A millennial's rant on classical music

[Daverz]

I don't know if you've heard of the cellist Anner Bylsma, but he made two very interesting recordings of Bach's Cello Suites. The first one interests me more - he's playing on a smaller "student" cello and emphasizes the dance aspects of the score in a way no one else does. The second recording was made on a rich sounding instrument of larger than average size, and it is very beautiful but loses the dance element. As I recall both recordings are on Sony Classics.

Yes, that first Bylsma set, on Pro Arte Lps, was my imprint version of the Cello Suites.

 

[Guermantes]

But John Cage's music was awful. There are two extremes with Classical music - on one extreme are things that are too populist and too commercial (like John Williams) and on the other are the avant-garde weird stuff that nobody understands (like John Cage).

During my college music studies, we had a whole lecture devoted to listening to Cage's Indeterminacy and a unit on musique concrète. Great stuff that has probably been as valuable to me (if not more) as the other units on harmony and orchestration.

 

[Robin L]

During my college music studies, we had a whole lecture devoted to listening to Cage's Indeterminacy and a unit on musique concrète. Great stuff that has probably been as valuable to me (if not more) as the other units on harmony and orchestration.

I got the Beatles "White Album" about as soon as it came out. I was particularly fascinated by Revolution #9, never heard anything like it before. That led to a lifelong interest in musique concrète.

 

[Doodski]

During my college music studies, we had a whole lecture devoted to listening to Cage's Indeterminacy and a unit on musique concrète. Great stuff that has probably been as valuable to me (if not more) as the other units on harmony and orchestration.

Hold the presses! Wowzer... I'm just getting started in classical music and this stuff is going to cause me brain damage and ruin my entire experience... LoL. This is considered music?

 

[pablolie]

The track, Peter Gregson - An Evening at Capitol Studios (Official Full Performance) is excellent and I enjoyed it very much. I also liked the intimate environment where the people stood to attend the event. It made it more interesting for some reason. Do you have more tracks that you can propose I experience and get some more culture?

This one always manages to take my breath away:

Or this:

And here's a novel update to Vivaldi's over-played Four Seasons I really like if you have the time (Max Richter, another Deutsche Grammophon Recomposed):

And... Mozart...

 

[pablolie]

Oh and if anyone is in the mood to explore a mix of jazz and classical...

Grover Washington Jr interpreting Delibes' exquisite "Flower Duet"... his last album expressing his love for classical before he died in '99...

Jacques Loussier... also hugely missed.

 

[jbc34618]

My take on this is the biggest issue with classical music is the sound quality of the recordings and attempting to reproduce it on electronics and transducers. I was not @ all interested in classical because of these issues until I was invited by a girlfriend that I met by selling her some very expensive bookshelf speakers and peripheral gear. She was incredibly particular about the sound quality and I like that sort of customer a lot. So we dated and I was never allowed to hear her practice her flute playing... Never ever! I went to her recital finallly and it was a pianist and her the flautist performing Prokofiev. I started crying because it was so amazing and I was so proud of her...LoL.. I was a mess. The rich amazing sounds where out of this world and I have never experienced anything like that since. So yeah the overall package of the recorded sound quality is poor.

I agree with this. That's why if you want to sell someone who isn't into classical music, taking them to see it live would be a much more likely to work option than recommending them pieces to listen to.

CD is by far the best format for classical music and even then, you need a bit more in terms of audio equipment than your average TV soundbar that most people have these days if you want it to sound how it's supposed to sound.

I haven’t run into anyone like that in 40 years. And even they would have been fine with Haydn and Mozart. As an avid classical listener, and former jazz/big band musician, this is pretty alien to me. I’ve seen more snobs in jazz.

I grew up playing violin in youth orchestras and while not everyone was that way, a not insigificant number were. It's an extremely competitive culture and because of that, there are certain attitudes that people have. It is similar to modern jazz in that respect. These particular people were big on Schoenberg. To be honest, when I'm in the mood I like Schoenberg, but I always go back to Haydn and Mozart as my favorite. Beethoven or Schubert when I wasn't something a little more sentimental.

