I love classical. I just found something amazing speaking of. Well found it last year. Its the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and they have and album called Conversations In Silence. It features an amazing interment that is just mind blowing, the Tennessee Music Box. The track is Blackberry Winter III. Go find this and give it a listen. You can thank me for this find later. It's so fresh and daring.

I listened to samples of both the Sonatas and Concertos on Amazon, and I think I prefer concertos, for the most part (sorry, I approach music the way I do art - I can't tell you why, exactly, I like a certain piece, or even what makes it good - or even the difference between a concerto, a sonata, and a symphony - I just know what sounds good to me). I like the big sound - I am also partial to symphonies and operas.

It looks like I can find the recommended concerto CDs locally, so I may pick those up. Thanks for the recommendations!

You're welcome, Mike.

Symphonies, as I'm sure you already know, are large orchestral pieces (generally).

Sonatas are usually one or a few instruments and as a result aren't as musically 'dense' as symphonies.

Think of a concerto as a symphony with a single (usually) soloist.

Seeing as you like big sound, I'm going to try to get you interested in piano sonatas through Beethoven. Ever listen to any of his piano sonatas?

I'll post a few here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ5QKjmkinU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uowUCwMiz54

Also, if you haven't checked out Beethoven's Piano Concerti, you're missing out. He wrote 5 concerti for piano. The fourth and fifth are very grand. The fifth, also known as the "Emperor," is magnificent and was highly revolutionary in its day. The first movement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr4zoZ_49vA

A pretty good performance, but the hands down best recording of Beethoven's Emperor was by Leon Fleisher and Georg Szell.

Let me know what you think, Mike.

Anyone else that wants to comment, please feel free to do so.

Don't get me wrong, most everything from Beethoven and Mozart that I hear, I like.

As for Beethoven's sonatas, I'll have to admit that the only one I know by name is his Moonlight Sonata, which I have always thought of as a hauntingly beautiful piece. I do know the Emperor Concerto. I'm just now starting to recognize pieces for what they are - I have heard much, but not put a lot of names and composers to them. I also am new to the concept of certain composers/performers performing better than others.

I'll listen to these!

I ended up purchasing the Volume 1 of the Mozart Piano Concertos on iTunes - I end up putting everything on my mp3 player anyways, and I can burn a CD to listen in my car.

Glad to hear you're listening to new things. Hope you enjoy them. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on those Mozart pieces and the Beethoven pieces I posted.

Learning about classical music is a lifetime endeavor. There's always more to explore and learn.

I'm mainly a late Romantic era Sympony junkie.. mostly:

Mahler
Bruckner
Shostakovich
Dvorak
Rachmaninoff
Sibelius
Brahms
Stravinsky
Richard Strauss
Debussy
Ravel

Mostly symphonic music.. including tone poems or ballet music.. my favorite composer is Mahler.. favorite work, the 9th Symphony.

For Beethoven piano sonatas, I've always been partial to Claudio Arrau.
My brother was a music major and is a walking encyclopedia of classical music and opera. If I want a recording of a piece, I ask him which one to get. But, there is no right and wrong. A friend of ours is a big collector of classical music and his opinions differ from my brother's.

I had a CD recording of Claudio Arrau playing the Moonlight, Pathetique, Appassionata, and Waldstein sonatas, which was the same recording my brother had on vinyl. One day, I heard a recording of Claudio Arrau playing the Eroica Variations and had to have it. The only CD recording available was a boxed set of Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas and Concertos.
This of course included the four sonatas I already had, so I was able to pass that CD on to my brother.

I also have Claudio Arrau's recording of the Emperor Sonata.


It's all personal preference.

My mother used to say that (JS) Bach was boring, yet I find Glenn Gould's recordings to be some of the most amazing music I've ever heard.

Everyone has a different favorite version. My brother is a walking and talking encyclopedia of classical music and opera and he had the Karl Bohm Berlin Philharmonic recording on vinyl and I have it on CD. (picture below)


Minnesota Opera did a great performance in May, 2004. Unfortunately, I had to leave during part of it due to an uncontrollable coughing fit. I couldn't get back in until the act was finished, so I had to watch/listen to part of it on a monitor.

Regarding John Coltrane, A Love Supreme is awesome. May I also recommend
Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, and Coltrane’s Sound.

I have an extensive collection of John Coltrane and Miles Davis (together as well as separately). I'd be happy to recommend albums from both.

Currently my jazz collection consists of some Dave Brubeck (Dave Digs Disney, Time Out), some Davis (Milestones, Kind of Blue), Coltrane (Blue Train). I have sampled some of the later Davis stuff (Bitches Brew, Nefertiti), and decided I'm not much into his later fusion phase. I still need to pick up A Love Supreme.

Ah yes, Blue Train. I forgot to list that one. Great album. In addition to Coltrane, Lee Morgan really shines on trumpet, especially in Lazy Bird.

Although, it could use more cowbell. Oops. That's another thread.

Time Out, Milestones, Kind of Blue. You've got some great stuff. Two of my favorite Miles Davis albums. I can't really listen to Miles' later stuff. I have Miles Smiles and Sorcerer. I can't listen to anything later than that. Unfortunately, I find some of the later Coltrane stuff a bit harsh. If you like A Love Supreme, you may like Crescent as well.

