# Listening plans for 2021



## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Given we are fast approaching 2021 I was wondering if anyone makes plans for their listening each year.
I suspect that at least in the first 6 months of next year our lives will still be limited by Covid with more potential for listening time.
I am toying with the idea of nominating a personal composer of the month and perhaps doing some comparative listening and reading about the composer and his works. 
Does anyone else make plans?
I would be interested to hear others thoughts and views


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

I have in the past tried making plans but frankly after reading threads on here I get diverted and wander to wherever I please.
To a large degree it is the pleasure of not knowing where I will go that can be enjoyable - having said that some days I will start off listening to, for example, Symphony 4 from composer X and continue the day with other Symphonies 4 from other composers.
Another guide I use is composers or performers birthdays - but I can't say I adhere to it religiously.


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## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

Our household is one of the many that lost their last remaining source of income during lockdowns in 2020 and expect to remain jobless for most of the next decade. So, in 2021 I'm going to be revisiting recordings, not listening to new ones.

1. My Grand Plan for 2021 is to listen, week by week, to one of Telemann's appointed cantatas for that particular week. (Never played them in annual sequence before.) I don't seem to have any Telemann cantatas for 6 weeks (mainly in the 2nd half of the year), so I may have to resort to Bach for those weeks, if my wife is in a tolerant mood. (She _much_ prefers Telemann to Bach.)

2. Two recent TC threads have made me guilty that I don't play post-Shostakovich symphonies often enough, so I've just started systematically revisiting some recent composers' Complete Symphonies, and plan to continue that in 2021. On the menu: Rautavaara, Penderecki (in approx chronological order: 1-5, 7, 8, 6), George Lloyd (finishing with the Symphonic Mass), Pärt, Schnittke, Vasks....

3. 2020 has taught me that, even after 60+ years of listening, the Beethoven symphonies still sound as fresh as ever. This year I spent a week each listening to cycles by Toscanini (1939), Furtwängler (1953-1954), Walter (both sets), Stokowski (postwar), Monteux (live, not studio). And I'm still not tired of them! Plan to continue in 2021 with Knappertsbusch, Böhm, Toscanini (postwar, with 1953 Eroica), Karajan (which?), Bernstein (which?).... I also want to do the same with the String Quartets.

4. I want to construct a _Parsifal_ consisting of the 1952 Bayreuth Act II, plus the 1963 Bayreuth Acts I & III but with Dalis's lines replaced by Mödl's (from 1952). Result, a _Parsifal_ with, throughout, Windgassen as Parsifal, Hotter as Gurnemanz, Mödl as Kundry, London as Amfortas, Uhde as Klingsor, Streich leading the Flowermaidens, Knappertsbusch conducting.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Yes I have plans to focus listening around two things. First instruments: voice, woodwind, the string instruments and piano. And second, the most experimental compositions.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I would like to explore more period-instrument recordings. I've "dipped in" in the past and have some favorite recordings, but I never really explored some core hip repertoire very widely or deeply--I think I was put off by various high-profile conductors who took really weird tempi for familiar pieces, but there are lots of alternatives now that I've yet to sample.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Exploring new repertoire without forgetting that I need to enjoy more life outside classical music.

Surveying Schumann Symphonies, then Mendelssohn and especially Mozart Symphony challenges. There are many CDs I own that I want to survey with the other performances. I may find room for Vaughan Williams or Prokofiev challenges later, before the Shostakovich kicks in (presumably by 2022).

Until I get on the opera mood again, I'll continue challenging recordings of 18th and 19th Century Sacred Choral works. I should stop at some point in 2021 and restart knowing Belcanto from Bellini and Donizetti, but I don't rule out myself turning to Mozart operas way before that.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

I have a few goals. 

1. Listen to at least one opera per week. The operatic repertoire is the most glaring lacuna in my knowledge of Western Art Music, and I really want to fill it in. I’m looking to start with Monteverdi and work my way through the major works all the way to the 20th century.

