# What are your "breakthrough pieces", that open the doors for you to unfamiliar style?



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

*What are your "breakthrough pieces", that open the doors for you to unfamiliar style?*

There is likely a thread similar to this somewhere back in the archives, but I think we all have times where we understand a piece and it seems to open a door to or remove a veil from a large quantity of music that was previously inaccessible or didn't interest us. What have those pieces been for you and what style/possibilities did it seem to open up to you?

My first major breakthrough in a long time with modern music after having avoided it for some time, was hearing Bartok's concerto for Orchestra live. I was in a foul mood that concert, but I left intrigued, though a lot of it went over my head because I admit, I have trouble sitting still sometimes and focusing. So I went and checked it out and sure enough, I was confirmed in my suspicion that I had sat through one of the greatest pieces in the repertoire live without even fully realizing it. Then I listened to it over and over and came to realize how flawless a modern piece can be. This encouraged me to look into symphonies by russians and soviets(yes, I know Bartok is hungarian), and sure enough, I started to be grabbed by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky(in his symphonies).

My recent obsession with Medtner seemed to encourage me to challenge myself with repeated listenings because I couldn't resist listening to him over and over because of all his subtlety. This indirectly lead me to test myself with a modern American work that I ordinarily would have shied away from, William Schuman's string symphony(no. 5). I listened to it probably half a dozen times and it was still cerebral, but I was getting it! This gave me a sort of intellectual breakthrough in modern music. More recently, I've been understanding the emotional power of the great American composers, through another Schuman symphony fixation that seems to have increased my confidence in my appreciation of modern music and got me interesting in American symphonists, his 3rd symphony. I really enjoy this work now, it has a powerful feeling to me. Now I'm obsessed with Americans. And I'm enjoying intellectual challenges and may well move into Atonal string quartets soon, by virtue of William Schuman and believe it or not, Taneyev(who shows just how good works in this genre can be, thus making me more interested in the form in general).


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Atonal instrumental: Bartok's string quartets, and his concertos.
Atonal vocal: Berg, _Wozzeck_ (opera). Britten, _Peter Grimes_ (opera).

Large scale vocal works when I first started listening to classical music: Bach, _Christmas Oratorio_. Handel, _The Messiah_. Mozart, _Figaro_.


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## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

Modern music: Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and string quartets 4/6, Shostakovich's 2nd piano trio, piano quintet

Even more atonal music: Dutilleux' piano sonata

Opera: Still TBD, I guess


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Modern Music - Too many to mention, but I think Webern's 6 pieces for Orchestra Op. 6 was what started getting the Second Viennese school stuff to click for me. I second all the mentions of Bartok, and would also highly recommend his other concertos (especially the Piano Concertos and Violin #2) his orchestrated Dance Suites are also quite easy to get into.

Opera - Wagner's Ring ( I am currently on the 3rd Act of Tristan und Isolde and am being completely blown away by this music)

Of course others have claimed Wagner as being not that easy, so I don't know... I've usually found I seem to get into most of the major composers right away. If I don't I will usually be surprised and b*tch about them in some form or another here.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

This was the stuff that got me into these areas ages ago, in my teens (not mentioning the more "warhorse" things, many of which I knew earlier) -

*Modern (c20th) British music:* Elgar - _Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto_, Britten-_Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge_, Walton - _Symphony # 1_, _Portsmouth Point Overture
_
*Modern (c20th) choral:* Orff - _Carmina Burana_

*Post-1945 orchestral music:* Shostakovich - _Symphony #10
_
*Cello Concertos:* Dvorak, Tchaikovsky (Rococo Variations), Bloch (Schelomo), Haydn, Elgar...

*Modern (c20th) concertos:* Bartok - _Piano Concertos 1-3; Concerto for Orch., Violin Concerto #2
_
*"Atonal" music:* Berg - _Wozzeck_ (Same as you, HC)

Breakthrough pieces later on -
*
Modern (c20th) chamber: * Messiaen - _Quartet for the End of Time_; String Quartets of Janacek, Walton, Prokofiev, & THIS double disc set of SQ's by Rozsa, Surinach, Hindemith, Bloch, etc.

