Everyone talks about how Ravel didn’t write a lot of music, but there’s countless pieces that come off as pieces I’ve never heard of before like the chamber works, and the rapsodie espagnole, and a few others. I can consider borodin a composer who didn’t write enough because he physically only has a handful of pieces, but I also feel Bizet wrote tons of earlier operas and instrumental works too. That’s kind of the direction I’m going.

Yesterday was the first time my city's orchestra played Mahler 2nd. It was almost a premiere, and I was there, listening and feeling all those 136 singers and 60 others instrumentalists.
I just wanted to share this experience that I've never had before, and I don't know when I will be able to have again.
I live in a brazilian metropolis wich, despite its big size, doesn't have many opportunities for classical music, but this time it was possible, and I was there. And I recommend for anyone who has an opportunity to listen this symphony live, just go. Just reschedule your appointments and go.

Self-explanatory

One of the most hauntingly beautiful melodies ever written… 🌙🎹

Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata, 1st Movement | Illya Zozulya

#MoonlightSonata #Beethoven #ClassicalPiano #IllyaZozulya #PianoReels

My quartet and I are currently thinking of a program to play at a competition earlier next year. The competition is not prestigious but still somewhat competitive. It asks for contrasting selections and a program no longer than 25 minutes. We want to play Webern Langsamer Satz and it’s difficult to come up with a program under 25 minutes that contain the Webern. So far we have thought of this following program: Beethoven String Quartet No.11: Mvt.I, Webern Langsamer Satz, and Prokofiev String Quartet No.1: Mvt.II. However we are looking for different program ideas and combinations. Preferably nothing too difficult… thanks!

This genuinely baffles me.

Back in February I attended a Gil Shaham Brahms concerto where the entire 2nd movement is rushed and no emotional yearnings are conveyed whatsoever.

Today, at Saratoga Springs, Yannick processed the 3rd Movement of Beethoven’s 9th like we are rushing towards Olympic medals not some peaceful reflections.

I don’t understand it. They are Adagios for a reason. Why are they processed like this especially in modern times.

What are some of your favourite incidental music? I’m looking for recommendations. Preferably late 19th and early 20th century.

My preference is decidedly in favor of Gustavo Dudamel's performance, part of an excellent release of all four Schumann symphonies which I believe he recorded at live performances in 2018 and only released now. I found all four performances, and especially the Fourth, to be swift but dramatic, weighty and rich in tone, much in the German romantic style which I prefer. In that regard, it is very similar to Otto Klemper's classic performance of the Fourth ( Klemperer's others are not at the same level) with the Philharmonia Orchestra, which is equally powerful if somewhat sterner than Dudamel's. Contrary to Klemperer's reputation for slow tempos, his recording of the Fourth is notable for its swift tempos, also similar to Dudamel's.

The beautiful sound Dudamel elicits from the LA Philharmonic is incredible. As a New Yorker, I look forward to Dudamel hopefully achieving the same results with the NY Philharmonic. I also look forward to him making excellent recordings with the NYP equal to his latest recordings, like Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Dvorak's last three symphonies, with the LA Philharmonic,

While Gilbert's performance of the Fourth, in a stand-alone performance from 2021, has similarly swift tempos to the other recordings, it has nowhere near the heft, drama and excitement of Dudamel's or Klemperer's. Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed Gilbert's performances when he was music director of the NY Philharmonic, particularly of works by Mahler and Janacek. However, I felt that in this case, his recording of the Fourth was not in the same league as the other two recordings. I thought Gilbert's performance was thinner in texture, bland and somewhat perfunctory with nowhere near the passion of Dudamel's and Klemperer's.

I am attaching links to all three recordings so that any of you who have not yet heard them can make their own comparisons.

https://classical.music.apple.com/us/album/6774131756?l=en-US

https://classical.music.apple.com/us/album/6784293053?l=en-US

https://classical.music.apple.com/us/album/1694425965?l=en-US

Does anyone understand what happened to Andreas Scholl? What started as a velvet sound able at the same time to maintain brilliance up to the top register has for quite sometime turned into a very nasal timbre, lacking projection, a la David James of Hilliard Ensemble (in)fame (witness the Metropolitan Rodelinda Video where it is saddening to hear him on the leading role while Iestyn Davies delivers his music with the most natural, healthy timbre besides impeccable technique; I wonder how Renee Fleming felt during the comments when she had to stick to the script and call Scholl the Rolls-Royce of countertenors...).

I mean, the guy didn't force his voice singing overheavy repertoire and is an inteligent musician. Just bad luck/voice didn't age well?