2. Spend significant time studying the big symphonic cycles of Nielsen, Vaughan Williams, Bruckner, and Shostakovich. Sure, I’m familiar with these works but I want to go in-depth. 

3. Get into lesser-known composers. I don’t know how I’ll start doing this, but I feel as if my knowledge is limited to only a handful of non-standard-repertoire composers and I want to broaden my horizons as much as possible.

4. Devote a great deal of time to studying Mozart more closely. I have yet to love much of his music and I want to know why people consider him so sublime. 

5. Finally, continue to grow acquainted with both early (pre-Baroque) and contemporary (post-1960) music, both of which were pretty much discoveries from this past year.

I think that will do for a year


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

I'm a peaceful and tranquil creature by nature, I don't like doing much, I like to stay in and I like being alone or in the company of my girlfriend. But with music I'm relentless, I can't stay still with one thing for long, it's not that I have a short attention span, on the contrary, but I always have a thirst for more and more and more, always searching and I can never get enough. This year thanks to COVID I was able to listen to more music than ever before and I've pretty much exhausted every possible corner, next year I hope that things go a little back to normal so I can relax a bit and not be on the constant lookout for things to listen to and just enjoy things without worrying too much about what I should listen to next or learn more about that composer or the other. 
That being said, I want to listen to more 20th and 21st century opera, and fill in some holes from the 19th century (bellini, donizetti, massenet, for instance), that's my only thought-out plan for now...


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Some interesting comments so far about plans or otherwise for next year
I think I will go with choosing composers rather than any set periods in classical music and delving deeper from there, next problem is which ones?
I am staring to lean towards 2 per month, one of the big names and one lesser known (at least to me) which should give me plenty to go at.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Good idea! Didn't think about it yet. Normally at this time of year, I'm looking into the famous end-of-year-list from different sites, but forgot all about it this year. I will continue with Beethoven piano sonatas and probably surprise myself suddenly with other projects


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

I was just thinking about this yesterday. This past year was the first time I ever gave myself structured listening projects (as opposed to listening to whatever suited my fancy at any particular moment), and the results were incredible. It forced me to really listen more analytically to the music, about what I like/don't like in the music, about what works/doesn't work for the music's structure, about similarities/differences to other composers, etc. It also got me out of my comfort zone, since the alternative (listening on a whim based on pre-existing tastes) resulted in me returning to the same favorites over and over.

So my goals for next year:

1. Listen to every work by Stockhausen in chronological order while reading Robin Maconie's book _Other Planets: The Complete Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, 1950-2007_ and other stuff on the internet as a listening guide.

2. Listen to the tone poems of Sibelius, Strauss and Bax. I know a few tone poems by each, but not all of them.

3. Pick a lesser known early 20th century composer at random and listen to a good chunk their music.

4. Listen to the early musique concrète tape works of Schaeffer, Henry, Varèse, Babbitt, Xenakis, Berio, El-Dabh, Arel, Davidovsky, Ussachevsky, Luening, Honnegger, Cage and whoever else I'm forgetting. And read about this stuff too. This may seem like a lot of names, but these tape works are short.

5. Go through the complete works of a contemporary composer with a small output. I'm thinking Ustvolskaya, Barraqué or Vivier (Vivier's isn't small, but only a handful have been recorded).

6. Slowly go through Rihm's works and catalogue all the self-quotations that I can find. Rihm is notorious for cutting and pasting whole sections of earlier music into his more recent stuff. But far from being a lazy way of composing, I find it to be an interesting expression of "open form" music. Also, Rihm is just a damn good composer. Rihm has over 500 works and counting, so I won't finish this in one year.

7. Listen to one or two Wagner operas, probably _Tristan und Isolde_ and _Parsifal_. I've heard a few of the overtures, but the dense writing combined with the poor audio quality of whatever old recordings I listened to, repelled me from hearing more. I'll try and fix that next year.

