[Legacy]

Hi,

I have recently begun listening to classical music and would like some recommendations on what to begin my collection with. I have already established that I very much prefer strings and occasionally piano to any other instruments, however there is a bewildering array of classic music out there and I am totally lost in the mass of composers and complex terminology!

Basically if anyone could recommend me some good pieces of classical music, preferably containing only stringed instruments or piano as opposed to full orchestras, I would appreciate it very much! I quite like pieces with a more foreboding or atmospheric tone too if that helps. If anyone has any good sources for this sort of information on the net that would be great too.

Sorry for such a vague question, I'm afraid I can't really be any more specific!

Thanks,
Joe

[Iccz]

If you want to hear some modern songs performed by a really good String Quartet i'd definitely recommend looking at:
Vitamin String Quartet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personally i'm a fan of Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor

Some other composers who've done stuff for String Quarters:
Shostakovich
Ravel
Borodin
Haydn

You can probably find a lot of them on youtube if you search for the name then string quartet as well.

[Garrett]

Albinoni's

YouTube - Adagio in G Minor (Albinoni)

[kempez]

Can I recommend a really good CD that may allow you to listen to a wide variety of popular classics in one go? I'm really new to clasical to but bought this on a whim and have really enjoyed it.

"The 50 Most Essential Pieces of Classical Music"

[Garrett]

Some general classical recomendations in a thread here Classical suggestions

and Barbers srtig foreboding tune

YouTube - Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings, op.11

[Garrett]

Is a funeral foreboding enough


"Siegfried's Funeral March from The Ring"

YouTube - Richard Wagner - Siegfried funeral march

It's such a difficult task to recommend music to someone especially classical music but you could try some of these;

Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos 9, 17, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13

Chopin - Piano Concerto No 1

Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier

Holst - The Planets Suite

Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (full orchestra but beautiful nonetheless)

Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons

Beethoven - Violin Concerto

These are just a few suggestions, the list is endless .

[systemsdead]

Gorecki - Symphonie n°3

YouTube - Gorecki - Symphonie n°3

[Garrett]

Mahler: Symphony 5:

YouTube - Mehta conducts Mahler: Symphony 5: mvt. 4 (Adagietto)

[Garrett]

Massenet - Meditation from Thais


YouTube - Sarah Chang, Massenet - Meditation from Thais

[brian s]

One of the few bits of opera I enjoy. It don't sound too good on my PC but it's excellent on my main gear.

YouTube - LAKME - Léo DELIBES

Hope you enjoy it
Bri

[Garrett]

Hi Brian your is commanly known as the Flower Duet.

Although not string or piano as the OP asked this is one if not the definative foreboding. from the plot I remember the guys (good guy) about to be exicuted and just found the woman hes adored all his life loves him. And has more now everything to live for but is about to die.

Pavarotti E lucevan le stelle from Toscca


YouTube - Pavarotti E lucevan le stelle

[Legacy]

Thank you very much for all the replies, I've had a bit of a musical learning experience today!
Sorry I took so long to reply to you all, every time I checked the thread a new suggestion had been posted so it was back to youtube! Anyway, now I've waded through it all time for some multi-quote mayhem.

Originally Posted by Iccz

If you want to hear some modern songs performed by a really good String Quartet i'd definitely recommend looking at:
Vitamin String Quartet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personally i'm a fan of Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor

Some other composers who've done stuff for String Quarters:
Shostakovich
Ravel
Borodin
Haydn

You can probably find a lot of them on youtube if you search for the name then string quartet as well.

The Vitamin String Quartet are great, I heard their take on Paramore, Limp Bizkit and Disturbed and I have to say they really are spot on in most of their covers! I might have to invest in some of their tracks.

I looked up Elgar's Cello Concerto, and you are right, it is brilliant. As for the rest I haven't heard a lot from them yet except Shostakovich String Quartet No.8 and I'm currently listening to Ravel String Quartet Part 1 on Youtube. Both are exactly to my taste, and I will be looking into the others shortly!