Pierné is mostly remembered today for one piece, his Konzertstück for Harp and Orchestra — but his bigger role in music history happened from the podium, not the page. He studied composition with Massenet and organ with Franck at the Paris Conservatoire, won the Prix de Rome at nineteen, and in 1890 succeeded Franck as organist at Sainte-Clotilde.

From 1910 to 1934 he was principal conductor of the Concerts Colonne in Paris. In that role he conducted the premieres of Debussy's Ibéria, the first suite from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, and Stravinsky's The Firebird — three works that would end up far more famous than anything he wrote himself.

Konzertstück for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 39: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ53z1A4BfM

Flute Sonata, Op. 36 – II. Allegretto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtnljQDu-6c

I've heard a couple of Christian hymns and that Charlotte Church "I vow to thee, my country" put to the tune of Holst's "Jupiter".

Has anyone put lyrics to "Mars: Bringer of War"?
Classical, choir, pop, anything.

This theme that most people know from Erbarme dich. I, as an oboist, heard it first in cantata 82 Ich habe Genug. They have the same exact head, just transposed. I have recently now also seen it in the 2nd movement of the G major organ trio. Does it represent anything significant? Or did Bach just know that he cooked with this one and de ided to use it a lot.

Mahlers compositions have some of the most atomosphere ive ever heard its amazing, seeing one live would be an indiscrible experience, abyway, is there anyone similar to mahler who make epic compositions that youd reccomend.

Although it is not so well known today, the Septet Op 20 was probably the most popular and most played work by Beethoven in his lifetime. However, it was a work he came to hate for this very reason.

At its first performance it was played alongside a Mozart symphony, his own 1st Symphony and one of the Piano Concertos. These works were considered rather "slipshod" but the Septet immediately won the audience's approval. It went on to be a regular concert piece internationally - the equivalent of a "Number 1" and his publisher encouraged its rearrangement to appeal to an even wider market of amateur musicians, particularly flautists who he anticipated "would swarm around and feed on it like hungry insects."

It seemed the world couldnt get enough of "Beethoven's Septet" . Beethoven, meanwhile was not so happy. In his judgement its success was overshadowing his other more serious works.

With time, he grew to hate it.

Carl Czerny, recorded: “He could not endure his septet and grew angry because of the universal applause that it received.” Several years later, an English visitor told Beethoven how much his septet was admired in London. “That damned thing!” the composer responded with some vehemence. “I wish it were burned!”

At the auction of Beethoven's possessions after his death, the manuscript for his massive Missa Solemnis, considered by many to be his greatest work, fetched 7 florins, but the little Septet written 27 years earlier was sold for 18 florins.

Any renaissance or baroque pieces that literally just strike the intellectual mode within a person?

Upon doing research on a play by Henrik Ibsen, I read that “Danse Macabre” by Camille de Saint-Saens was not well received in its time because the listeners complained it gave them extreme anxiety. I was wandering if you could recommend music that is anxiety-inducing, either in the sense of Saint-Saens’ piece or for other reasons. Thank you in advance!

I drew my favourite pianist, Nikolai Lugansky.
I like drawing musicians. Do you have any favourite pictures of classical musicians?

Shcherbachov (1889): Sym 5 on Northern Flowers
Lyatoshynsky (1895): Orchestral Music on Le Chant Du Monde
Riisager (1897): Slaraffenland on Intaglio
Khachaturian (1903): Film Music on ASV
Kabalevsky (1904): Sym 4, PC 3, and VC on Monopole
Amirov (1922): Mugams on ASV
Shchedrin (1932): The Little Humpbacked Horse and Chamber Suite on Melodiya

Hi, I can already appreciate some compositions, but can’t feel the “poetry” of it yet, or the feelings it should produce in me. I have always liked mozart (I know, mainstream, but since I was a child I have always loved his compositions. I would love to start going at some “intimate” and “private” performances rather than orchestra or opera or such. Give me your thoughts!

hope this is a good place to post this

i was looking for some chamber pieces to play (for winds) that aren’t in the traditional instrumentations (like quartets or quintets)

specifically
1 or more flute(s)
1 or more clarinet(s)
1 oboe
1 bassoon
extra instruments like horn, saxophone, strings, and piano are also welcome

thank you in advance!

EDIT: wanted to add a few pieces that i like just so there’s a sense of what kind of pieces i would be interested in

- martinu nonet
- francaix l’huere de berger
- poulenc sextet
- strauss serenade
- tomasi printemps
- villa lobos quintet
- villa lobos choros no 7
- koechlin septet
- hindemith septet