8. Listen to either Schnittke's 9 symphonies or Penderecki's 8. I've heard them all before, but don't remember any except a couple by Penderecki.

9. Continue listening to 21st century music, with some 21st century opera thrown in for good measure. I'll probably start off the year by listening to some more music by Enno Poppe and Simon Steen-Andersen. But from there, who knows.

10. If there's still time, maybe start looking into Medieval music. A couple months ago, I started going through Richard Hoppin's book _Medieval Music_, but only got four chapters in before other things distracted me. I'll see if I can pick it up again.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

I want to try to delve deeper into a basic survey of opera from Monteverdi's _L'Orfeo_ on through to Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, and even into Berg's _Wozzeck_, Glass' _Einstein on the Beach_ and Adams' _Nixon in China_; not necessarily in chronological order. Maybe I'll set aside one day a week; my "Saturday morning opera" or something.

Lord give me strength!

...and let's hope that 2021 is a better year than the one that came before it!


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I usually pick a composer biography to read and as a springboard for exploration. I'll often make some goals to listen or explore certain composers during the year.

Here's my listening goals for 2021.

1. Copland's biography is sitting on my bookshelf and I am making it a goal to read and flesh out Copland's repertoire.
2. Listen to everything on the 21st Century Listening Thread.
3. Rejoin the String Quartet Listening Thread and keep up with it.
4. Bach: St. Matthew Passion
5. Listen to Dvorak's music that I don't already know.
6. Schubert piano repertoire


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I've developed annual listening plans in past years but never followed up on them. Must be against my nature to be so methodical.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

calvinpv said:


> 5. Go through the complete works of a contemporary composer with a small output. I'm thinking Ustvolskaya, Barraqué or Vivier (Vivier's isn't small, but only a handful have been recorded).


I listened to barraqué's works a few months ago and completely fell in love with them, such a pity that he died so young, and it completely baffles and saddens me that he isn't more well known


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

calvinpv said:


> 1. Listen to every work by Stockhausen in chronological order while reading Robin Maconie's book _Other Planets: The Complete Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, 1950-2007_ and other stuff on the internet as a listening guide.


That'll keep you busy.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

After further thought:
I have the Solti Wagner opera box and the complete R Strauss opera box - both of which I bought when ridiculously cheap - thanks to this thread I have now set myself the challenge of working my way through all 25 operas (69 discs) so that will one opera every two weeks - should be achievable.....


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I often plan listening sessions to occasions: composer birthdays, deaths, anniversary years ...

I started a more concentrated exploration of Beethoven beginning Dec. 16, 2019, for the 250th Beethoven year (2020) which will carry on through this current year, that which follows the 250th birthday. A good two years worth of Beethoven.

One of the things I've done is scheduled a full cycle of the symphonies (by a single conductor and orchestra) for each month. I have quite a few dozen of these in my current collection, and it's a good way to revisit them, and to tap into sets which I had not previously encountered.

As well, I'm filling the gaps in other listening sessions, hitting on a lot of the more obscure Beethoven pieces. Since I'm not yet one that does much streaming or on-line listening, I beefed up my disc collection last year with three new box sets purporting to be "complete Beethoven editions." Since I already had a couple such box sets, I have access to ample recordings of most everything by the master, even fragmented works.

Of course, I'm not strictly sticking to Beethoven in listening sessions. I'm also combing through my collection for unopened discs and those of which I had little familiarity. With several thousand discs currently on my music shelves, there is much to visit.

Today I took down my Egon Wellesz symphonies discs on the cpo label and listened to Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2. I plan to continue this journey over the Christmas holiday. A personal present to myself. I had previously heard a couple of the symphonies, but not all of them, and not certainly in numerical order. Those who love Mahler and Shostakovich should well appreciate Wellesz, especially the first two of his symphonies. Wonderful stuff!

