Classical music

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Robin Orton
Posts: 3380
Joined: 9 Sep 2008 07:30
Location: London SE26

Classical music

Post by Robin Orton »

I wrote on another thread:
What I've also always hoped to find is someone else (apart from Tim Lund) who is prepared to fess up to an interest in classical music. More specifically, I have this fantasy of starting an amateur (very, in my case) group in Sydenham to meet occasionally to sing madrigals (yes, yes, hopelessly uncool at the moment, I know, even in musical circles), which I used to love but haven't recently had the opportunity of doing. Perhaps this thread will encourage others to put their heads above the parapet
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chrisj1948 replied:
Would an interest in pre-Classical music (more specifically late Baroque) count?
Certainly, Chris. I had a real pash (as we used to say in those days) on pre-classical music in my teens and early twenties. This goes back to the very beginning of the early music revival, when even a harpischord was a rarity. I was first hooked by a performance of an early Tudor mass setting (I wish I could remember which one) performed by Henry Washington's Schola Polyphonica on the Third Programme. I think it was the combination of purity and transparency of sound and plangency of harmony which first attracted me.

Later I got interested in early instrumental music as well; my father and I seriously looked into the possibility of going to Arnold Dolmetsch's pioneering Haslemere Early Music Festival, but in the end he decided we couldn't afford it!

Later again, if I may briefly name drop, the highlight for me of an otherside hellish Outward Bound course in the Lake District was getting friendly with the seventeen year old David Munrow. He was still at King Edward's School Birmingham, played the bassoon in the CBSO and was already an early music devotee - I remember singing Purcells's 'Sound the trumpet' duet (from 'Come, all ye sons of art') with him in the Outward Bound school bog (excellent acoustics). I met him once again when I was at university and his Cambridge group came to give a concert; I think I remember (though memory may be embellishing itself here) having a pint with him and the yet-to-be famous counter-tenor James Bowman, whom I also vaguely knew.

Even later, I went out for some time with a viola da gamba player!

However, I guess all this may be a bit peripheral to your special interest, late baroque. Is that Bach, Handel and Vivaldi? I love them all, particularly the first two. At one time in fact, I turned my nose up at anything post-classical - for reasons of snobbery (in the case of the early romantics like Mendelssohn and Schumann) ) and incomprehension (in the case of the late romantics and modernists). But then I had my moment of Wagner Epiphany - quite common amongst middle-aged men, I believe- and the world of music suddenly got a lot, lot bigger for me.

My impression is that nowadays there is quite a lot of not very good late baroque music played on the likes of Classic FM, because it' sounds nice and undemanding as background music - sounds a lot better than it is, in fact. Do you agree?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take this little trip down Memory Lane.
chrisj1948
Posts: 538
Joined: 15 Jul 2008 15:12
Location: Sydenham

Re: Classical music

Post by chrisj1948 »

Bach, Handel and Vivaldi certainly (although the ubiquity of 'The Four Seasons' takes a bit of the gloss off poor old Vivaldi), but also Telleman and Scarlatti. I enjoy Correlli as well, although strictly speaking he is mid-Baroque.

My musical enjoyment is not exclusively restricted to that period. At school I learned to enjoy plainchant (the school was attached to a Benedictine monastery, so we used to have plenty of opportunities to hear it) - I still think it is excellent music to chill to. Other great favourites are Beethoven and Vaughan Williams. I particularly like Beethoven's 4th Symphony, because it gently teases the listener (sleeve notes described it as 'witty and companionable'). Not very keen on Mozart; his music is excellent but it leaves me unmoved.

My record collection was destroyed in a flood in the mid 90's and that cut down on my listening. Nowadays I do not even have a record player, and my CD collection has been transferred to a single 32Gb memory stick of mp3's which plugs into the Denon DM37. Unfortunately nobody else in the family shares my enthusiasm for classical music, so listening to it is something of a stolen pleasure.

Regards
Chris
Robin Orton
Posts: 3380
Joined: 9 Sep 2008 07:30
Location: London SE26

Re: Classical music

Post by Robin Orton »

Agree with you about Beethoven's 4th Symphony, especially the first movement which is really thrilling. I suppose the 5th and the 9th are my absolute favourites. But they all bowled me over when I first heard them.

Mozart. Do you know the operas? If not, try them - I think you will find them moving, particularly The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute. They are his masterpieces, in my view - I think Cosi fan tutte is perfect in every way, although arguably poignant, witty and dark rather than moving.

Not sure about Vaughan Williams - I somehow think of him as a bit of a one-trick pony. The work of his I love best is his G Minor Mass: [youtubes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO-0cMnUpk[/youtubes]

Bad luck about your records and the fact that your family do not share your enthusiasm. My own music collection is in a mess. I used have a lot of the standards classics on LP but have got rid of most of them and have no equipment to play the ones I've got left on. Most of my CDs are either operas or a bit peripheral/weird (2nd Viennese school, etc.) I've got quite a lot of stuff on ITunes, transcribed from CDs or downloaded, but have been let down by unreliable Apple software (currently trying to get it sorted) and hardware.

Actually however I find increasingly that I don't like listening to recordings - I'd much rather make the effort to go to a live performance. One of the many advantages of living in Sydenham is that are plenty to choose from. And I am lucky that my wife is usually pleased to come with me!
mrtimelover
Posts: 38
Joined: 18 Mar 2010 17:46
Location: Sydenham

Re: Classical music

Post by mrtimelover »

I am 16 and have enjoyed classical music since the age of 11 when I first started playing piano. I'd say my favourite composers are Ludovico Einaudi and Claude Debussy, followed closely by Beethoven. I ain't the best of pianists but I have managed to learn some pretty tricky stuff over the past years, my best probably being Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy. I had no teacher, which is probably another reason I like classical music (Becuase I was not forced into it).

I performed Moonlight Sonata for a solo recital, which was pretty good. Another of my favourite composers is Chopin, especially his piece Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2. I don't really like classical songs (with singers), but thats just me.

I don't know many young people who like classical music and I think its because they have never heard a full piece or played one. If they did, I'm sure they will begin to come around to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LXl4y6D-QI - Clair de Lune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZUw78FXpG4 - Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTkzyyv0DuA - Nuvole Bianche by Ludovico Einaudi
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