# The "Listening Project" thread



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I know several times I've heard discussion of listening projects on the forum; either an individual poster's own project, or a group effort. For some reason, I rather enjoy hearing about other people's listening. It would be fun to keep this an ongoing thread if desired, though I know often these things are discussed in current listening anyway.

Anyway, I have two projects personally for my listening  I mentioned them both briefly before: 

1) Listen through my complete music collection. I started this about the first of March, and I am very curious to see how long it will take me. My guess: the better part of three years. (though I've made more headway already than I expected). I am sure that I have great songs or pieces that have been forgotten about and this will help unearth them. I also plan to use this to curttail my spending. I have a birthday purchase planned in April, but my goal is to purchase no more music after April until my full-collection project is complete. I intend to do 2-3 listens or more if the mood strikes me, with my less-familiar material. I'd say that comprises about 10% of my library. My library is about 10,500 songs/tracks

2) Chronological Brahms project: I made it through Opus 6 last month, but it's grown too difficult searching online to stream the less popular opuses. I am shelving this project until project #1 is complete. Once that's done, I plan to just do a year subscription to one of the various music streaming sites and I should hopefully find the bulk of his work that way. 

Share yours!


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

My most active current project is going through my fairly recently acquired set of Bernstein Mahler symphonies.

Technically I have yet to complete my Haydn symphony cycle project too, which got confused with the Haydn symphony threads so that I listened to most of them twice but haven't listened to the London symphonies again to actually finish off my cycle! I knew them well enough to be able to talk about them in the threads...

Also at the moment I am generally working on getting to know Brahms better, as well as listen to my new Kraus symphonies, but not in an ordered way.

In the future I may listen to all the Haydn string quartets if the idea for that series of threads lifts off the ground too. After my exams I am planning to do a major Beethoven project, going through all the sonatas, string quartets and various versions of the symphonies I have. I have left him alone far too long and while I know some of the symphonies better than the back of my hand I want to listen to them again with the benefit of some more experience, and I am actually quite ignorant of the sonatas, nor that familiar with the quartets. I may also introduce myself to Bruckner over the summer too.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

A few years back I listened to all Shostakovich works in chronological order, I think I found recordings of a 142 of the 147 opus numbers and a fair amount of the works without opus numbers as well, a daunting task looking back at it! I'm not sure I'd like to venture through some thing like it again, even if I in some moments of weakness have considered doing such a traversal with another composer, maybe Olivier Messiaen or one of the Sergei's... 

For the moment I'm very happy to randomise my listening by pulling discs from the shelf to surprise myself...

/ptr


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

Whilst you are all listening-through whatever you're listening-through, perhaps you might find this database of programmes at the BBC Radio 3 website...with free access... of some usefulness in appreciating those various works to an even greater degree.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/discoveringmusic/videolibrary/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnxf/features/composer-a-z


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

ptr said:


> A few years back I listened to all Shostakovich works in chronological order, I think I found recordings of a 142 of the 147 opus numbers and a fair amount of the works without opus numbers as well, a daunting task looking back at it! I'm not sure I'd like to venture through some thing like it again, even if I in some moments of weakness have considered doing such a traversal with another composer, maybe Olivier Messiaen or one of the Sergei's...


I have a similar thing planned, but combining it with several more Soviet composers and Soviet literature. _The Gulag Archipelago_, _The God That Failed_, _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_, _Darkness At Noon_, _Life and Fate_ and _Generations of Winter_ in the literature department, while Shostakovich, Kachaturian, Prokofiev and some more minor composers are planned for music. I'll probably have to do this during summer, where there is a long interval of about three weeks were my parents are gone and my sister won't be home much.