A couple of years back I visited all the Haydn symphonies in numerical order, beginning with number 1 on Jan 1 and continuing on, one symphony each day till I had gone through a complete box set.

I've done something similar with Mozart symphonies and Mozart piano concertos.

Lots of plans. Lots of music.

At my age, whenever I hear a piece, whether an old favorite or a new work, I sadly surmise that it may be the last time I ever hear the work. And so I listen carefully.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Never made any, never will. it's simple I know.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

I'm on a mission. The past three months have been a journey through early music, Renaissance, early Baroque, and Wagner. It's been fun. The next six months continue with a blend of revisiting and listening for the first time to:

January - Late Baroque
Week 1: Handel
Week 2: Vivaldi
Week 3: Telemann
Week 4: Corelli, Albinoni, Rameau, Scarlatti, Couperin, Zipoli

February - JS Bach
Week 5: Organ and Harpsichord works
Week 6: Strings & Woodwind
Week 7: Keyboard
Week 8: Oratorio

March - Early Classical
Week 9: CPE & JC Bach
Week 10: Haydn Symphonies
Week 11: Haydn other
Week 12: Abel, Clementi, Stamitz

Week 13: Baroque & Classical Opera (Handel, Monteverdi, Purcell, Gluck, Rossini, Rameau, Carisimi, Peri, Caccini, Lully)

April - Mozart
Week 14: Woodwind & Symphonies
Week 15: Masses & Symphonies
Week 16: Keyboard
Week 17: Strings & Symphonies

May - Late Classical
Week 18: Schubert Oratorio & Symphonies
Week 19: Schubert Keyboard & Symphonies
Week 20: Schubert Strings & Symphonies
Week 21: Weber, Donizetti, Kraus, Boccherini, Paganini, Rossini, Hérold, Giuliani, Paradis

June - Beethoven
Week 22: Oratorio & Symphonies
Week 23: Keyboard
Week 24: Duos, Trios & Symphonies
Week 25: Strings & Symphonies

Week 26: Mozart Opera


I need structure. :lol:


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

My plans are very simple indeed - to make more than sporadic inroads into the pile of new but as yet unheard CDs sitting enticingly by my stereo.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

Animal the Drummer said:


> My plans are very simple indeed - to make more than sporadic inroads into the pile of new but as yet unheard CDs sitting enticingly by my stereo.


Yup. I have 84 ripped but as-yet uncatalogued CDs sitting on my hard drive. I need to sort them out. Also, I hope 2021 will be the year that my top 10 composers finally count as less than 50% of all my listening (that my 'long tail' finally gets a bit shorter, in other words!). And finally, I want to prune my main library and create an overflow folder (nods in David Hurwitz's direction!) with the 'rejects'. I find scrolling through 17 sets of Beethoven symphonies a bit of a block to actually listening to _any_ of them... but I'm not throwing any of them out! (God knows how Merl copes!!)

So a bit of library re-organisation is in order, basically. Should take me through to January! After that: keep perusing the 'Current Listening' thread to find composers I've never heard of, but should have.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

A thank you to everyone who has posted on this thread it certainly helped me to think about my listening plans for 2021
In the end I have decided to chose a couple of composers for each month and read more about them whilst delving more into their output
Going to start with Mahler and Spohr for January based on 2 sets I got as Christmas presents and then branch from there














I know little about Spohr so this will all be new
Mahler I am more familiar with but that is really only Symphonies 1, 5, 9, 10 so plenty to get my teeth into and look at a few comparative versions that have been posted in the many Mahler threads
Right now going to get out some reading material on them both to give me some context


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I resolve to listen to and get to know the symphonies of the following composers:

Atterberg
Bax
Bruckner
Glazunov
Magnard
Martinu
Roussell
Rubbra

I resolve to listen to and get to know the violin concerto of each of the following composers:

Atterberg
Bacewicz
Conus
Goldmark
Hartmann
Karlowicz
Viotti
Weinberg

I resolve to listen to and get to know the chamber music of the following composers:

Bridge
Dvorak
Enescu
Shostakovich
Stenhammar
Taneyev

and I resolve to listen to more solo piano music and choral music.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

senza sordino said:


> I resolve to listen to and get to know the symphonies of the following composers:
> 
> Atterberg
> Bax
> ...


