# When it comes to Classical, what are you a "sucker" for?



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I'm a sucker for scherzos, waltzes, and first inversion chords. 

Allow me to explain.

First of all, I'm attracted to high energy things, and also things that make me smile or laugh. Scherzos follow that criteria 80% of the time. 

Second, I'm _such_ a romantic. Give me chandeliers, ballrooms, champagne, and a charming waltz, and I'm good to go for the night!

Last, I'll just put with an example:
http://umd.naxosmusiclibrary.com/stream.asp?s=54384%2Fumdnmlpaid07%2Frh7333%5F003
If that link doesn't work, it's from Halvorsen's Norwegian Fairytales: The Princess Riding on the Bear. MMMMMMM that bassline <3 :lol: I strongly suggest looking it up for anyone interested in a gorgeous composer like Grieg.

What are you a sucker for?


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

ALL things can tempt me from this craft of verse: 
One time it was a woman’s face, or worse— 
The seeming needs of my fool-driven land; 
Now nothing but comes readier to the hand 
Than this accustomed toil. When I was young, 
I had not given a penny for a song 
Did not the poet sing it with such airs 
That one believed he had a sword upstairs; 
Yet would be now, could I but have my wish, 
Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish.

Waltraud Meier.

I did not like Tristan und Isolde prior to hearing her sing it. True story.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

I'm a sucker for composers who wear their heart on their sleeve. Big, cuddly Romantic symphonies with colorful orchestration and catchy themes.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I'm a sucker for something unifying a work. Be it developing a theme or themes through the whole work, or some sort of journey/narrative, or maybe just a texture or fragmentary thing that pops up throughout (as in modern/contemporary eras). 

I also like layers (as with counterpoint, but again it does not have to be traditional). I also tend to connect deeply with composers who speak to their times, reflect it and their lives in their music to some degree. There's also aspects of intimacy & directness of expression ('less is more') in chamber music and also just enjoyable tunes, eg. in light musics, film scores, musicals.

So its a lot of things but I can't boil it down to any less than that.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I have to be honest to talkclassical, I worked up this paragraph, but I find myself doubting whether its true or just a bunch of clever sounding words, as I cannot agree on what musical examples to account for this, but here it is since I've been messing around with it for too long:

"I'm a sucker for composers of older periods who had a serious pair of balls.(hopefully the wording won't be used against me in some unsavory way). Those raw and rough edged mavericks who "made it work" even if it was quirky. More specifically, irregular phrases, jarring modulations, and seemingly less painstaking attention to the smooth factor, but either must be executed with great wit, or with a heart of gold. 

In most music I really admire, I've found these factors to a degree if they didn't readily present themselves from the offset. Currently, I'm perhaps most ecstatic these things in Byrd, Bull, Scarlatti, C.Ph.E. Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Schumann, Wagner, Mahler, R. Strauss, Prokofiev, and Britten."

That aside, I just don't know. I love a lot of music that is not so prominent with the aforementioned "quality." Some of my favorite stuff isn't by any of the composers listed.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

But I'm way over thinking it. I really like loud and rhythmic music due my passion for it having been awakened in my teen years with classic rock. Prokofiev piano sonatas, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, or just some old fashioned HIP performances of baroque music really hit the spot sometimes.

All the same, romantic era passion is definitely there as well. Hard to decide.


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## Clump (Sep 5, 2012)

Chromaticism, sudden surprising modulations, appoggiaturas, fugues in symphonies, big loud noisy brass, drawn out dissonance that takes ages to resolve, themes that gradually evolve and grow into new ideas before your eyes


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Clump said:


> Chromaticism, sudden surprising modulations, appoggiaturas, fugues in symphonies, big loud noisy brass, drawn out dissonance that takes ages to resolve, themes that gradually evolve and grow into new ideas before your eyes


More or less, the interesting stuff.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

As much as I despise sentimentality, I have a certain weakness for grandiosity and pathos. The Great Gate of Kiev, Finlandia, Parsifal, the Ninth, Bruckner codas, Alpensinfonie, etc.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

i really like complex and weird harmonies if those harmonies make sense to my ears. That's probably why at the moment my favorite period is the first half of the twentieth century, talking of classical music.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

Cheap complete sets on iTunes or Amazon MP3.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Sequences.

Especially the Pachabel's canon sequence (although not Pachabel's canon the piece). Every time it comes it makes me happy. There are few pleasures in life like a good sequence. Really I don't know how to express my great love for them.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

EricABQ said:


> Cheap complete sets on iTunes or Amazon MP3.


