# Winter Project Suggestions Please



## whispering (Oct 26, 2013)

Dear All

I have posted a few times recently and received some very helpful replies. I am in need of some further help. Briefly my background is I cared for my mother for six years with Vascular Dementia, which became full on in the later years. Mum died in February and I am slowly getting my life back together at 62yo. Part time job, starting to rediscover my interests in music, reading, Astronomy, etc. The problem is the winter is closing in and the long nights are going to be hard this first winter on my own. I want to get some projects on the go to stop long evenings of reflecting on the past and ending up wrapped up in grief. Distractions I can build on in the future for want of a better phrase.

Okay I am not a classical music expert in any way but I am very familiar with the main works of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Haydn and Stanford. I was thinking along the lines of either trying a new composer with a good number of works to explore, or trying some symphonies as my main interest is in chamber music. I know a lot of the symphonies of the above named composers. 

Can members please make some suggestions. I would prefer a project which would take several months to gradually work on, something to do Christmas and New Years day, those long winter evenings. Beyond piano quintets my classical music journey has been tied to the above major composers. I had considered trying composers by country eg Russian or Polish. Then again perhaps go with string quartets outside the above listed composers. To be honest I feel a bit like a kid with his nose stuck against the sweet shop window, looking at all the goodies in large bottles inside, but not knowing where to start my selection. Does that make sense? Then I thought perhaps people here could kindly make some suggestions. 

I close in thanking you for reading my thread and hope you can leave a suggestion or two. TBH this year has been the worst of my life and I am facing many years most likely largely on my own. Classical music is a big oceon so it appeals to me as a source of constant new adventures.


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## Eriks (Oct 10, 2021)

I have a suggestion for a listening project if you like choral music. Follow the Lutheran church year by listening to Bach's cantatas on the corresponding feast day (or during the week) for which they were composed. If you do not speak German make sure you have translations available so that you can follow what is going on.

Two useful links:

https://www.bach-cantatas.com/index.htm

https://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/index.htm

Maybe you can try out the Christmas cantatas, if you do not like it maybe it's not your thing.

Best wishes and good luck!


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

It seems that you haven't explored that much Scandinavian music; Carl Nielsen has a very varied and somehow basically life-assuring work. Maybe-maybe start with pieces like Serenara in Vano, the Humoresque Bagatelles, 1st Symphony, the Violin Sonatas, An Imaginary Trip to the Faroes, the Wind Quintet, and then move on ...

Another field to check out could be the ballet music and stage art associated with Diaghileff's Ballets Russes ...


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I'll offer a suggestion. Rather than focus on a country, a composer, or an era, what about a conductor? In the past couple of years I've picked up a number of boxes based on a single conductor. What makes them interesting is the breadth of the repertoire; from classical era to modern. Many of the mainstream warhorses are there. I've enjoyed these boxes quite a bit. Here are some of the best ones I've heard:

Constantine Silvestrov - EMI recordings, except for a bizarre Tchaik 4, great music making.

Charles Munch - the Decca recordings. Wonderful, wonderful start to finish.

Igor Markevitch - the EMI/Erato recordings. Thrilling music making. Don't let the mono recordings scare you.

Artur Rodzinski - the Scribendum set is sensational. A Tchaikovsky 5th to die for.

Artur Rodzinski - the Columbia recordings. Excellent too.

but the best of all:

Eugene Ormandy - the Columbia Legacy. What a treasure trove of music history. Very nostalgic, too. Superb travel through the symphonic literature, extremely fine playing, mostly good recordings...I'm up to disk number 102 now...what a treat it's been.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

When I read your post, I thought you should try anything by Orlando di Lasso. Best wishes and good luck!


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Eriks said:


> I have a suggestion for a listening project if you like choral music. Follow the Lutheran church year by listening to Bach's cantatas on the corresponding feast day (or during the week) for which they were composed. If you do not speak German make sure you have translations available so that you can follow what is going on.
> 
> Two useful links:
> 
> ...


The second link is a bit confusing. The church year (both Lutheran and Catholic) starts with the 1st sunday in advent, not with Xmas day or new years day. 
Of course one could start listening at any date, next sunday is the Feast of Reformation (coincides with Halloween because supposedly Luther tacked the 95 theses onto the church portal in Wittenberg so that people could see them when coming to church on All Saints Day (Nov 1st) - this is probably a legend, he more likely sent the theses to doctors of the universities) with two of the most splendid and famous cantatas, BWV 79 "Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild" and 80 "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"
but a "natural" way would be to begin on Nov 28th, i.e. in about 4 weeks with BWV 61 "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland"


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

How about immersing yourself in some good, long composer biographies (for example Jan Swafford's about Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms), which will take quite a while in itself, and seeing whether they whet your appetite for any of those composers' works which you don't yet know, which you can then listen to and explore?