*Modern (c20th) song-cycles:* Britten - _Serenade for tenor, horn & strings
_
*Post-1945 symphony: *Gorecki - _Symphony of Sorrowful Songs_ (Sym. #3) - A follow-up to the Shostakovich above, I listened to the Gorecki a good six or more years later.

*Modern (c2oth) British symphony* - Vaughan Williams (first heard #8) - Another belated follow-up, happening about 10 years after the Walton above.

More recently (past few years) - too many to mention, but these spring to mind strongly -

*Electronic/Electro-acoustic music: *Varese - _Deserts_

*"Serial" music* - Schoenberg, Berg violin concertos, & the former's opera _Moses und Aron
_
*Oratorios/large scale choral music Baroque & after:* Handel - _Messiah_, Haydn - _The Creation_, Stanford - _Requiem_

*Living Australian classical composers:* Peter Sculthorpe, Brett Dean, Elena Kats-Chernin

*More recent opera: *Richard Meale - _Voss_ (But I followed this up not with more opera but with more music of this composer, who I think may well be the finest this country has ever produced so far?)
*
Post-1945 American music:* Cage, Hovhaness, Carter

*Latin American music:* Chavez's symphonies (earlier in my teens had three of them, recently got all six), then after that Villa-Lobos - esp. his _Concerto for guitar & small orch._, etc...


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I started to listen to classical music one year ago, so all this is still very new to me.

Breakthrough in classical music in general: Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition, Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Brahms: Symphony #1, Mozart: Symphony #41.

Breakthrough in choral: Berlioz: Requiem

Breakthrough in opera: Wagner: Das Rheingold

Breakthrough in chamber music: Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

Not any particular work but I discovered Piazzolla about 4 years ago and still totally hooked on to it today.
It combines Classical, Jazz and Tango into an amazing sound world often very emotional.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

presto said:


> Not any particular work but I discovered Piazzolla about 4 years ago and still totally hooked on to it today.
> It combines Classical, Jazz and Tango into an amazing sound world often very emotional...


You're dead right,* presto*, Piazzolla was tops! Combining everything under the sun - Baroque counterpoint, "avant-garde" techniques, as well as jazz & tango. I see him as like a "one stop shop" for c20th music. & totally "accessible" (although I hate to use the "a" word, but some people like to say that it cannot be applied to the more contemporary musics - how wrong they are, at least in the case of Piazzolla - people who thought they hated classical absolutely love this guy's music)...


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

Sid James said:


> You're dead right,* presto*, Piazzolla was tops! Combining everything under the sun - Baroque counterpoint, "avant-garde" techniques, as well as jazz & tango. I see him as like a "one stop shop" for c20th music. & totally "accessible" (although I hate to use the "a" word, but some people like to say that it cannot be applied to the more contemporary musics - how wrong they are, at least in the case of Piazzolla - people who thought they hated classical absolutely love this guy's music)...


I've know a few people unable to get into his sound world, their lose!
I've just been watching a few more Piazzolla clips on youtube and the music really does get to me emotionally, cant put my finger on it but there's certainly something very special going on.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

presto said:


> I've just been watching a few more Piazzolla clips on youtube and the music really does get to me emotionally, cant put my finger on it but there's certainly something very special going on...


Yes, same here. Well, if you want to invest in a CD or two (or download) his music, there's plenty of recordings to chose from, done by the man himself as well as others (he's pretty much the most arranged composer on the planet of recent times, his music is available in so many instrumental combinations). One of my favs is his operetta _Maria de Buenos Aires_, an arrangement of the suite, some movts. with vocals, is available on Naxos, coupled with some of his other famous songs and tangos. Further details HERE...


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

I think I saw a few posts that resonated with me - Sid's exhaustive list in particular. I would add only one piece: on the Modern side: Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony #1.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I used to dislike piano music, thinking of it as "plain old vanilla." I was much younger then. It took a bit of maturing to realize what an expressive intrument the piano is. It was Beethoven's sonatas that did the trick for me - probably "pathetique" but I'm not sure now.

The same goes for chamber music in general. I used to think it boring and kind of thin and squawky with the solo strings. Again it was Beethoven who turned me around with his quartet "Serioso." 

