# most common question



## CLS (Nov 10, 2010)

Ok, here's one I'm sure you've never heard before (sarcasm): I'm looking for some recommendations. Let me preface this by asking that you please do not try to push "what you think is under-appreciated/ more people should listen to. Based on what you can gather from my personal musical taste, what would you guess that I would like? If you see some underlying pattern to what I do/ do not like, what then would you guess that I would also like? As stated in my introductory post, I absolutely love Beethoven. I am also a big fan of Tchaikovsky (especially Marche Slave), Haydn's cello concerto No 1, most anything by Vivaldi (I am a big fan of virtuosic displays and cadenzas), the handful of things I've heard from Mozart are good but I'm not a HUGE Mozart fan (perhaps I've just listened to the wrong pieces by him?), anything by Bach, especially pieces from The Art of Fugue. I also strongly dislike most "modern" orchestral works (i.e. Aaron Copland), but I do like John Williams. I find Danny Elfman to be hit or miss... usually miss. Thank you all so much for your help! (Oh, and if you could I would appreciate links to youtube videos of the pieces you recommend)


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## CLS (Nov 10, 2010)

I also like Ravel's Bolero and Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

mahler sym 1...and please give copland sym 3 a chance


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

CLS said:


> As stated in my introductory post, I absolutely love Beethoven.


Wagner's _Faust Overture_. Also, if you haven't heard Schubert Symphony 8, do so soon. Whether you like it or not, exposure to it is absolutely essential for your development as a serious music-listener.


CLS said:


> I am also a big fan of Tchaikovsky (especially Marche Slave)


Sounds like the next step from here is sampling of the big orchestral showpieces from the Russian Five- Mussorgsky (Ravel orchestration) _Pictures at an Exhibition_ and _Night on Bald Mountain_, Rimsky-Korsakov's _Scheherazade_ and Borodin's _Polovetsian Dances_.


CLS said:


> (I am a big fan of virtuosic displays and cadenzas)


Paganini _24 Caprices_(?) (though maybe Tartini's "Devil's Trill" Sonata might be more temporally resonant with you...)


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Since you like Russian sound and virtuosic display, it sounds like Rachmaninov would be perfect for you. Have you listened to his piano concerti (especially Nos. 2-3) and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini? Definitely give them a listen.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

If you want to "get" Mozart - as a Beethoven fan - then piano concertos #20 & 24 are helpful. Beethoven himself loved them.

Also, Mozart's 8th and 14th piano sonatas.

All of these great works are in a minor-key and are considered to be quite explicitly expressive. 

Mozart's music usually has a surface sheen which makes it seem merely intellectual, and not particularly emotive, but the more you listen to it, you find great tragedy and drama virtually everywhere, excluding dances and some serenades, etc, which he composed for grand occasions. He's very subtle, which is why Romantic music sounds so different to his, but actually he moves me so much more than any Romantic composers, or even Beethoven himself, simply because in Mozart there is everything, and usually in the space of only a few bars...


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

If you like Beethoven you may want to try some of the late symphonies by Haydn. I like the Symphony No. 100 "Military." It sounds like Beethoven in a playful mood.

Also Schubert, Mendelssohn (especially Hebrides Overture), and Brahms orchestral works. You may also like Robert Schumann's piano concerto, especially the last movement which never fails to blow me away.


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## Guest (Nov 17, 2010)

I have a general observation. The things you like are all fine, but if your tastes never change, or at least if your tastes never expand, then I pity you. You don't really think that you'll never end up liking things you don't like now, do you? And you can't think that you'll never like things that you've never heard of yet, and which are not going to remind you of any of the things you like now, can you?

Here's my advice, based on the questions above: keep listening to music.


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## Romantic Geek (Dec 25, 2009)

CLS said:


> I also like Ravel's Bolero and Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King.


Just make it the whole Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 by Grieg! 

Actually, make it anything by Grieg. (Cello Sonata, Piano Concerto are good places to start!)

I also second Rachmaninov. A people pleaser for sure. There's a fantastic video of Horowitz playing the 3rd piano concerto on Youtube, uncut!

I would be afraid that the piece is too long, but maybe try Schubert's 9th Symphony. Listen to it in movement chunks...each movement is fantastic in its own right and it very much falls in line with "Beethovian" influences.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Kieran said:


> If you want to "get" Mozart - as a Beethoven fan - then piano concertos #20 & 24 are helpful. Beethoven himself loved them.
> 
> Also, Mozart's 8th and 14th piano sonatas.
> 
> All of these great works are in a minor-key and are considered to be quite explicitly expressive.


Good advice. Last year one of my New Year's resolutions was to finally "get" Mozart. I appreciated the usual pieces, of course. But finally I discovered the piano concertos. That did it. Then the big three operas. Now I'm really getting into Mozart.


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