 

[Doodski]

This one always manages to take my breath away:

Or this:

And here's a novel update to Vivaldi's over-played Four Seasons I really like if you have the time (Max Richter, another Deutsche Grammophon Recomposed):

And... Mozart...

Thank you so much! This is touching and lovely music. The first video went by very quickly which means I enjoyed it and time flew by. The second video is smooth and I appreciated the extended length of it so that I could get lost in it. The third video Vivaldi's Four Seasons I have a tiny bit of experience with as I have one of the seasons videos bookmarked and it has been a great piece for me. So I have another ~one hour of listening pleasure till completion of this third video. I'm off to listen. >@^_*@< Thanks again! PS.. I'll be listening to your other postings after this video.

 

[Keith_W]

I spent a year where I played this every day. It was part of the same sessions where Ferrier recorded Das Lied von der Erde:

A whole year! I can't listen to it more than a few times before it turns me into an emotional wreck! Why would you want to listen to Ferrier saying goodbye to the world ever day, it is really too much. In fact, this is the very recording that caused me to place that Mahler ban on myself more than 10 years ago. It is now maybe 2-3 days since I lifted my self-imposed Mahler ban and I it is already starting to affect me emotionally.

This is not to say that I don't like Mahler, in fact I do love Mahler. I marvel at how his music can have so much emotional power. But for me at least, Mahler has to be enjoyed in small doses. It is cheaper to stop listening to Mahler than to buy antidepressants

 

[pablolie]

Thank you so much! This is touching and lovely music. The first video went by very quickly which means I enjoyed it and time flew by. The second video is smooth and I appreciated the extended length of it so that I could get lost in it. The third video Vivaldi's Four Seasons I have a tiny bit of experience with as I have one of the seasons videos bookmarked and it has been a great piece for me. So I have another ~one hour of listening pleasure till completion of this third video. I'm off to listen. >@^_*@< Thanks again! PS.. I'll be listening to your other postings after this video.

The DG recordings of these are great, by the way. Listening to classical has always been my major driver to get a good system - also jazz, obviously, but it was classical that totally captured me. As a teenager, I loved to party like every kid, and loved R&B and Pop hits, but it was the moments when I listened to classical on my Dad's system (he trusted me) that really made me appreciate audio very early. I bought a lot of hit music like all kids, but I started to actually collect classical - it was in Spain, and there was some Readers' Digest like thing that issued new vinyl every month, and I started collecting them and loving them. Then I went away for University in Germany (with several compact cassettes carefully recorded on my Dad's Tandberg player). When I came back for summer vacation a year later, I was surprised to discover my Dad had kept buying me the newest collection releases and they were waiting for me in my bedroom. I remember crying... and giving him a huge hug, not at all ashamed of my tears. My first year away in Germany had been tough, between the weather and being homesick.

To this day, it's classical that makes me close my eyes when I listen to my system, its beauty can be so overpowering that I am not ashamed to say it still can make tears flow. Oscar Wilde once said: “After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one’s tears.”

So true.

 

[Doodski]

When I came back for summer vacation a year later, I was surprised to discover my Dad had kept buying me the newest collection releases and they were waiting for me in my bedroom. I remember crying... and giving him a huge hug, not at all ashamed of my tears. My first year away in Germany had been tough, between the weather and being homesick.

That's awesome! I love hearing about that. I too get sniffly and cry over sentimental stuff and music sometimes... LoL.

To this day, it's classical that makes me close my eyes when I listen to my system, its beauty can be so overpowering that I am not ashamed to say it still can make tears flow. Oscar Wilde once said: “After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one’s tears.”

