Classical/Traditional Music

I'm listening to some pieces by Witold Lutosławski, but I'm not sure if they are the most significant. Some guy on a czech forum recommended me Partita f. violin and orchestra and Piano concerto so I will follow these. Anyone into this guy? It was on top of my last fm suggestions based on Kodály, Nørgård etc.

BTW Nørgård is currently my favorite contemporary composer. I love Terrains Vagues, Symphony 3 and Symphony 6. Fucking amazing. I need to find more.
 
I know it's a common one but I am still in live with Vivaldi's four seasons, winter in particular :) another composer I like is Proyecto Onyric (think the spelling is correct) she is a pianist and makes the nicest dark songs, well worth checking out :)
 
I know it's a common one but I am still in live with Vivaldi's four seasons, winter in particular :) another composer I like is Proyecto Onyric (think the spelling is correct) she is a pianist and makes the nicest dark songs, well worth checking out :)

Apparently it's Proyecto Oniric. Speaking of Vivaldi, I've been listening to Sol Gabetta's cd of Vivaldi cello concertos lately. Amazing. I need something similar.. I'm sure there's many baroque cello pieces like this.. No..? :(
 
I'm really enjoying Fibich's chamber works. It's kinda silly I have never heard any of the symphonies. My favorite discovery as of late is Elgar's cello concerto. But everyone probably knows that already.
 
Flamenco is doing it for me lately. Trio Garufa is a particular favorite. Guitars, drum, and cajon.

Don't know much about flamenco, but I love Paco de Lucía. That's as close as I can get.

Lately I was exploring more music from composers that I loved based on one piece or something small. Namely Zdeněk Fibich who has brilliant second quartet and I got to know some more of his chamber stuff. Sonatina and Sonata. Both brilliant. Still have to check out his symphonies. Now I'm listening to Janáček's "On an Overgrown Path" for solo piano.

Few days back it was some John Cage anniversary too so I listened twice to his prepared piano sonatas/interludes. I liked the sound of those but I won't go deeper into understanding it's micro structure. Too complicated. Also, I listened to Langgaard's piano works and most of them are brilliant! Definitely my biggest discovery of past months. I recommend his Music of the Abyss and La Beguinage. So far I don't know Music of the Spheres or any of the symphonies. :(
 
Here's one of Cage's non-prepared piano works:



I like the very percussive quality that Cage utilizes in this piece. I have a better performance on my computer, but this was the best on youtube.

I'm pretty disappointed that I just found out that it was John Cage's centennial birthday. Washington, DC, which is only about an hour from my house, was hosting "John Cage Week" which featured tons of performances of his works and I missed it :(

edit: I almost forgot about water walk:

 
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rriP1P4OCW8&t=5m55s]Prelude to Lohengrin Act 3 - Wagner[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvkl9EGBPE]Pathetique Sonata - Beethoven[/ame]

i was a small kid in the 80s and i remember the Peanuts cartoons used a lot of classical music
 


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[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ46Ot4_lLo&t=2m40s[/ame]

who knows some opera songs like these ones?
 
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Tomorrow I'm going to a dress rehearsal of Czech Philharmonic playing Beethoven Triple concerto, Brahms 1st and R Strauss Don Juan. Fuck yeah.
 
I may be going to a performance of George Crumb's Makrokosmos in a couple of weeks. I've see a performance of this piece once, and it is fantastic to watch with all of the various things that the piano player is instructed to do, such as plucking the strings inside of the piano with their fingers, moaning into the body of the piano, shouting randomly, dynamically hitting the piano with a mallad, and a number of other things.

Here are some excerpts from the score:
image001.jpg


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^ Haha, I'm always sceptical when I see random shit like that, but truth to be told, I usually like the sound of prepared piano and all the additinoal sounds that it can make.

EDIT: May I recommend you the Hauschka / Hilary Hahn collaboration called Silfra? It's awesome. It's pretty much all improvised and only Hilary's violin and prepared piano.
 
Their song, Bounce, Bounce, was pretty awesome. Hauschka must have stuffed his piano full of trinkets for that song :lol: I wasn't a big fan of the other two songs up on youtube though.

Edit: On Crumb's crazy looking scores: Nearly all of his compositions have crazy scores. I'm not sure why, other than him trying to convey how the music should sound by utilizing unusual forms of notation to give a symbolic representation of the desired sound. I don't recall seeing composers other than John Cage playing with standard notation in this manner, but many "modern" guys do other things. Stockhausen, for example, will notate some of his electronic music onto frequency charts. He also considers pitch to be rhythm because of the fact that pitch is determined by the speed of the audio frequency waves.
 
I'm listening too Brahms' 4th symphony at the moment and I'm surprised about how much I like it. I've had a lot of trouble with finding classical music, other than the crazy 20th century stuff, that I enjoy. Onder, got any recommendations for good, late-era Brahms?
 
I'm listening too Brahms' 4th symphony at the moment and I'm surprised about how much I like it. I've had a lot of trouble with finding classical music, other than the crazy 20th century stuff, that I enjoy. Onder, got any recommendations for good, late-era Brahms?

Fourth is my favorite of his along with German requiem. It has this fresh feeling all the way to the end and every movement offers something catchy to enjoy. His third is more tragic and the first one tries to be too grandiose imo, but very good nonetheless. All of his symphonies are performed a lot.

Have you heard his double concerto op. 102? That might interest you.
 
I will probably go to another concert today. Janáček / Dvořák / Stravinsky.