Another thought and one which, if you take to it, would not only meet your need to be absorbed but would necessarily provide a degree of company - have you considered learning to play an instrument in your own right?

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the very best.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Some great suggestions here, all round.
I didn't see mention of Mahler. Gustav Mahler wrote nine (or ten, if you count the incomplete final one) expansive symphonies and a number of fine song cycles. He falls into the "late Romantic" category of composers. I see you have several "Romantics" on your composers list.

Mahler said "A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything." Beginning with the first of Mahler's symphonies and proceeding through them numerically would prove a project not just for a winter's spell, but for a lifetime. Mahler bears repeating. There are many worlds within the music.

All the best to you.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The best way to spend a solitary and no doubt cold and/or damp winter's afternoon is to sit in front of a fire or hot stove in a comfortable chair, with any of the above suggestions on the sound system, reading a good book (there are lots that are as worthwhile as any list of great music), with a bowl of M&Ms on the table next to you. When you need a break, write in a journal, or write 300 words of a novel. You will be surprised what you feel like in May.


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## whispering (Oct 26, 2013)

Dear All

Thank you for supplying some thoughtful replies. Not sure I could eat a bowl of M&Ms but I take the general point of the suggestion.

I realise that right now nothing I do this winter is going to remove the deep sense of loss in my life following mum’s death. In reality nothing could. 

I am minded by SONNET CLV’s point that Mahler said “A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything”. I have got to 62yo and I have never knowingly ever listened to even a part of a Mahler symphony. Nothing against the composer, how could there be with no knowledge of his music. It is just that I have always read comments about Mahler writing music on the large and epic scale, whereas I mostly like chamber music. 

Well I guess right now in my life I need to think on the large scale. Spend four months exploring something I would not normally go towards. So Mahler it is and I will also try the biographies by Swafford suggested by Animal The Drummer. I will keep to one side the other suggestions and possible personal variations on a theme. 

Thank you for your replies. This is a lovely discussion platform. Now onto YouTube and Mahler symphony number one.

Best wishes to you all for this winter and thank you again.


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

joen_cph said:


> It seems that you haven't explored that much Scandinavian music; Carl Nielsen has a very varied and somehow basically life-assuring work. Maybe-maybe start with pieces like Serenara in Vano, the Humoresque Bagatelles, 1st Symphony, the Violin Sonatas, An Imaginary Trip to the Faroes, the Wind Quintet, and then move on ...
> 
> Another field to check out could be the ballet music and stage art associated with Diaghileff's Ballets Russes ...


I fully support this! Nielsen is a joy to listen to - _so_ energetic and witty.

Interestingly, I always seem to get this intense wish to listen to Sibelius when it starts getting dark. Speaking as a Finn and an ardent fan of Nielsen, I think that Nordic composers simply have an unusually good grasp of the nature of winter, cold, and darkness, for obvious reasons .


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Mahler, and Nielsen symphony cycles are great suggestions. And I'll second the Sibelius cycle, and tone poems as well.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

View attachment 160735

If you like voices and singing, set your teeth in this: Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Usually when someone is interested in string quartets and big cycles of works, I'd suggest Shostakovich, but since you need something uplifting and positive in spirit, I'd advice against it. If you've got a sensitive personality, there are too many of Shotakovich' works which tend to go under your skin, and not in a good way. I remember listening to his 4th, 14th and 15th symphonies on cold winter nights while feeling rather down, and that wasn't the best idea ever. Some of the string quartets can be extremely depressing too. His music can be pretty nihilistic at times.

Same goes for Mahler, basically. The 6th, Das Lied, the 9th and 10th are sublime works, but not when you're trying to chase away the spirits of darkness.

So instead, I endorse joen's suggestion of Nielsen. He's always uplifting, basically an "allegro" type of composer. Far from superficially jolly though, his music has tremendous depth, and drama too, but it never gets too dark. Even the violent clashes in the 4th and 5th symphonies and the clarinet concerto are more exciting than disturbing. And when he reaches the stage in his life when it's time to summarize everything and reflect on his mortality (in the 6th symphony), he does that with the same mixture of happy resignation and sardonic humour that Beethoven used in his last string quartets. It leaves you with a smile on your face.

Bruckner could be another good choice. Another composer who, while working in a radically different style, had a positive mindset. His symphonies always end with a radiant confirmation of everything that's bright and untroubled, regardless of the complex and arduous road that the music takes before reaching that kind of conclusion.


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