awesome that you got to perform it. What do you play?

 

Actually they aren't completely wrong on that note.

The people whom I met when I was playing the piano in public places were mostly double-standard egotistical elitists who enjoy showing off their skills in public. And they all happen to love Chopin (and even demanded me to play some Chopin even though they didn't know that I abhor and refuse to play most classical pieces because it reminds me too much of the relentless years of practice I was forced into when I was young, hence my current gravitation towards expressive pieces instead of technical ones).

You can guess the pieces that they love (Bach's Canon in D, a couple of Beethovens most popular pieces, Mozart's sonatas, Chopin's nocturnes and etudes, Schumann's Kinderszenen series, Joplin's ragtime pieces etc.). Bloody cliches. I guess the shameful part is that I happen to know all of those by heart, 'thanks' to my mum.

Well, the classical music fans I meet in real life and the ones I meet here are worlds apart lol.

 

I LOVE it when people say that to me because then, I just pop in a sample of the period performance music I listen to, and they're just like "...what is that?" :lol:

 

You don't think Chopin is expressive? I sometimes think he goes a little overboard with the rubato.

 

Chopin may be stereotypical, I'm very ready to admit that. But, it always makes me think of Pope: "So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng / By chance go right, they purposely go wrong." A teacher once quoted this line at a class I was in to make us not worry about going with trends if that's what we liked, and it stuck with me. I still like the Nocturnes even if every pianist out there does too. Plus my favorite recording of the Preludes isn't a very popular one, so that makes me feel a little better too. :lol:

 

Allow me to rephrase what I said earlier: "....hence my gravitation towards pieces that heavily rely on expression instead of technique when it comes to the execution of the piece, the operative phrase being 'instead of technique'."

ie. if I can't learn the entire piece in half an hour (hence the reminder of long practice sessions) then I won't play it. Basically, anything above Grade 7 by ABRSM standards is not my cup of tea (because I won't be able to sight read them quickly). I have a DipABRSM (and I barely passed it so it's not bragworthy at all), if you know what it is, you would know that it isn't impressive at all because it's only equivalent to first dan black belt in martial art terms when there are so many 'dans' after that still. You would probably be able to understand my sentiments (aversion towards classicals) if you were also forced to get an ABRSM diploma by the age of 13.

Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My views may come a little strong but I'm only referring to my preference when it comes to playing the pieces instead of listening to classical music in general. I don't actually listen a lot.

 

I play violin.

Just had a concert tonight, for the record (I was the leader!! ) - Schubert's unfinished symphony; Monti Czardas arranged for mallet percussion; Weber clarinet concertino.

 

(Sorry for double post)

Question for classical orchestral players, especially anyone who's ever had a leading postion:

Do you feel that it is right to be properly recognized for having a leadership position? I ask this because while the music society president did say my name at the beginning of the concert I led tonight, when I looked at the programme afterwards I was surprised to see that there was no * next to the names that denoted section leaders - not even mine as the orchestra's leader. I found myself feeling slightly miffed at the lack of proper recognition.

 

I guess it wasn't a big deal to me...I had led my school district's viola section for 5 years, and sometimes, the conductor would include an asterisk or special symbol by the section leaders and sometimes he/she wouldn't. I think that they should be recognized for their hard work at getting that position, but not too much...an orchestra is a team effort after all, and too much emphasis on the section leaders kinda negates that, in my opinion. But for me personally, I really didn't care if I had been recognized for being section leader or not.

 

Today this whole clip from the Weinachtsoratorium has been stuck in my head:


YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

---------- Post added 3rd Mar 2012 at 02:34 AM ----------

So sublime...

 

I don't want absolutely loads of recognition - I realize that it would be stupid to expect people to make a huge deal out of it - however, I did want the asterisk. Just a little thing to say that I led. I absolutely recognize that an orchestra takes huge amounts of teamwork and that all of the members should be recognized for working hard together.

 

Here you go *


:eusa_clap

 

Haha cheers! =)

 

W. A. Mozart, Wilhelm Popp (I love playing his etudes on sax), Tchaikovski and Smetana... these are my favourite But I love almost everyone, classical music is one of my passions <3

 

One thing my last conductor did was instead of listing all the musicians out alphabetically on the program, she would list them in order from chair numbers (so first chair was first on the list). She'd also shakes hands with the first desk of the violins, violas and cellos after the final number.