Classical Music:Where to start

[GQ Smooth]

I have always liked Classical music, but being such a vast musical genre, I don't know where to start. Could anyone reccomend some Cds that I could start building a library with. I love Beethoven' Moon Light Sonata. Any advice would be welcome.

[Strungup]

Vivaldi's Flute and Cello Concertos ( Not the Four Season thing everyone thinks is the entire Vivaldi collection )

Also , a friend o mine ..... Paul Galbraith an amazing guitarist , Plays an 8 string guitar , and his Lute music CD is really good.

Classical music is a Vast territory , that has way to many opinions in it as to what is "Good" , the 14 th century all the way to our time , Is a lot of composers to go thru .

Starting with an "EASY Like " something that is easy to like ......... is the best way to start . after that tastes develop and you may be surprised at what actually draws you .

I like Renaissance , and Baroque , but for some it is repetitive because there arent as many Key changes ...... but time rhythmically it is complex at times .

Modern instruments are capable of a WIDE range of Keys ( ie Key of D , Key of C# , Key of .....etc you get the idea) so the tonality of modern music becomes more complex , the early music is tonally simple , but in some way , just because of the tonal limits , more imagination had to be used , so it became interesting .

Pauls Lute cd is a Very good place to start

http://www.paul-galbraith.com/engl/bio.htm

on his web site , go to Discography , and klik the different CD covers to access samples ,here is a link to one piece

http://www.paul-galbraith.com/sounds/lute.wma

edit : I say "friend" loosely , I havent been in contact with him for a long time , years , but I had a lot of fun trying to play his guitar a long time ago

Edited December 18, 2008 by Guitarfxr

[bobt]

I've always likes Modest Mussorgsky, and Igor Stravinski, Von Karajan's Pictures at an exhibition is great, as well as any version of The Firebird, if you are adventurous, you could get any of Isao Tomita's electronic reworks of the classics, as well as Wendy (Walter) Carlos's recordings, you will love them. As TC says, classical is a large field, a few misses as well as hits, try the bargain bin at your favorite CD store and see what you find.

Right now I'm listening to Tomita's Canon of the three stars, Pachelbel's Canon, etc

Good luck, and have fun

Bob

[Strungup]

Well , Jethro Tull's "Songs From the Wood " is an easy intro to ......umm Crashical !

[sfbp]

Try

- Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622

- Beethoven Piano Concerto #5 in Eb ("Emperor")

- Dvorak String Quartet Op.96 in F ("American")

- Richard Strauss "Til EulenSpiegel"

- Bach Brandenburg Concerto #5 in D

And just for good measure something choral:

- Mozart Requiem Mass in D minor K.626 since choral music really is important too.

[GQ Smooth]

Thank you all for your suggestions & advice. I will look into these and go from there.

Thanks again

[peter_x]

Don't forget the opera.

La Traviata

La Boheme

[1kyle]

Hi there

For starters try listening (via the Internet) to WGBH Boston -- it's quite high quality for an Internet Radio station and has a huge amount of varied pieces.

If your interest is in Baroque (approx 1500 - 1730 A.D) try also Otto's Baroque --also on the Internet at passable quality (128k)

Lower quality but good content is Classic FM from the UK. These stations should give you a flavour of what you might like to listen to.

Cheers

-K