That too :lol:


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Adagio, Scherzo, Energico, Spirituoso ...
Walzes, Marches, Symphonies, Concertos and Chamber works.
Most of the Romatics between Beethoven and Dvorak. few other...


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Pieces where i hear that the composer really gave all he/she had, i hate it when i listen to music and i get the feeling that the composer is holding something back/afraid to say how he/she really feels.
So Romantic era music it is.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I'm a sucker for scherzos, waltzes, and first inversion chords.
> 
> Allow me to explain.
> 
> ...


I was born a sucker (as was everyone). Among the many remaining instances, I am a sucker for The Warhorse Re-shod. Richter's Pictures at an Exhibition, Gardiner's Beethoven 9th... music that once had the power to mesmerize me and suddenly is given the power again.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

Early baroque music, Beethoven, 9-8 chain suspensions, choral music, harpsichord works, etc.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for complete-works sets. I have a lot of Naxos white-box sets of composers I don't necessarily like, but I just have to have another white box next to my other white boxes. And it bothers me that I have the Malcom Arnold symphonies on individuals CDs; I want them packaged in a little white box. 

I'll also dive into anything spiritual, especially Christian, which encourages me to take the focus off myself and onto something beyond me, be it Ockeghem or Feldman.


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## pendereckiobsessed (Sep 21, 2012)

Those pieces which are so dissonant and cold as to expose your dark inner secrets outside for the cold cruel evil world to see.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Solo piano music, piano concertos and symphonies that are either Romantic, Dark and Brooding, Overly "Catchy" and/or "Massive" sounding works.

Also a sucker for complete works and complete cycles. I'll also buy or listen to most anything recorded by Bernstein, Glenn Gould or Karajan just because their name is attached to it.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Manxfeeder said:


> I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for complete-works sets. I have a lot of Naxos white-box sets of composers I don't necessarily like, but I just have to have another white box next to my other white boxes. And it bothers me that I have the Malcom Arnold symphonies on individuals CDs; I want them packaged in a little white box.
> 
> I'll also dive into anything spiritual, especially Christian, which encourages me to take the focus off myself and onto something beyond me, be it Ockeghem or Feldman.


I feel the same about box sets lol It's weird. I just love when collections are packaged into a nice box.


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

Little aphoristic pieces; pieces that are very short but say so much. Some of Beethoven's 2 minute or less String Quartet movements, which come and go before you have any other time to understand them. Brahm's intermezzos. Schubert's and Schumann's Songs. Some of the Bach Preludes. Practically all of Webern. All of these pieces of music seem so aphoristic to me.


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## oogabooha (Nov 22, 2011)

waltzes .


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## Guest (Nov 9, 2012)

Pleasant fin-de-siecle chamber music, typically from relatively obscure late romantic composers.

Alfano, Cras, Breville, Canteloube, Dubois, Lekeu, Magnard, Roslavets, Gaubert, Freitas Branco, Pizzetti, Sauret, Bloch, Hubay, Pejacevic, Bonis, Catoire, Durosoir, Widor, etc, etc.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I'm a sucker for almost everything Classical. Especially Baroque, Impressionism, and Late 20th Century dissonance.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I love pieces that are dense, with a lot to pay attention to, or, with a catchy hook or melody in it that I can listen to more than once, I also love solo instrument work, like the Bach violin sonatas, needless to say there is lots that piques my interest. I'm surprised i spelled piques right on the first go. Mostly, if it is fun to listen to, then I like it.


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## korenbloem (Nov 5, 2012)

almost every genre in classical music. Choir, symphonies, concerto´s sonatas, etc also: early music, romanticisme, Barok, contemporary etc. There are some great works from al kind of different angels in classical music. also allot of boring dough.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

I love a good Chaconne.

(A musical composition consisting of variations on a fixed bass line continually repeated ground bass)


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

I love long, dramatic crescendos, similar to the ones in the first movement of the Symphonie Fantastique and in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. 

I love composers who can wring out every last drop of juice out of a melody, like Bach, Haydn and Brahms. And if you can't do that, you'd better have an infinite melody fountain available, like Schubert and Tchaikovsky.

I love the sound of the lower strings, the bassoon, the English Horn, the trombones and the chalumeau range of the clarinet. 