A hefty set of goals there - good luck.
A lot of good music to be discovered - have fun.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

No plans. Listening to what attracts my attention each day.


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## Axter (Jan 15, 2020)

I have to get back to listening more to Operas. Haven’t touched my opera albums in more than a decade, which is even odd to me.
Also recently I am trying to listen more to old vintage recordings of Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Thomas Beechams repertoires with LPO and RPO respectively. 
Lastly, I am rediscovering different interpretations of Mozart again. Having, in the past, (foolishly) restricting myself to only Karl Böhm, Karajan, and Muti interpretations, I am becoming recently more fond of Sir Colin Davis recordings with Staatskapelle Dresden.

So, have lots to catch up....


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## EmperorOfIceCream (Jan 3, 2020)

1. Do all of Mahler, with my book by Floros
2. Finish listening through Schoenberg's catalog
3. Finish listening through Bartok's catalog, and I want to do more close listening of the quartets (also did you know that Bartok is literally amazing?)
4. Get more into Schumann
5. Go through Beethoven's SQs
6. More early music

I also think I'm going to get Taruskin's History of Music in a few days, so super excited to read that as it will fill a lot of gaps in my knowledge.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Animal the Drummer said:


> My plans are very simple indeed - to make more than sporadic inroads into the pile of new but as yet unheard CDs sitting enticingly by my stereo.


I'm with you 100%. I must have a pile of 200 disks awaiting their turn. Started tonight with Music from Estonia vol. 1 on Chandos. The Raid symphony no. 1 is great!


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## Bill Schuster (Oct 22, 2019)

SanAntone said:


> No plans. Listening to what attracts my attention each day.


Agreed. The idea of being bound to any sort of rigid listening plan is anathema to me. Mood and circumstances will direct my choices, moment to moment. That said, I still enjoy reading the plans that other people have in place.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I don't really have any listening goals at the mo. I'll just go where the wind takes me but no doubt there will be some heavy SQ listening in the months to come. I do need to play more chamber music this year (sextets, quintets, octets, trios, etc are top of my list).


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

I want to dive more into some of these box sets I've bought over the past year or so: finish up the Rilling Bach cantatas box; Rosalyn Tureck, Murray Perahia and Pierre Fournier...and now the Karajan-BPO Bruckner set which is on the way.


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

I *want* to set some concrete goals, but know that would only be a recipe for boredom and failure for my personality. So my general goal is to spend some time with the hundreds of hours of music that I purchased last year. Included in that general goal is to try and spend some quality time with the major works of a few 'new to me' composers that I 'discovered' last year, such as Bax, Vaughan Williams, Martinu, Grieg and others. 

Another goal is to find more choral works that I like. I found quite a few thanks to some great suggestions by the group here on TC, and plan to continue trying new works. Verdi Requiem is likely the next work I'll try out.

Another goal will be to find an opera that I like. I recently WATCHED Magic Flute (with subtitles) for the first time and actually enjoyed it, where listening to it did not produce the same result previously. I'll likely give another Mozart opera a go, or perhaps Carmen. In a similar manner, I want to watch either Swan Lake or Sleeping beauty after watching the Nutcracker a few weeks ago. 

So that's about it...


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

BlackAdderLXX said:


> Another goal is to find more choral works that I like. I found quite a few thanks to some great suggestions by the group here on TC, and plan to continue trying new works. Verdi Requiem is likely the next work I'll try out.


if you liked Mozart (as you said in 'that thread' of yours), try:

I like the harmonies at "crucifixus" ( 2:27 ~ 3:09 ) "amen" ( 6:03 ~ 6:15 )





I find these hauntingly beautiful:


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

I don't have particular plans for this year either. I'm probably far too chaotic listener to make any detailed plans that I would actually be able to follow (without them becoming tedious at some point). There is an optimal time that I can follow a listening plan. I enjoy the weekly SQ thread, but focusing on one work or a group of works for, say, a month would take away the enjoyment the music provides. I don't particularly like when that happens.