Originally Posted by kempez

Can I recommend a really good CD that may allow you to listen to a wide variety of popular classics in one go? I'm really new to clasical to but bought this on a whim and have really enjoyed it.

"The 50 Most Essential Pieces of Classical Music"

Thats actually a link to a CD of 100 pieces by the way, which is an even better bargain for £6.99! That is definitely going on the shopping list, thanks for the recommendation

Originally Posted by Whisper

It's such a difficult task to recommend music to someone especially classical music but you could try some of these;

Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos 9, 17, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13

Chopin - Piano Concerto No 1

Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier

Holst - The Planets Suite

Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (full orchestra but beautiful nonetheless)

Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons

Beethoven - Violin Concerto

These are just a few suggestions, the list is endless .

Woah, that is quite a bewildering list! I haven't got through that lot yet, I've only heard parts of the planets suite so far, so I'll have to get back to you on it! Thanks a lot for the suggestions

Originally Posted by systemsdead

Gorecki - Symphonie n°3

That is fantastic, probably one of my favourite pieces I have heard so far. Do you have a link to anywhere I could buy it? Thanks!

Originally Posted by brian s

One of the few bits of opera I enjoy. It don't sound too good on my PC but it's excellent on my main gear.


Hope you enjoy it
Bri

Again, I enjoyed that a lot. I was quite sceptical of Opera having heard very little, but it was surprisingly good! Thank you for opening my eyes

Originally Posted by Garrett

Hi Brian your is commanly known as the Flower Duet.

Although not string or piano as the OP asked this is one if not the definative foreboding. from the plot I remember the guys (good guy) about to be exicuted and just found the woman hes adored all his life loves him. And has more now everything to live for but is about to die.

Pavarotti E lucevan le stelle from Toscca

As I said above, I didn't think opera was at all my bag, but again I've been proven wrong! Both of those pieces are brilliant and I would love to own them. This thread is going to prove veeeery expensive for me

Garret, I didn't want to quote everything you listed as you had so many (thank you!) but as for the others, Barbers Adagio I already have - by the way what is it that has used that recently? it seems so familiar but i can't place it! - the funeral march I enjoyed - I was less keen on the solo violinist - and the Albinoni one I enjoyed, but I think I prefer this version:

YouTube - Adagio in G minor by Albinoni

Thanks again for all the input, if anyone else has recommendations I would love to hear them, for strings, piano, foreboding pieces or opera?

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by Legacy

Garret, I didn't want to quote everything you listed as you had so many (thank you!) but as for the others, Barbers Adagio I already have - by the way what is it that has used that recently? it seems so familiar but i can't place it! - the funeral march I enjoyed - I was less keen on the solo violinist - and the Albinoni one I enjoyed, but I think I prefer this version:

World and his wife use Barbers Adagio probably most first famously use of it was in Platoon.
As for Albinoni theres so many interpritations of it my favorite is the one use on the soundtrack of Rollerball (the 70s one). Funny I knew the tune but not the name and was reading a book called Wild Card and they discribed a piece of music and being by Albinoni I knew I wsas on to the right music then I got it.

The Funeral march was used in Excalaber.


As to the Planets theres not a bad track in the whole suite just some are better than others

[systemsdead]

Originally Posted by Legacy

That is fantastic, probably one of my favourite pieces I have heard so far. Do you have a link to anywhere I could buy it? Thanks!

Henryk Gorecki Symphony No. 3

Symphony No. 3: Henryk Gorecki: Amazon.co.uk: MP3 Downloads

[Sonic67]

From your description my first thought was stuff by Ludovica Einaudi. Try Primavera etc. He has quite a few 'best of' CD's about.

[Legacy]

Originally Posted by Sonic67

From your description my first thought was stuff by Ludovica Einaudi. Try Primavera etc. He has quite a few 'best of' CD's about.