For modern-ish music, though certainly not cutting edge, Shostakovich's Cello Concerto turned me around, especially the first movement. It is so -- I don't know, molecular. Complex, busy, tangled, at times bewildering. I love it!


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

My most cherished break-through moments have been with 20th century Russian composers.

About a year ago, I went to a concert and heard the Rite of Spring live for the first time and was completely bowled over. They also played Shostakovich's 5th symphony, which was amazing, but I really fell in love with him when I attended Baiba Skride play the first violin concerto with the CBSO and Andris Nelsons. Jaw-dropping stuff!


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

This is my breakthrough piece:


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Wagner's _Tristan und Isolde_ was the first opera I listened to all the way through... while it didn't necessarily lead me to appreciate all opera, it certainly brought me into appreciation of Wagner's operas.

Also, Beethoven's piano sonatas were really my introduction to piano music.. unfortunately, after discovering Beethoven, every other piano composer seems crap in comparison


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

One for me, I am ashamed to say, is a (i think!) Concerto Grosso by Alfred Schnittke...I can't remember the key or the arrangement or very much except almost exactly how the piece went, which was mind-blowing at the time...I saw it live and since I didn't keep the programme and didn't rush out to get it I just can't remember it...it was a single but fairly long movement and about three quarters of the way into it there was a single double-bass solo strummed jazz style...and most of the piece itself was very atonal...before that I was only into 'musical' stuff with much tonality...this piece definitely opened me up to other stuff.


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## Artemis (Dec 8, 2007)

I'll just mention the one piece that made me a virtual addict of early Baroque: Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610. 

It's quite a long work in its entirety and until about a year I had only listened to certain well-known sections of it. But it featured in last year's BBC Proms, and I taped it. The performers were John Eliot Gardner/Monteverdi Choir. 

There is something about it that I find immensely attractive. I would say that this work, beyond all others, has been the most frequently played by me over the past year. I would place it among my top 10 favourite works of all time.


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## Curiosity (Jul 10, 2011)

Ravellian said:


> Also, Beethoven's piano sonatas were really my introduction to piano music.. unfortunately, after discovering Beethoven, every other piano composer seems crap in comparison


Same. Listening to Beethoven's sonatas first made (in particular) Haydn's, Mozart's and Schubert's piano works utterly obsolete in advance.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*@ Artemis* - I should have added Monteverdi's _Vespers of 1610 _to my large scale choral list - definitely a "breakthrough" piece for me as well in that area...


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

I'll mention the most important breakthroughs in my classical listening journey. Though I grew up with classical music in my house and in my fingers, I never really started listening to it until around age 12.

First breakthrough into Classical Music: Rachmaninoff. I was impressed by how "hard" his music was at first (my search for the "hardest piece of all time", naive as I was), but then found it really emotionally powerful as well after repeated exposure. Notable pieces: Piano Concerto #2 and #3.

Piano Music: Khachaturian - Toccata. A weird start I know, but it sort of has this new age vibe to it that made it really accessible at the time.

Symphonic Music: Beethoven - Symphony #6. Shostakovich - Symphony #10.

Choral Music: Handel - Messiah. A second breakthrough came recently with my re-discovery of Bach's Mass in B minor and Mozart's Great Mass in C minor (almost at the same time).

Chamber Music: Dvorak - "American" quartet. Still one of my most beloved chamber music to this day.

Baroque Music: Primarily Vivaldi and Corelli, the quick concerti grossi movements that surprised me with their virility when I first came across them. It took me much longer to appreciate Bach and Handel, which now reign supreme for me in Baroque music.

20th Century: Shostakovich (as mentioned before), the Rite, and Prokofiev's less forward-looking works.


Then comes to the set of discoveries which are fairly recent (many due to TC members and opinions).

Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro, circa 3 years ago. Life changing experience, opened me to the wonderful world of opera. Second opera, Tristan und Isolde by Wagner, sealed the deal. Also opened doorway to rediscovery of Handel - through Giulio Cesare and his other great operas.

Rediscovery of Classical Era: Major factors include Mozart's operas, chamber works, piano concerti, and Haydn's piano sonatas. Also Kraus's symphonies made a big impression.