I have some listening "directions", though. I feel that there are still many very important composers whose compositions I don't know nearly as well as I'd like to. I would certainly like to get better acquainted with Classical and Baroque eras, which finally seem to start clicking with me. I've been thinking about focusing on Haydn's string quartets, but I'll see how that goes. I like the ones I've heard but I don't think I have ever listened to all of them.

Recently, I've listened to much less opera than I usually do but I actually plan to continue with my Verdi journey soon.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

12 CDs of Max Reger's orchestral music

+over 40 hours of Zemlinsky, Peterson-Berger, Roussel, Schmidt, Marx, Ibert, Hovhaness, and other 20th century romantics

I accumulated it all last year without having the time to listen to it attentively.


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## Desertpilot (Dec 22, 2020)

I've really enjoyed this thread and its given me a lot of listening ideas. I do not structure my actual listening titles. Rather, I am trying to carve out time each day for "critical" listening. I'm always searching for new titles. For instance, I recently discovered Kalinnikov's first two Symphonies. I'm sure there will be a lot more.

Marcus
Las Vegas, NV


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

Desertpilot said:


> I'm always searching for new titles. For instance, I recently discovered Kalinnikov's first two Symphonies.


Funny you mentioned Kalinnikov. @Merl just turned me on to those and within a couple of weeks Hurwitz did a video and was talking about the two symphonies. They're really great, no?


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

I think I'm going to go through the top symphonies list again. Last year it was to see if there was anything I liked, this year it can be to listen to recordings I have bought since last year. I think #21 Symphony Fantastique is the first one I don't have.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

annaw said:


> I don't have particular plans for this year either. I'm probably far too chaotic listener to make any detailed plans that I would actually be able to follow (without them becoming tedious at some point). There is an optimal time that I can follow a listening plan. I enjoy the weekly SQ thread, but focusing on one work or a group of works for, say, a month would take away the enjoyment the music provides. I don't particularly like when that happens.
> 
> I have some listening "directions", though. I feel that there are still many very important composers whose compositions I don't know nearly as well as I'd like to. I would certainly like to get better acquainted with Classical and Baroque eras, which finally seem to start clicking with me. I've been thinking about focusing on Haydn's string quartets, but I'll see how that goes. I like the ones I've heard but I don't think I have ever listened to all of them.
> 
> Recently, I've listened to much less opera than I usually do but I actually plan to continue with my Verdi journey soon.


There's a lot of great listening in the Haydn SQs. I think you'll find it a rewarding journey.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

A plan has come to mind and that's to listen to more Richard Strauss. Maybe give my ears a "different versions treatment". Yes then!


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## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

My plan is to devote more time to focused listening. I listen to music while working during the day, and in my free time I tend to listen in that half-distracted state as well, sort of hovering in and out of the music while doing something else.

I got a year's subscription to the BPO digital concert hall for Christmas, so that'll help


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I have now completed my project of sampling all 50 composers on the Wiki short list of Baroque Composers - begun 3 years ago. 

This year I shall try to listen to some medieval and renaissance music and try to get the names and styles into some sort of mental context. 

I'll also do more of what I did the first year I joined TC - try anything and everything, because a little of what you fancy does you good.


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

Thanks to TC I have gotten to learn some great works , so I'm gonna check the currently listening thread often ;-)

I have started to listen to Mahler again recently , so I will continue to work on that...

I want to give the time I have to listen , to some works that haven't been able to convince me in the past. 
Mahler's works are a good example. Also the Baroque period will get my attention a little more this year, at least that's what I envisage doing...


