# Recommend some pieces for novice to Classical?



## PTM (Dec 30, 2010)

Hello there,

Up until now, I have had virtually no knowledge of classical music. The only pieces I knew were those made famous through advertising or films or elsewhere in popular culture. Such as Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, Blue Danube etc etc...

Well, apart from a bit of Ennio Morricone and some of the minimalist composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich - which I encountered through friends or via intersections with electronic music I like (such as Autechre).

Recently, I decided to take the plunge and went to two concerts, both of which I enjoyed immensely. The power and beauty of a full orchestra was amazing.

These were:
Shostakovich's 5th Symphony
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an exhibition

These were part of a series of concerts put on by my local orchestra the RSNO - called Naked Classics. Great idea, as they talk about the composer at the start and even play some of the sections with full explanations. Great for a novice like me.

I'm looking for some recommendations - on similar lines to the above - or other "classics" so to speak of the classical genre. 

Thanks,
PTM


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Hi there - we currently are in the process of creating our top-recommended symphonies in the orchestral subforum, and there already exists such a list in the opera subforum. You could start there and try and work your way down those lists.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

This is a good list for beginners. It lists the most well-known and recognizable classical works, and gives you a brief snippet of each. This way you can listen to a bunch of classical music that's still familiar to you, even though you're relatively new to it.
http://www.kickassclassical.com/classical-music-popular-famous-best-top-100-list.html

Alternatively, if you're feeling bolder, you could try sampling some of these lists.. scroll down to "Classical" at the bottom and it gives you several lists on what are considered to be the 'greatest' classical works ever written. If you're new to the genre, I find it's best to start with the best.
http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0.html


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Here is the list so far in its newest form in case you have difficulty finding it:

1. Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 'Choral'
2. Mahler - Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection'
3. Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 'Eroica'
4. Mozart - Symphony No. 41 'Jupiter'
5. Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5
6. Mozart - Symphony No. 40 'Great'
7. Beethoven - Symphony No. 5
8. Beethoven - Symphony No. 7
9. Schubert - Symphony No. 9 'Great'
10. Brahms - Symphony No. 4
11. Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'
12. Beethoven - Symphony No. 6 'Pastoral'
13. Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique'
14. Schubert - Symphony No. 8 'Unfinished'
15. Mahler - Symphony No. 5
16. Sibelius - Symphony No. 5
17. Mahler - Symphony No. 6 'Tragic'
18. Mahler - Symphony No. 9
19. Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 'The Apocalyptic'
20. Mahler - Symphony No. 4
21. Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique
22. Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5
23. Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10
24. Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 4 'Italian'
25. Bruckner - Symphony No. 9
26. Nielsen - Symphony No. 5
27. Brahms - Symphony No. 1
28. Mozart - Symphony No. 39
29. Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2
30. Mozart - Symphony No. 38 'Prague'
31.Sibelius Symphony No. 2
32. Haydn Symphony No. 104
33. Mahler Symphony No. 1 'Titan'
34. Beethoven Symphony No. 8
35. Brahms Symphony No. 3
36. Dvorak Symphony No. 8
37. Bruckner Symphony No. 7 'The Lyric'
38. Haydn Symphony No. 94 'Surprise'
39. Mozart Symphony No. 36 'Linz'
40. Haydn Symphony No. 103 'The Drumroll' 
41. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
42. Prokofiev Symphony No. 6
43. Saint Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ'
44. Messiaen Turangalila
45. Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2 'A London Symphony' 
45. Sibelius Symphony No. 4
46. Nielsen Symphony No. 4 'The Inextinguishable' 
48. Dvorak Symphony No. 7
49. Mozart Symphony No. 25
50. Schubert Symphony No. 5
51. Mahler Symphony No. 8
52. Prokofiev Symphony No. 1 'Classical'
53. Webern Symphony 
54. Schumann Symphony No. 3 'Rhenish'
55. Beethoven Symphony No. 4
56. Brahms Symphony No. 2
57. Franck Symphony in D minor
58. Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 'Scottish' 
59. Honneger Symphony No. 3 'Liturgique' 
60. Gliere Symphony No. 3 'Ilya Muromets'
61. Sibelius Symphony No. 7
62. Bruckner Symphony No. 4 'Romantic'
63. Prokofiev Symphony No. 3
64. Martinu Symphony No. 6
65. Hindemith Mathis der Maler
66. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
67. Haydn Symphony No. 100 'Military'
68. Liszt Faust Symphony
69. Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 'The Year 1905'
70. Gorecki Symphony No. 3 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'