In that same time-span, I plan to listen to the whole of Wagner's ring cycle at once. Additionally, I want to do a similar thing with the enlightenment. The latter will have to wait a long time, unfortunately. There are also budgetary concerns, which are rather daunting for now.. I'll have to start saving right away if I actually want to get this thing going. I might have to scrap _The Gulag Archipelago_ because of prince considerations alone.. For Shostakovich I was simply thinking my general favorite symphony and concerto performances, with the gaps filled by Brilliant Classics Shostakovich edition, Kachaturian works are available quite cheaply, and Prokofiev especially won't be a problem. Still, the books will be approximately 12 bucks a piece, and the CD's 10.. Add expensive symphony and concerto editions + the whole Shostakovich edition, and I'll need a good 250 bucks to get anywhere close to what I want.. I need a job =/


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Sonata said:


> 1) Listen through my complete music collection. I started this about the first of March, and I am very curious to see how long it will take me. My guess: the better part of three years. (though I've made more headway already than I expected). I am sure that I have great songs or pieces that have been forgotten about and this will help unearth them. I also plan to use this to curttail my spending. I have a birthday purchase planned in April, but my goal is to purchase no more music after April until my full-collection project is complete. I intend to do 2-3 listens or more if the mood strikes me, with my less-familiar material. I'd say that comprises about 10% of my library. My library is about 10,500 songs/tracks
> 
> 2) Chronological Brahms project: I made it through Opus 6 last month, but it's grown too difficult searching online to stream the less popular opuses. I am shelving this project until project #1 is complete. Once that's done, I plan to just do a year subscription to one of the various music streaming sites and I should hopefully find the bulk of his work that way.
> 
> Share yours!


1) This is my normal listening method. I go through my randomly stacked CDs one after the other, pile after pile, ad infinitum. Also, my ipod is set to random by album. My collection is 34 days long. I probably get through it a couple of times a year.

2) Chronological Haydn project, by type of work, from the Brilliant Set. This will take a year or so.

3) I play new CDs almost daily for a couple of weeks, then they join 1) above.

It is nice to hear that other people have listening systems. I thought I was weird.


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

I've been going through my entire CD collection (some 2000 discs) for about the past 5 months since acquiring an all new stereo system after having been without any decent playback equipment for the previous 7 years. I'd say I'm a bit shy of 1/2 of the way through and I'm rather slowed down in the process by constantly having new CD's coming in to listen to also.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

My iTunes recently collapsed again (evidently I just don't know how to use that danged program), so my projects were all lost.

My new project is basically to listen to the music that I've purchased recently, but lately I've also felt an impulse to go back and get more familiar with the core of the canon and its most famous recordings. So I've been listening to a lot of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms by Gould, Karajan, and Klemperer lately. I've been doing it in jazz too--lots of Ellington, Parker, Davis, Coltrane. 

For me at any rate it's easy to get caught up trying to hear every little obscure piece that comes up in conversation, so it's good to get back to the likes of the Eroica symphony and the Trout quintet. It feels, to me, a little like coming back home after an interesting but long vacation.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I have always wanted to spend a day listening to all nine Beethoven symphonies in order, then perhaps an entire weekend on the piano sonatas and another on the quartets. However I fear any such project would be exhausting and more of a stunt than a valid listening experience. But I may try it some day anyway.

I would also very much like to set aside time to sit down with a couple of Mahler symphonies, annotations at hand, and try for once to get something out of them, some vague glimmer of an idea of what he provides for his advocates. I think time and focus must be the key.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Listen to my Cd's in alphabetical order. Don't skip anything. I know that's a tough one. Might start it soon though.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> Listen to my Cd's in alphabetical order. Don't skip anything. I know that's a tough one. Might start it soon though.


I could never do it.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

My project: listening to all of Sibelius's symphonies. So far...I'm stuck on no. 2...


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Listening to : 

1.Complete Niels Gade Symphony Cycle
2.Complete Alexander Galzunov Symphony Cycle
3.Complete Ralph Vaughaun-Williams Symphony Cycle


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> My project: listening to all of Sibelius's symphonies. So far...I'm stuck on no. 2...


Hurry up before your next obsession arrives at the platform.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Some of my current listening projects:

First of all, trying to find "the best" recording for some old favourites. These include: Brahms Violin Concerto, Schumann Violin Concerto, Brahms Piano Quintet, Schubert Piano Trios, Schubert Trout Quintet, Schumann Piano Quintet, Franck Piano Quintet... a lot of chamber music with piano, it seems.