So I have been hitting my iTunes pretty heavily, mainly because I can't find a good record store locally, other than Barnes & Noble. I picked up another album on iTunes - Beethoven Piano Sonatas (Moonlight, Pathetique, and Appassionata) played by Daniel Barenboim. I couldn't find a decent one by Arrau that wasn't expensive, and I found enough decent reviews of Barenboim online to get me to pull the trigger on this one - it is a DG release.

I enjoyed them a lot - I've only heard excerpts from them before, so I enjoyed hearing the entire pieces.

Thanks for the recommendations everybody! I have been a moderate, casual classical fan for all my life (thanks to my father), but lately I have been getting more interested. Good to have some resources to steer me towards the good stuff.

I had a long drive today, about an hour and a half, so I played my iPod on shuffle. I swear, every 3rd or 4th song was Glenn Gould playing JS Bach because I have so much.

It was an interesting mix with the Glenn Gould Bach, The Smiths, Talking Heads, Marvin Gaye, The Clash, Mozart, Brahms, Don Giovanni, Beethoven, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, The Tom Tom Club, Count Basie, Bartok.

Can't wait to hear the mix when I drive back on Wednesday.

Alright, today I made my final addition to my classical collection (at least for a little while). I picked up Beethoven's 4th and 5th Piano Concertos (Kempff/Leitner). I couldn't find the one recommended. I bought it at B&N. Now my collection seems to be piano-heavy. Maybe after I have absorbed it all, I'll have to hit you guys up for other recommendations (violin, cello, etc.)

Stravinski's The Rite of Spring is my all time favorite classical piece. It doesn't get any better than that.

As far as a composer that I can listen to just about anything they wrote, Wagner is the King.

And has there ever been a piece more romantic than Fur Elise?

Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is high on my list. using it as the score to the original Dracula was a stroke of genius.

I'm not huge on Barenboim's Beethoven (or his work in general). He's a good pianist - he's not bad, but he doesn't stand out for me. Arrau, if I remember correctly, does some interesting things with his Beethoven. Doesn't always work, but it's good sometimes. I seem to remember him using a lot of rubato and being overly romantic in style at some points (Beethoven was more of a classical musician than a romantic). Overall, I think he does do a quite good job (definitely better than Barenboim) on most of the Beethoven sonatas. While Arrau's Beethoven is good, his interpretations of Chopin are appalling.

I'm partial to Beethoven Sonatas by Kempff and Gilels. Beethoven's late sonatas are best executed by Maurizio Pollini. Kempff falls a little short on some of the later sonatas.

As MK-Ultra said - a lot of it is personal preference. Some recordings are better than others, though. I'll still firmly state that the recording of Beethoven's 5th Concerto by Szell and Fleisher is hands down the best.

Haven't heard the Kempff/Leitner recording, but I'm sure it's good, if not decent. Kempff does a very good job with Beethoven in general. Let us know what you think of it.

The Rite of Spring is a wonderful piece. Quite magnificent if you ask me. I have a superb recording of it with Antal Dorati conducting the London Symphony. There's also a stellar recording of Petrouchka on the same CD. Have you heard Petrouchka?

For the most part, I can't stand Tchaikovsky. Nine times out of ten, when there's something I don't like on the classical station on the radio, it's some Tchaikovsky piece I've never heard before.

Alright, alright, I went back and got Kempff playing the Sonatas - it has Moonlight, Waldstein, Appasionata, and Pathetique - a DG release. I also picked up Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphonies, Carlos Kleiber conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

I think I do enjoy Kempff's performance better than Barenboim. On the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata, you can actually hear the notes more clearly - his playing seems more crisp, whereas with Barenboim the notes seemed to blend together. That is about the extent of my musical critique at this point.

I have been perusing various works on iTunes, and came across Mozart's 4 horn concertos, and found myself enjoying them quite a bit. I read reviews, and most seemed in agreement that Dennis Brain was the master in this area. However, he died young, and his performances are fairly old, and digital remastering can only do so much. I noticed the sound from recordings with Barry Tuckwell were much clearer. Any thoughts on this? I don't know how familiar you might be with Mozart's horn concertos, or who would be the performer to turn to?

I have both the Dennis Brain and Barry Tuckwell recordings of Mozart's four horn concertos. I'm sad to say that I haven't really listened to either in a long time and have not really done a comparison. They are both awesome.

I think I'm just going to have to listen to them this afternoon.

I wish there was a way to legally share music on TSD. I'd love to be able to share some of my recordings as well as listen to others'.

Do you recall if your Tuckwell recording is with the English Chamber Orchestra, or is there another recording I should be looking for? The one I keep seeing is Tuckwell with the ECO, on Decca records (at least that is what is available on iTunes). The Brain recording I found is on EMI, with Karajan.

Not crazy about Petrouchka, but I have the recording in question and agree that it's the best version of Spring I've ever heard.

I'm not big on Tchaikovsky either, I just really like Swan Lake. I've always felt that as a composer he is simply overrated.

Please accept my most humble apologies. I swear that I have a Barry Tuckwell recording, but I can't find it. It is not in iPod, which leads me to believe in early onset dementia.


Here is what I did find:

Mozart Horn Concertos
Dennis Brain
Philharmonia Orchestra
Herbert Von Karajan
EMI

Mozart Horn Concertos Nos. 2&3
Oboe Concerto
Bassoon Concerto
William Purvis, Randall Wolfgang, Frank Morelli
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Deutsche Grammophon

I will not give up. I will continue to look for Barry Tuckwell.