The lyrics trigger me at times and cause memories, reflection, emotions and intention for the future. I am interested to see how classical pieces without lyrics make me reactive or not. This is going to be interesting.

 

[Robin L]

A whole year! I can't listen to it more than a few times before it turns me into an emotional wreck! Why would you want to listen to Ferrier saying goodbye to the world ever day, it is really too much. In fact, this is the very recording that caused me to place that Mahler ban on myself more than 10 years ago. It is now maybe 2-3 days since I lifted my self-imposed Mahler ban and I it is already starting to affect me emotionally.

This is not to say that I don't like Mahler, in fact I do love Mahler. I marvel at how his music can have so much emotional power. But for me at least, Mahler has to be enjoyed in small doses. It is cheaper to stop listening to Mahler than to buy antidepressants

Because I wanted to go with her. It was like smack.

Yesterday I listened to Beethoven's 15th string quartet, A minor op. 132, for the first time in about a decade. The very first time I heard it, when I was 16, I was an emotional wreck afterwards. Although it's something like the opposite of "Ich Bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen": here one is slipping out of death and back into life, though it plunges far into the darkness before pulling out. I avoid listening to that work because the emotional impact was so great, though I intend to hear my other two recordings soon. The recording I heard yesterday was the Busch Quartet's famous recording from the 1930s. Beethoven's 16th quartet, F major, op 135, was his final work and he clearly sounds like he's ready to go. "Must it be? It must be!" But it ends gaily, like he's happy to go. Bittersweet, to say the least.

 

[pablolie]

Because I wanted to go with her. It was like smack.

Yesterday I listened to Beethoven's 15th string quartet, A minor op. 132, for the first time in about a decade. The very first time I heard it, when I was 16, I was an emotional wreck afterwards. Although it's something like the opposite of "Ich Bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen": here one is slipping out of death and back into life, though it plunges far into the darkness before pulling out. I avoid listening to that work because the emotional impact was so great, though I intend to hear my other two recordings soon. The recording I heard yesterday was the Busch Quartet's famous recording from the 1930s. Beethoven's 16th quartet, F major, op 135, was his final work and he clearly sounds like he's ready to go. "Must it be? It must be!" But it ends gaily, like he's happy to go. Bittersweet, to say the least.

I sometimes wonder if it is a good or bad thing that music sometimes triggers us so effectively. Is it a healing mechanism or just it just bring up grief we haven't overcome yet.

There is this song by Kevin Mahogany (the most underrated jazz singer of the last 50 years, IMO) that triggers me:

It reminds me of the best early days in my marriage, we had EVERYTHING going for us. We shared genuine love and laughter, we were flush, we had bought a dream house... and I was in the big listening room, immersed in the beauty of the song, playing it loud on my "dream system" and the staircase was open to the room. We were about to leave for some event, and she appeared at the top of the stairs - magnificent, radiant, the most beautiful woman ever for me, and my genuine love... and I felt a pang of tragic foreboding, sensing this was a perfect moment in my life that couldn't last. That haunts me every time I listen to that song, nearly ten years after our divorce.

 

[Doodski]

I sometimes wonder if it is a good or bad thing that music sometimes triggers us so effectively. Is it a healing mechanism or just it just bring up grief we haven't overcome yet.

I don't question it anymore. I accept it, I make the time to deal with whatever it is right then and there if possible, push on through and don't dwell on the stuff. Otherwise for me it becomes a toxic mess of constant nagging worrisome thoughts.

I felt a pang of tragic foreboding, sensing this was a perfect moment in my life that couldn't last. That haunts me every time I listen to that song, nearly ten years after our divorce.