Then, listening to pieces that I would like to "get into": Mendelssohn's Elias oratorio, Verdi's Requiem, Dvorak's Stabat Mater... romantic choral pieces, it seems. And when this stage is completed, then I'm off to comparing versions.

Classical music is such a fun hobby!


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Xaltotun said:


> Some of my current listening projects:
> 
> First of all, trying to find "the best" recording for some old favourites. These include: ... Brahms Piano Quintet...


I'd like to be kept abreast of your findings. This is one of my old favorites too.

I've heard four versions: Rubinstein/Guarneri; Jandó/Kodály; Fleischer/Emerson; and Eschenbach/Amadeus.

But I stopped hearing new ones because I discovered that Rubinstein/Guarneri was the one I wanted to hear over and over. At this point if I started listening to, say, Fleischer/Emerson, it'd be because I want to listen to Fleischer/Emerson. If I just want to listen to Brahms' piano quintet, I'll listen to Rubinstein/Guarneri. Still, I did try the Jandó/Kodály relatively recently because I was promised that it would be special, but I haven't been fair to it yet.

Anyway, keep in touch!


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

I'm so glad other people do this sort of thing. I get ideas for listening projects, but never seem to pull them off. I have done several symphony cycles in a short period of time (like Beethoven's 9 in a day, RVW's 9 on the 50th anniversary of his death, and the 7 Bax symphonies over a weekend (when I was ill)).

Having recently completed my Malcolm Arnold symphony cycle, I am trying to get around to listening to those 9 works in order.

Another project I have in mind involves taking the Circle of Fifths, and picking a piece in each key to listen to. I've listed a few pieces, but I don't yet have a piece in E flat minor. I know about Prokofiev's 6th Symphony, but I don't yet have that piece in my collection.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> My project: listening to all of Sibelius's symphonies. So far...I'm stuck on no. 2...


Doing the same for my blog. Went through them all, need another round to write up my thoughts.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Ok, I'll check in. My project has been to get more familiar with the core of the canon and its most famous recordings.

In March, I listened almost exclusively to: 

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, etc. - Marriner
Sibelius, Prokofiev, Glazunov: Violin Concertos - Heifetz
Bach: Goldberg Variations - Gould 1981
Bach: Orchestral Suites - Pinnock
Chopin: Nocturnes - Rubinstein 1960s
Bach: Mass in B minor - Gardiner
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier - Gould
Debussy, Enescu, Franck: Violin Sonatas - Stern
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos - Pinnock 
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment 
Rachmaninoff: Symphony #2, etc. - Previn 
Beethoven: Symphonies #5 & 7 - Kleiber 
Berlioz: Harold in Italy, etc. - Munch 
Hildegard: A Feather on the Breath of God - Gothic Voices
Mompou: Silent Music - Lin
Liszt: Piano Sonata, etc. - Zimerman 
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, etc. - Marriner 
Reich: Drumming 
Cerha: Schlagzeugkonzert, Impulse - Eotvos
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos - Van Cliburn

I know that some of that doesn't count as "the center of the canon," but it's stuff I've picked up recently. I'm fairly happy with the results, especially with regard to the Heifetz disk, the Brandenburg Concertos, and the Vivaldi disk.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Science, your Rubinstein/Guarneri recording is so good it's impeding my search! I seem to have stopped to it for a while.

With Brahms VC, I'm searching for a version where the soloist plays like in pain or labor. I heard a famous version by Heifez and it was so beautiful and virtuosic, I realized that's not what I'm after. I want to have a taste of blood in my mouth when I hear it...

Also, I got into Dvorak's Stabat Mater! From comparing a couple of versions, Sinopoli's seems fine thus far.


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## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

I have a couple of on again/off again projects at the moment - the first is to listen to composers in groups by country of origin. Currently I am listening to all the Russian, British and French composers in my collection. The second is to survey all the String Quartets I have on my iPod - I have about a 100 on there at the moment which I am going through. I have a long term goal of furnishing an iPod Classic with perfect music - ie: music which I unreservedly love and which I can listen to without getting fatigued. I am getting to close to achieving this one I think


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