Later C20th music: Late Prokofiev works worked as a transition into Varese, Ligeti, and Messiaen. An interest for this century has developed almost into an obsession. Recently, Stockhausen has been a composer of interest for me. I've also revisited earlier twelve-tone composers - Schoenberg and Berg in particular - and have found their music much more easy on the eras than before. Breakthrough works - Varese - Deserts. Ligeti - Etudes. Messiaen - Vingt Regards. Stockhausen - Gruppen and parts of Licht. Penderecki - Symphony #3. Many others.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Air said:


> I'll mention the most important breakthroughs in my classical listening journey. Though I grew up with classical music in my house and in my fingers, I never really started listening to it until around age 12.
> 
> First breakthrough into Classical Music: Rachmaninoff. I was impressed by how "hard" his music was at first (my search for the "hardest piece of all time", naive as I was), but then found it really emotionally powerful as well after repeated exposure. Notable pieces: Piano Concerto #2 and #3.
> 
> ...


This tells a story!


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2011)

Mozart's G minor Piano Quartet made me realize that all of his music wasn't trite and fluffy. He'll perhaps never be my favorite composer, but I do genuinely enjoy much of his music, especially the minor key works.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

There are perhaps a few breakthrough works for me.

Tallis: _Spem in Alium_ for vocal works. I was simply amazed that pure vocal music could be so uplifting and gorgeous.

Dvorak - _"American" quartet_ turned string quartets into works of beauty.

For me it was not really hearing specific particular works but rather I fell in love with classical music when I followed a specific list of "great" classical works from Phil Goulding's Classical Music using the Naxos Music Library to stream. What before were a number of wonderful works that I really liked suddenly became a huge playground of the most beautiful, engrossing art I have ever been exposed to. I will forever be thankful to Goulding (although perhaps any similar book would have worked).


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

Yes, Dvorak America has turned me into permanent string quartet listener. It is among the very first classical piece that "breakthrough". The other piece is Schubert Death and the Maiden.

For Symphony I think Dvorak Symphony 9 is also candidate for this. Together with Sibelius Violin Concerto.

Schoenberg string quartet working from no.1 (tonal work) to last no.6 is a "breakthrough".


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

I'm not quite sure how to characterize the genre these various pieces opened up for me {perhaps "program music" would be the closest?} but I have become absolutely infatuated with Britten's *4 Sea* *Interludes* and Vaughan Williams' *Fantasia* *on* *a* *Theme* *by* *Thomas* *Tallis*. These works have motivated me to explore their symphonic output as well. I've already purchased Williams' *5th* *Symphony *and intend to get his *2nd* {"*London*"} as well at some point in the near future. I will also listen to more of Britten's symphonies now that I have acquired Spotify, in addition to Walton and Webern {thanks to Sid James are in order here}. 
Although I still use You Tube and Amazon to listen to samples of works before I decide to buy them or not, Spotify has really become my "go to" music sampling service par excellence.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Adding to the Dvorak love, his Piano Quintet has always been the pinnacle of the form for me. It wasn't really a breakthrough in that I had been listening to his music and to chamber music like it for a while, but when I heard his Quintet, I knew that it wouldn't get any better than him.


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Adding to the Dvorak love, his Piano Quintet has always been the pinnacle of the form for me. It wasn't really a breakthrough in that I had been listening to his music and to chamber music like it for a while, but when I heard his Quintet, I knew that it wouldn't get any better than him.


Try the bagatelles for strings and harmonium!


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

The Debussy piano prelude "Feuilles mortes" from book 2. My piano teacher thought she had ordered another piece of music, maybe something like one of the easier Chopin waltzes and instead the Debussy prelude arrived in the mail. She played it for me and I immediately wanted to try and learn it. I was 11 or 12 and had heard nothing like this music before. It was music that was not just technically interesting, or pretty, or emotional as romantic pieces are, but instead poetic and mysterious, the . And it was even scored using 3 staves instead of the standard two so I felt really cool playing it. Soon I found a recording of the Preludes by Paul Jacobs and my ears were opened even wider. Thanks for inspiring the memory


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