Thanks, I just gave Primavera a listen on Youtube, it's spot on, pretty much everything I love in classical is there! Thanks for the recommendation.

I went into my local HMV today and had a browse of the classical section, found a lot of stuff I've been listening to in this thread on Classic FM CD's, of which there seem to be hundreds! Anyway they have 3 for £15 on at the moment so I might have to go and treat myself

[brian s]

What about this one?

YouTube - A Room With A View Part 1

All the very best
Bri

[BROCK22]

i would say download some yoyo ma. he is great.

[Theo Maxtible]

Originally Posted by Legacy

Hi,

I have recently begun listening to classical music and would like some recommendations on what to begin my collection with. I have already established that I very much prefer strings and occasionally piano to any other instruments, however there is a bewildering array of classic music out there and I am totally lost in the mass of composers and complex terminology!

Basically if anyone could recommend me some good pieces of classical music, preferably containing only stringed instruments or piano as opposed to full orchestras, I would appreciate it very much! I quite like pieces with a more foreboding or atmospheric tone too if that helps. If anyone has any good sources for this sort of information on the net that would be great too.

Sorry for such a vague question, I'm afraid I can't really be any more specific!

Thanks,
Joe

I'm not exactly going to offer you specific recommendations, so I'll apologise in advance. The post you've done, is in fact similar to some I've thought of doing - or at least have tried at some point.

I love most types of music, including classical/orchestral music, but am not particularly knowledgeable. I know what I like when I hear it though!

You haven't mentioned a particular audio format, so like some others here, I'll assume you meant CD. My recommendation would be to ditch CD as quickly as possible, and consider one of the hi-res formats, such as SACD, DVD-A (or possibly even Blu-ray - although I don't have any experience of this format).

I discovered the joys of hi-res multi-channel music several years ago, although I only purchased a hi-res universal player in December 2006. These formats have revolutionised my recorded music listening experience without a shadow of a doubt. If this might be a route you'd consider, a lot of useful information can be gained from the following forum:-

The Super Audio CD | SA-CD | SACD Reference

All music benefits from hi-res, but particularly the sort of music you're interested in.

Good luck.

[Legacy]

Brian, thanks, i'll see what i can find on youtube

Steve, thank you! That looks like a great resource, I just had a quick look and found Gorecki's symphony no.3 and some others that I have been recommended in this thread, so I will definitely be spending some money there, just need to get a decent 5.1 system first! I was under the impression that SA-CD was pretty expensive, so I'm glad I'm wrong!

[Theo Maxtible]

Originally Posted by Legacy

Brian, thanks, i'll see what i can find on youtube

Steve, thank you! That looks like a great resource, I just had a quick look and found Gorecki's symphony no.3 and some others that I have been recommended in this thread, so I will definitely be spending some money there, just need to get a decent 5.1 system first! I was under the impression that SA-CD was pretty expensive, so I'm glad I'm wrong!

SACDs can be expensive, but they can also be very good value for money - just like CDs or DVD-As. I have managed to buy some really (what I would call) cheap SACDs and DVD-As. I think I picked up Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" SACD for about £6.00. My very best value DVD-A is Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos" on the Silverline label, which cost me £4.99, and has approaching 100 minutes of music on it.

Although I do have quite a decent player and amplifier (Arcam DV137 & AVR350), my speakers are not really anything special at all. Providing one has a decent pair of ears, I feel confident that you'd hear a difference between hi-res and non hi-res formats. All of the SACDs that I own that have a multi-channel mix, offer also a 2 channel mix. I believe this to be the norm, so a 5.1 system may also not be absolutely necessary - although I do feel that the multi-channel option (if present) does add a lot to the recordings. I do also have some stereo only SACDs (and DVD-As) and an SACD which offers mono only.

Good luck!

[coolTechno]

i just love classics.. got a big mp3 collection in my computer, let me know which artists u like