I love music that can make me laugh. Haydn was the best, but Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, R. Strauss, and many of the composers of French music used humour from time to time. From Haydn's "bassoon fart" in a lovely slow movement to the hammered submediant in the last movement in Beethoven's 8th to Baron Ochs' drunken lurching music in Der Rosenkavalier... play a loud inappropriate note and you've got my attention. Do something interesting to try to explain it, and you've got me forever.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

-As previously mentioned by above posters, I am also a sucker for nice big collections; whether that's in boxed set form or MP3 collection.

-I am a sucker for a brand-new to me Mahler work. He's my second favorite (after Brahms) but for some reason, more than other well-loved composers, I love the EXPLORATION of new material. I am going ever so slowly through my complete Mahler works because I get so much pleasure out of the first listen of each disc

-Piano music. Solo piano, and piano concertos especially.

-Melancholic, melodic works. I don't consider myself particularly emo, nor do I particularly like feeling down. But there is something that reaches me very deeply when I am listening to a beautiful, heartrending work (I don't feel it is more "valuable" or important than happy works though)


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Sonata said:


> -As previously mentioned by above posters, I am also a sucker for nice big collections; whether that's in boxed set form or MP3 collection.
> 
> -I am a sucker for a brand-new to me Mahler work. He's my second favorite (after Brahms) but for some reason, more than other well-loved composers, I love the EXPLORATION of new material. I am going ever so slowly through my complete Mahler works because I get so much pleasure out of the first listen of each disc
> 
> ...


Sibelius is the man for you!
You should listen to this piece!


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I'll give it a listen thanks! I am new-ish to Sibelius, but I do enjoy his work so far. I've heard symphonies #1,2, and 5, valse triste, and Pohola's Daughter. Loved my first listen of symphony #2 last night!


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)

Valse Triste is one of the pieces that got me properly interested in classical music in the first place, along with Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto. I love it.

And what am I a sucker for? Piano concertos & impressionism.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

As a brass player, I'm a sucker for a rollicking brass part. I'm looking at you, Mr Bruckner.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I'm a huge sucker for a good slow movement. Adagio, Andante, Lento, Largo, Langsam...I'll take em all!!


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Baroque, Impressionism, and Neoclassicism.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

tdc said:


> Baroque, Impressionism, and Neoclassicism.


Exactly. Schnittke is the last neo-classical Composer I'm afraid.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

(Choral-)Orchestral music which includes the organ.

Percussion. Lots of percussion.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I just remembered that in baroque music, I am a complete sucker for Gigues. In symphonies since Haydn and CPE Bach, I am a complete sucker for conclusive and aggressive sounding finales. Exuberance and aggression in music are things I readily respond to. I like the term, unrelenting. Complexity is next down the rung.


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

I'm a sucker for the relationship between dominant and tonic. I'm addicted to Mozart and Beethoven's codettas and codas.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Sonata said:


> I'll give it a listen thanks! I am new-ish to Sibelius, but I do enjoy his work so far. I've heard symphonies #1,2, and 5, valse triste, and Pohola's Daughter. Loved my first listen of symphony #2 last night!


Check out Kullervo, The Swan Of Tuonela and Tapiola.

Very melancholic pieces


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

And I'm a sucker for solo piano


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Full organ and lots of percussion in orchestral pieces. 

Best regards, Dr


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

I love modal harmonies.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Tone poems. And fugues.

Also wind quintet and brass quintet.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Relaxing music. Like Satie.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I like music where the ideas come pretty thick and fast, usually but not always tonal. Love development of short motives (guess you can figure where I'm at). Oh, and loud at least at the end. If it doesn't send me home happy, a refund is due!


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

I'm a sucker for a composer who is:

1. died at the age of 31

2. created masterpieces on the symphony, chamber music and solo piano

3. The greatest songwriter who ever lived.

4. Little mushroom


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I'm a sucker for Amazon Reviews. Whenever I read a review on Amazon that eloquently describes a piece that I don't know I get really pumped to listen to it.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

presto said:


> I love a good Chaconne.
> 
> (A musical composition consisting of variations on a fixed bass line continually repeated ground bass)


I'm glad I'm not the only one that loves this form of music.
Here a lovely one from a Marcello recorder sonata........hypnotic stuff!


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## palJacky (Nov 27, 2010)

does this count?
I love the sound of those old boomy recordings from melodyia c1950-1970's.

How did the soviets initially beat us in the space race when all their recordings sound like they were done in the men's room of dodger stadium? and yet, when I hear on old svetlanov or oistrakh recording----I'm happy as a clam....

I'm guessing it goes back to when I first started listening to classical music in high school(the seventies) and a love for those prokofiev and shostakovitch things that those were often the only recordings one could find of certain works.


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