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## daco (Jan 5, 2021)

I have a kind-of crazy plan, which is to listen to my entire classical music collection. Fortunately it's quite small by the standards on this forum, at around 5 - 6 days of music.

I think it will probably take most of the year, because I'm determined to only consider a piece "listened to" if I devote my full attention to it. So playing as "background" while I do something else, or while driving, won't count.

Once I have enough posts, I would also like to try to start a blog here where I write brief descriptions of my reactions to the pieces. I think that will encourage me to listen more carefully.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

^
Daco - welcome to the forum and good luck with your challenge.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Will carry on with monthly focuses so that I can expand my listening repertoire


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I may have put this on another thread but this year I want to expand my knowledge of more chamber music, especially that from Eastern Europe (Czech, etc). Although I have a lot of string quartets I could do with checking out more quintets, trios, etc. I've not been listening to orchestral music as heavily in 2020 and I've enjoyed concentrating on chamber music more. I thoroughly enjoy contributing to the Weekly String Quartet thread and hope to find some more killer accounts of SQs that I love. I've probably bought more classical music than ever before over the past 12 months and plan to spend the same this year. Hopefully, when lockdown ends, I can also finally buy the set of floorstanding speakers I've been after for months and upgrade the sound in my music room. I can then bring my old system (with bookshelf speakers) down into the living room so I have better sound down here, too. No doubt I'll still be reviewing Bethoven cycles too. I did plan on doing a couple of Beethoven videos but I've kinda gone off the idea. I doubt people will want to listen to my skanky Manc accent. Lol.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

Ok, so my thirst for more and more got the better of me so I've already made 7 listening plans, have carried out 4 to completion and going through the 5th. The first one consisted of listening to all of Saint-Saëns concertos, that is piano, cello and violin concertos, excellent music. The second one consisted of a selection of operas from Lully (Armide) to Zimmermann's Die Soldaten in chronological order and also involved Gluck, Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Tchaicovksy, Hindemith and Menotti. The third one was a short one, a few works by renassaince and baroque composers: Ockgehem, Sheppard and Purcell. The fourth one was beethoven's piano sonatas played by Backhaus (amazing performances, really brought out the complex texture of these works and inner voices), then the 7 "official" piano trios played by Harrell, Ashkenazy and Perlman and late quartets played superbly (and what a sound, kudos to the engineer) by the Artemis Quartet. That plan continued with all of the chamber music by Chopin (only three works, tho) and Robert Schumann, then the Dante Symphony by Liszt which amazingly I hadn't listened to before, piano music and songs by Satie which concluded gloriously with his sort of drama Socrate played by two geniuses like de Leeuw and Hannigan, and then the plan concluded with a selection of chamber music by Fauré, important song cycles and his Requiem. 
Now i'm going through a bit of Haydn (the top 10 symphonies according to this forum and the seasons which i'm listening to right now), then I'll go on to Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Dallapiccola, some early and middle Feldman and to finish it off Kurtág up to his final work, his opera Fin de Partie.


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## Zauberfloete (Dec 2, 2020)

I started listening to CM again at the end of 2020, after a hiatus of many years. I did rarely listen to any CM for about two decades, so in a way I am "rediscovering" it, and it is often surprising to me to compare the way I appreciate it now as an adult compared to when I was a teen. 

When I was a child and a teen it was a completely spontaneous approach: I listened to some CM, and either I liked a piece (and then obsessively listened to it over and over again, because it made me happy and energised me) or I disliked it (and never listened to it again). 

Now I am trying to educate myself better about music history, music theory and composers. My plan is to acquire again all the pieces I used to listen to, and learn to appreciate them at a deeper level. So lately I've been focusing a lot on my old time favourites - Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Albinoni, Händel, Haydn... I've also been discovering other pieces and composers I wasn't familiar with. 