As its a work in progress were currently determining the order of the next ten symphonies, but have already voted on the following for inclusion:

Myaskovsky 6
Stravinsky Symphony in C
Bizet in C
Mozart 35
Sibelius 6
Vaughan Williams 7
Bax 1
Bruckner 5
Janacek Sinfonietta
Elgar 1
Shostakovich 7


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## PTM (Dec 30, 2010)

Thanks to you both, I will certainly be using those lists to further my exploration of classical music.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

In addition to hearing all these great classical works,I recommend that you get some background infromation about the composers and classical music in general.
There are some excellent introductory books,such as Classical Music 101 by Fred Plotkin, 
The Essential Canon of Classical music by David Dubal, The Rough Guide To Classical Music,
and Aaron Copland's What To Listen For In music. 
You can easily find them at websites such as amazon.com.


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## Guest (Dec 30, 2010)

www.classicalcdguide.com

This website has a top 10 list, and then gives top 10 lists broken into subcategories (genre, period, composer), and gives recommendations for each. It is a very useful website for someone new to classical who doesn't know where to start - it helped me immensely.

After that, if you want to branch out, go to:
www.classical.net
This website also give recommendations, and it has a lot more composers in the database, as well as recommendations for the best works and recordings of those works. I think of it as a step up in complexity from the classicalcdguide.com.

Let these be starting points, not endpoints. While I still enjoy quite a few of the recommended works and recordings from these sites, my tastes have branched out immensely. But these helped guide me - if I knew something I liked, I could find on here similar things (from the same composer, or from another composer of the same period, etc.).


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## Ralfy (Jul 19, 2010)

You may consider a book that offers a list with commentaries, like Ted Libbey's guide and John Stanley's book, or videos and audio about classical music from the Teaching Company.

These works and others may be available in public libraries with used editions sold online.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*70 titles!*

Poor you!

I'd suggest about 4 or 5 for starting...Not too boring, not too serious...I don't want to say anything else, I don't know your tastes...

Martin


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I would buy a couple 'best classical' compilations for example EMI has a bunch of 6 cd sets out right now for low cost ie - best classical, best baroque, best film classics etc. a bunch of these (I find the recordings on them quite good too actually). Id pick a couple of those up, listen through and soon enough you'll figure out who 'your' composers are.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Here's some music that was instrumental (hehe) in getting me truly hooked on classical music:

*Prokofiev: 2nd Piano Concerto. *Eerily beautiful first movement with an toe-curling epic 5-minute cadenza. The fourth movement: just ridiculous. Prokofiev's 3rd concerto is also enthralling.









*Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring.* Most people don't "get" the Rite of Spring immediately, but after a few listens, it quickly becomes their favourite piece of music ever.





*Bach: Brandenburg Concertos*. All 6 of them are just pure ecstasy. 





*Mozart: Don Giovanni.* Brilliant, and puts to rest Mozart's fluffy night-music stereotype.





Happy listening!


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

I think you're wasting your time, guys. The OP made two posts in this thread on the day he joined the forum over a month ago and hasn't been back here since.


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## PTM (Dec 30, 2010)

Why are they wasting their time? I've taken the recommendations they've kindly given and this has already helped me massively in deciding where to go next.

Did you expect me to post every day since then? 

Give me a chance! 

PTM


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## Barking Spiderz (Feb 1, 2011)

PTM - as a relative newbie to CM myself, good 'entry level' stuff for me has been
Beethoven's Overtures - David Zinman, conductor/Tonhalle orchestra, budget priced Arte Nova
Dvorak's Serenades and Brahms' Hungarian Dances - the Naxos recordings are very good for both
Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije - go for the version by Claudio Abbado on Deutsche Grammaphon (DG)
Barber's Adagio for Strings - go for the one by David Zinman and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Rossini's overtures - I recommend the set by Riccardo Chailly and the National Phil Orchestra on Decca

The individual tunes contained in these recordings are all pretty short, nothing much longer than 10 minutes and all are very melodic. When I say 'entry level' I think the major problem for people who arent into CM is the length of symphonies, concertos etc, so if you're used to rock and pop songs these shorter works do the trick. After a while I found I was then able to move on to symphonies clocking in at under the half hour mark. Have'nt yet got as far as 1 hour plus works e.g. by Shostakovich and Bruckner.


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