Classical Music. What should I listen to? What is your favorites?

[freddi]

if not already posted - listen to several productions - or separate arias from Mozart's "Don Giovanni"

Here's an exceptionally good "Commendatore scene" with 3 world class bass - baritones - all with distinctive timbre

 

[wchang]

Here's a sampler I once prepared for another topic.

Test music tracks original/control for comparison purpose only (beware track 7 for piano/violin, track 10 for organ/soprano can get LOUD) https://www.bilibili.com/audio/am33116224?type=7 (from thread https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/open-wing-headphone-crossfeed-stereo-sound.391630/ )

I also like: Faure (piano by Collard; chamber music from Hyperion Records; Requiem by Rutter/Cambridge); Dowland (songs and lute; even Sting recorded some); Dvorak bass-drum concerto nee 9th Symphony "From the New World"; Carmina Burana "Early Music" versions (Binkley; Pickett); Bach solo violin (Rachel Podger; Hilary Hahn); Bach Goldberg Variations (Celine Frisch); Vivaldi Four Seasons (Loveday/Marriner); Claude Bolling Jazz inspired by Classical.

 

[MarcelvdG]

It's a pity there is so much processing on the voice in Sting's Dowland recording, it sounds very unnatural.

 

[MagicBus]

Normally, I will listen to everything but always feel like returning to these:

-Berliner Philharmoniker·Herbert von Karajan - Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole, M.54

-Bizet/Shchedrin: "Carmen",Rozhdestvensky /Strings & Percussion of Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, 1968

-George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

 

[Prognosis2811]

While some may consider it overrated, these remain my top 3 selections when introducing someone to classical music:

1. Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," a timeless masterpiece that effortlessly weaves melancholy and serenity into its haunting melodies, offering a profound glimpse into Beethoven's emotional depth and genius.
2. "Ride of the Valkyries," an iconic Wagner composition that needs no introduction, known for its exhilarating, thunderous orchestration that has the power to captivate and excite audiences.
3. Bach's "Air on the G String," a delicate and ethereal piece that showcases Bach's ability to craft intricate beauty through simplicity, making it a perfect gateway into the world of Baroque music.

Classical music is always good, but being from Sweden, I presumed you were the "Hypocrisy" music genre kind of guy.

 

[wchang]

Re: Moonlight Sonata, one day I came to the realization/belief, that the middle movement was likely Beethoven's fingers rebelling against the first movement's repetitive rhythm/motif, to break it up so-to-speak. I had been writing a song and one part of it consisted of three variations (a micro-chaconne) and the middle variation's jaunty rhythm/melody came from the fingers not the head.

Re: Air on the G string, I have two favorite recordings. One by the Yale Cellos (Parisot's students) on Delos. The other by a Japanese violinist Satoko Koda on Denon, actually played on the G string! In fact I use both for evaluating equipment/DIY (bilibili link in post #84).

 

[Cask05]

It's a pity there is so much processing on the voice...it sounds very unnatural.

I've found that this is a critical part of whether or not a classical recording holds the listener's attention. There are a few record labels that do a much better mastering job of "leaving the music alone" (i.e., they employ much less processing of the tracks) than other labels.

In particular, there has been a trend in past orchestral and pipe organ recordings of the 1960s-1990s to employ a downward tilt of the resulting recorded spectrum starting at ~400-500 Hz of about 3-6 dB/octave. Audacity can easily reverse most of these issues, and produces recordings that immediately capture the listener's attention on more capable loudspeakers, sort of like this (i.e., with about +18 dB higher overall gain):

The degree of the tilt of the higher and lower frequency octaves is basically dependent on the phase response of your loudspeaker (assuming that you've already got flat amplitude response on-axis, overall). The flatter the phase response, the less tilt needed, I've found empirically. Bass perception can be affected by 3-5 dB or more depending on how non-flat your loudspeaker's 1-metre measured phase response is.

Fortunately, recently recorded classical albums from reputable labels have enjoyed a resurgence of fidelity--particularly multichannel recordings, where the mastering people no longer have a defensible reason to employ their typical compression, limiting, and heavy EQ used on typical popular music genres on the produced tracks--because the loudspeaker systems that are typically used for playback don't have the limitations that most mastering guys think exist for stereo loudspeaker setups (i.e., those that are using NS10M Studio and Auratone 5C as studio monitors, etc.).

---

One thing that I've found: once I corrected for phase response (i.e., my loudspeakers have extremely well-controlled broad band directivity response, and the room has very good nearfield absorption to attenuate early reflections), I had to go back and re-tune my Audacity-edited music tracks to less bass response below 100-200 Hz. I also found that I started to listen to 19th-20th century romantic era music much more (i.e., Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Berlioz, Brahms, Mahler, etc.)

What you listen to (amplitude and phase flatness response, directivity control, control of early reflections, low modulation distortion, etc.) I find has a big effect on what you like to hear -- especially in terms of classical titles, which typically have much less mastering EQ and other "impressed distortions".

Chris

 

[Cask05]

As far as which classical music compositions that I'd recommend for "light classical" or entry-level listening, I think the easy answer is to start with music that you've been exposed to while you were young. For my geographic area and generation, that generally came with movie soundtracks (orchestral, etc., particularly Fantasia and John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Barry etc. original soundtracks). classic before-movie cartoons that used classical music, and even some television series themes. Then you can expand outward from there by taste. Most of these composers stole freely from early 20th century masters. This is actually a fairly good-sized list of compositions, as already discussed in this thread. Mozart piano concertos and symphonies are delightful, Beethoven symphonies and concertos are almost unbelievable...and Bach always has a special place in my heart.

My music background included a very healthy dose of classical pipe organ music (notably J.S. Bach, etc.), so this music was the first that I started to listen to intently, as well as Switched-On Bach/The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, and Snowflakes are Dancing (Debussy). These are easy to listen to and enjoy like no other music.

Now, I see literally thousands of music titles that I'm chasing to become familiar with. There is just so much music out there that I'll never be able to cover even the currently performed repertoire for all periods of music from renaissance to the present.

Chris

 

[myleftear]

Has JS Bach‘s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, been mentioned? Great composer too, very different…