After 25 years I've also started playing music again. It was such a source of happiness in my teens, and investing on a new instrument (I don't have my flutes, recorders and whistles anymore) was the best choice I made in years. It makes me feel so complete. 

So aside from the complex CM I listen to for the sheer pleasure of enjoying it I am also listening to simpler pieces I am learning to play. Some are CM, but most are other genres. 

This is the plan I'm carrying out for this year. But there's also plenty of room for surprises and new discoveries.


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## DLOinQUEENS (Nov 22, 2018)

I’m currently trying to build a collection of Spotify playlists, containing one recording each of every type of major work. It’s a bit tedious because of the abundance of duplicate recordings of the famous composers (I try to listen to them all briefly and select the best one). I already have a fairly complete piano quartet playlist and an incomplete one for violin sonatas, and now I’m working on one for symphonies, in imprecise chronological order (I’m up to Tchaikovsky and it’s already 121 hours long, lol). I like to do this so I can just pick a type of work and put the playlist on random without overplaying the standard warhorses. I’m all about giving the unsung composer his due!


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

DLOinQUEENS said:


> I'm currently trying to build a collection of Spotify playlists, containing one recording each of every type of major work. It's a bit tedious because of the abundance of duplicate recordings of the famous composers (I try to listen to them all briefly and select the best one). I already have a fairly complete piano quartet playlist and an incomplete one for violin sonatas, and now I'm working on one for symphonies, in imprecise chronological order (I'm up to Tchaikovsky and it's already 121 hours long, lol). I like to do this so I can just pick a type of work and put the playlist on random without overplaying the standard warhorses. I'm all about giving the unsung composer his due!


There is a Spotify "Editor/Curator" - *Ulysses' Classical *- who has put together a number of playlists of a composer's entire catalog of works, usually in chronological order. He has also done playlists of non-classical music, but there are dozens of classical playlists already created you may like.


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## Daniel2020 (Dec 4, 2020)

I would like to organize musical evenings with my friends at home and listen to classical music. I suppose it is gonna be really great and quite interesting.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Daniel2020 said:


> I would like to organize musical evenings with my friends at home and listen to classical music. I suppose it is gonna be really great and quite interesting.


Mind the Covid restriction though


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Although my cd's are scattered all over the house, there is the bookcase full of them next to my computer desk. I don't remember why they are there, bu I'll start with them.

First Six:
Schumann - Solo Piano (includes Sym. Etudes)/Wolfram Lorenzen/Troubadisc.
Richard Strauss - Lieder - Diana Damrau/Thielemann/Virgin Classics
Mahler - Sym. 9/Zinman/RCA
Bach - Complete WTC - Evgeny Koroliov/Tacet
Weinberg - Symphonies, Vol. 1/Chmura/Chandos
Shebalin - String Quartets, Vol. 2/Krasni Quartet/Olympia


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Last year, in honor of Beethoven's 250th birthday I intended to listen to all the pieces with opus numbers in order. I didn't decide to do this until October and I was not super diligent about it, some times going a few days between pieces. As such I only got as far as the Op.33, Seven Bagatelles. Starting today I will continue with the Op. 34, Six variations on an original theme for piano in F major and will continue through the following weeks to Op. 138. After that I will see how many WoO I can find.

I am a HUGE Haydn fan but have never heard all of his string quartets. (I have listened to his symphonies, in order, twice and individually dozens of times.) So along with the Beethoven I will listen to the quartets in order.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The past few months I've been mainly playing pop/rock because I'm busy preparing a list of favourite albums in that genre. That should be largely completed within a few weeks - after that I will resume my years long project to listen to all my classical CD's again, alphabetical per composer. Tackling the S soon.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> The past few months I've been mainly playing pop/rock because I'm busy preparing a list of favourite albums in that genre. That should be largely completed within a few weeks - after that I will resume my years long project to listen to all my classical CD's again, alphabetical per composer. Tackling the S soon.


S is one of the big ones - good luck!!


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