# Dark bombastic classical music, recommendations



## Vindead (Jul 30, 2015)

Hi everyone, i'm new to this forum. :tiphat:
My favorite genre is metal actually, but every now and then i like to listen to something different.

There are two 'types' of classical music which i really can appreciate. 
The first type i really enjoy is what i would call 'the virtuoso stuff', things like the caprices from Paganini or etudes from Chopin ect. But this 'virtuoso stuff' is easy to find. On YouTube it's easy to find some musicians who basically perform every single etude every written by mankind. 

The second type of classical music that i like is what i would call 'dark bombastic classical music'. And i'm finding it really difficult to find the pieces that i like.
I found this quote by Woody Allen: "I just can't listen to any more Wagner, you know...I'm starting to get the urge to conquer Poland."
I exactly know what he means, but i actually like that feeling 
But so far a haven't found much of this music that could give me this 'urge to invade Poland feeling'
Here below are some examples of what i like:

Prokofiev - Dance of the Knights:





Richard Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries:





John Williams (star wars) - Imperial March (is this considered classical music? ):





Huma Huma - From Russia with love





I bet you all know these pieces except for that last one which is some free music (no copyright on it) to put under your YouTube videos. I don't care, i like it :lol:

So, based on what i just linked, could anyone recommend me some other 'dark bombastic pieces'?
Thanks in advance!

PS, sorry if my English isn't perfect.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Rued Langgaard - 1st symphony 
Gustav Mahler - 6th symphony, first movement of 2nd symphony
Bruckner - 3rd, 8th and 9th symphonies
Anton Webern - Passacaglia


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2015)

Orff
Carmina Burana.

You could invade a whole continent with that.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Welcome to the forum. The obvious answer for 'bombastic' is Wagner's contemporaries works: Bruckner's Symphonies (specially the 8th has a dark tinge) and Liszt's tone poems (the popular 'Led Preludes', Dante Symphony, Faust Symphony, and others). Perhaps some orchestral Schoenberg, though complex it is often dark with loud accents, also qualifies. Also, Mahler's 7th Symphony is somewhat dark (or is it madness?) looking back to Wagner.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

As for Schoenberg, Pelleas und Melisande and Violin Concerto are worth trying. For the Violin Concerto a good performance (Hilary Hahn for instance) is very important.


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## Proms Fanatic (Nov 23, 2014)

Verdi's Requiem, Dies Irae.

Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 - Leningrad. This was used as Russian propaganda against the Nazis in 1941.


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## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

"Mars, The Bringer of War" from The Planets suite by Holst. 

Some parts from Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" are also very dark and bombastic!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Some of the usual suspects have been already mentioned but I can add the third mantra of John Foulds that fits the description quite well.


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## Benny (Feb 4, 2013)

Khachaturian. Start with the piano concerto, with either Berezovsky or Kapell.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Beethoven's Coriolan Overture.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Pachalbel Canon
Vivaldi 4 Seasons
Wedding March from Mendelssohn Midsummer Night Dream


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Dvorak Requiem
Britten War Requiem


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## Musicophile (May 29, 2015)

Seriously, nobody mentioned Strauss "Also sprach Zarathustra" yet? doesn't get much more bombastic than the beginning of this.


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## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

Musicophile said:


> Seriously, nobody mentioned Strauss "Also sprach Zarathustra" yet? doesn't get much more bombastic than the beginning of this.


It would mean including his entire output.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Howard Hanson - Lament for Beowulf. I think it's on YouTube. I can't link to it from work at the moment.

[Edit. Well I could still add a link when I got home.]


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Prokofiev's _Ivan the Terrible_
Busoni's Piano Concerto


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## Tedski (Jul 8, 2015)

I, also, immediately thought of "Mars: the Bringer of War," from "The Planets," by Gustav Holst.

I don't belive anyone has yet mentioned Mussorgsky: A Night On Bald Mountain


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## Tedski (Jul 8, 2015)

LvB's 5th, final movement:


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## Tedski (Jul 8, 2015)

and my favorite piece of bombast:

Liszt: Totentanz


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## Tedski (Jul 8, 2015)

Check out Shostakovich's 5th Symphony Finale:


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## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

Musicophile said:


> Seriously, nobody mentioned Strauss "Also sprach Zarathustra" yet? doesn't get much more bombastic than the beginning of this.


Good point, Strauss can be very dark and bombastic sometimes (well...he's almost always _bombastic_) Vindead, take a look at 38:22 through 39:16 and 58:18 through 59:12  from his opera "Salome".

Oh, and here's another one:


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky. Battle on Ice.




Bartók - Piano concerto no. 2. 3rd movement.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Berlioz Symphonie funebre et triomphale, especially the Apotheosis.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Oh, you need to hear Respighi's _Church Windows,_ sir. Seriously.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Steatopygous said:


> Berlioz Symphonie funebre et triomphale, especially the Apotheosis.


Good choice. I'd also nominate Schnittke's Concerto for Piano & String Orchestra, especially when all those clusters wage war against the sweeping strings.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Wow ... nobody has mentioned Beethoven's _Wellington's Victory_ ... now THAT is bombast.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Becca said:


> Wow ... nobody has mentioned Beethoven's _Wellington's Victory_ ... now THAT is bombast.


Ahh, but is it dark? I think it's hard to find works that are actually both. But I consider bombastic to be, by definition, negative, so who'd want it?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

GreenMamba said:


> Ahh, but is it dark? I think it's hard to find works that are actually both. But I consider bombastic to be, by definition, negative, so who'd want it?


Is there such a thing as a light/bright bombast? Just wondering!


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Becca said:


> Is there such a thing as a light/bright bombast? Just wondering!


Probably not. Bombast is empty, so I'm not sure if it creates any mood.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> Good choice. I'd also nominate Schnittke's Concerto for Piano & String Orchestra, especially when all those clusters wage war against the sweeping strings.


I do not know this work at all. Something I will look to rectify.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

Some of the militaristic songs from Mahler's "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" - sheer hysteria. I couldn't find a version with Bernstein going completely over the top on keys, but here's a (more muted) orchestral version:


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Bernard Herrmann, Concerto Macabre... Checks both boxes for dark and bombastic.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Sincere everyone here was going for Romantic and 20th century (which is fine!) I'll have a little different.

Mozart Symphony No. 25, first movement:





Mozart "Dies Irae" from the Requiem:


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## Benny (Feb 4, 2013)

Triplets, I liked the joke.


(How the hell you copy a previous message into yours?)


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

Becca said:


> Wow ... nobody has mentioned Beethoven's _Wellington's Victory_ ... now THAT is bombast.


"Yeah but, my Dreck is better than anything you've ever thought" LvB to a critic of this err work.

Beethoven really had it in for Napoleon. Have you heard his tribute to the British Light Dragoons when they thrashed the French on The Plain of Badajos in 1814?. Bombast but not a bit dark and a lot of fun:


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

I found this photo on Facebook. Schoenberg was a bad guy.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Oops! Wrong thread!!


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