That's some serious and powerful stuff. I have memories that apparently are permanently written in stone too. I avoid them by reflecting on the dream woman I met in Vancouver that I had for the Valentines Day all to myself. That thought works every time to get rid of the bad thoughts. One afternoon was enough but a lifetime would have been the best... LoL. But I'll take it as it was... gg* Otherwise I gave her my tel number after the day ended, she called me ~6 months later and said, "I'm ready" and unfortunately I had promised another woman that I would give a relationship with her a chance so I had to pass that amazing opportunity by...LoL.. I kick myself hard some days... RFLMAO! sigh*

 

[Robin L]

I sometimes wonder if it is a good or bad thing that music sometimes triggers us so effectively. Is it a healing mechanism or just it just bring up grief we haven't overcome yet.

There is this song by Kevin Mahogany (the most underrated jazz singer of the last 50 years, IMO) that triggers me:

It reminds me of the best early days in my marriage, we had EVERYTHING going for us. We shared genuine love and laughter, we were flush, we had bought a dream house... and I was in the big listening room, immersed in the beauty of the song, playing it loud on my "dream system" and the staircase was open to the room. We were about to leave for some event, and she appeared at the top of the stairs - magnificent, radiant, the most beautiful woman ever for me, and my genuine love... and I felt a pang of tragic foreboding, sensing this was a perfect moment in my life that couldn't last. That haunts me every time I listen to that song, nearly ten years after our divorce.

Thirty years or so ago, I was the recording engineer for Kitka, recording Voices on the Eastern Wind and Nectar. My future wife was a singer in this recording. Later she became the director of the group. We married later but it didn't last long, unfortunately. And when I hear this, I can't help but think of how good it was when we started, how magical:

 

[pablolie]

....

Yesterday I listened to Beethoven's 15th string quartet, A minor op. 132, for the first time in about a decade. ...

A few messages back, I said something foolish like "I don't like Beethoven"....! I love THIS! Thank you!

 

[Robin L]

A few messages back, I said something foolish like "I don't like Beethoven"....! I love THIS! Thank you!

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I've got 4 CDs from Telarc's recordings of Beethoven's quartets. Very good playing, very good sound. Two of the discs are of the Late quartets, 12, 14 13 and Grosse Fuge. I've got the complete set of the Takacs Quartet, the Middle and Late of Guarneri quartet (their re-recordings for Philips in the Brilliant Classics box of the complete Beethoven) and the Smetana Quartet analog stereo recordings of the Late quartets. They are all good, but I'd give the nod to the Takacs Quartet.

 

[EERecordist]

Pianist Ayse Deniz has an encyclopedic knowledge of classical music She has been reinterpreting popular rock melodies with classical composer stylings. She has a lot on this YouTube and other socials.

Covering and arranging pop for classical/acoustic instruments is common. That may be an entre for those who don't find an interest in classical.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

CD is by far the best format for classical music

CD is adequate. Multichannel (SACD, BluRay, Atmos) is better.

 

[blueone]

My take on this is the biggest issue with classical music is the sound quality of the recordings and attempting to reproduce it on electronics and transducers. I was not @ all interested in classical because of these issues until I was invited by a girlfriend that I met by selling her some very expensive bookshelf speakers and peripheral gear. She was incredibly particular about the sound quality and I like that sort of customer a lot. So we dated and I was never allowed to hear her practice her flute playing... Never ever! I went to her recital finallly and it was a pianist and her the flautist performing Prokofiev. I started crying because it was so amazing and I was so proud of her...LoL.. I was a mess. The rich amazing sounds where out of this world and I have never experienced anything like that since. So yeah the overall package of the recorded sound quality is poor.

My step daughter is a flautist, she has a BA in Music Performance from a major university. Years ago, as part of her graduation requirements, she had to make a solo studio recording of herself playing some difficult selections. I have a copy of the resulting CD. Once when she was visiting she had her flute with her, and I played the recording on my music system while she played a duet with herself. It was an extraordinary experience. (It was also a very instructive reminder of how loud real musical instruments are in residential sized rooms.) The virtual duet sounded very much fully live.

My wife is a percussionist, but it doesn't make any sense to do a drum kit duet, and moving the marimba into the listening room is a non-starter.