# Do you like dark? bombast? Help a fellow classical lover expand his collection.



## lecorbeau (May 1, 2010)

Hi all, lifelong classical music lover looking to expand my collection! Some examples of works I am nothing short of obsessed with:

*Symphonies*: Brahms 1 + 4, Bruckner 8, Dvorak 7, etc.
*Requiem*: Dvorak's. Hands down. 
*Concerti*: Beethoven Piano no. 3, Bruch Violin no. 2, Elgar Cello, Rachmaninov Piano no. 3
*Operas*: Don Carlo, Tosca, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Don Giovanni
*Other*: Saint Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

PS- Just heard Perlman's interpretation on the radio of the first few minutes of Zigeunerweisen and nearly died.

As you can see, many of these are
1) usually in some minor key (I _love_ darker works)
2) bombastic is beautiful. and dramatic delicious.

Can you recommend any pieces to me? I don't ALWAYS listen to this kind of classical of course (Copland's Appalachian Spring - Moderato: Coda + Pärt's Für Alina, two of the most played tracks on my iPod, don't satisfy any of the above), but I thought I'd give you all at least some guiding principles. Thanks in advance to the members of these forums.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Well this has just come up on another thread...


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## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)

Strauss: Tod und Verklarung





Brahms: Gesang der Parzen


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Hi, lecorbeau:

Considering your examples, your "dark" obsessions hover around late-1800s romanticism.

Are you looking for tonal music with dark subject matters? Or are you open to post-WWII dodecaphony (i.e. Boulez, Babbitt)and/or textural sound sculptures (Xenakis, Lindberg, etc.)?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

*Carl Nielsen* ~ _Symphony No. 5_

















*Jan Sibelius* ~ _Symphony No. 4_

*Arthur Honegger* ~ Symphony No. 5, 'Di Tre Re'




(I like this recording, but prefer the one conducted by Serge Baudo - also up and available, but in three links.)

*Sergei Prokofiev:*
His cantata _"Alexander Nevsky"_ has its moments; try the segment "Battle on The Ice."




_Scythian Suite_ ~ four extracts for concert presentation from a ballet about pagan Russia









_Piano Concerto No. 2_. -- of his five piano concerti, certainly 'the darkest.' His style is truly late romantic, the harmony 'modern' but nothing you cannot handle based on your past listening. The piece is in four movements, all of it Great!

*Bela Bartok* (be not afraid) ~ _Cantata Profana_, for large orchestra, double chorus and vocal soloists - not really bombast, but a truly beautiful and gleamingly 'dark' work which just might float your boat. [...too less often performed masterwork, imo.]













Bartok's one act opera, _Bluebeard's Castle_, with a cast of two, soprano and tenor, is flagrantly dark, and perhaps his most "luscious" score: the entire thing is up on youtube, conducted by Georg Solti, staged, and in seven or more links. I can almost promise you will be wrung out by the end.

*Darius Milhaud* ~ To my ears, long adjusted to contemporary music, this still is intense, frenzied, and fantastic:
_Les Choéphores_ op.24. Written in 1915 (!) is a cantata, the second of Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, "The Libation Bearers," Greek Tragedy, hard to beat for darkness!
If it is not your cup of tea, at least cut to the 19-minute mark and give it a few minutes. the Exhortation, a most remarkable segment of this piece, starts at 21'30''





*John Adams* ~ _Harmonium_, for Large Orchestra and Chorus - this work is filled with grand 'old-fashioned' big choral work gestures. ~ be not afraid yet again, this work, from 1984, is about as 'tonal' as it gets.
The opening movement starts 'from nothing' and builds and then goes back to quiet. 
The second movement, using Emily Dickenson's "Because I could not stop for Death," is still and 'disturbing.'
The last movement, again with a text of Dickenson, "Wild Nights." (Third Link) 
I think you should listen to the last movement (third link) first....













ADD: One of The big 20th Century Requiems, with some very big moments as well as quiet ones;
*Benjamin Britten* ~ _War Requiem_ -- a monumental masterpiece.

*Stravinsky* ~ Cantata _'Oedipus Rex;'_ Aeschylus, more Greek tragedy. Here is the first link to a complete stage version, the production also pretty damned fantastic and dark. A narrator give a precis of the action in each scene - this production was in Japan, so.... Music of Scene one starts at 1'40'' (when looking at link, you will find a playlist, all four sections on that.....)





*NO TONALITY HAS BEEN HARMED IN THE COMPOSING OF ANY OF THESE PIECES: THEY ARE ALL TONAL. :tiphat:*

That should be enough to keep you off the streets and out of trouble for a while.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Sturm und Drang.


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

lecorbeau said:


> As you can see, many of these are
> 1) usually in some minor key (I _love_ darker works)
> 2) bombastic is beautiful. and dramatic delicious.


My first thought would be Mahler. Lots of contrast between dark and light, and more bombast than you can shake a stick at. If you're not already familiar with him, try Symphony No. 1.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)




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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

Mahler Symphony No. 3, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (first movement), Brahms piano concertos...


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

- The Flying Dutchman
- Tannhauser
- Lohengrin
- The Ring Cycle
- The Mastersingers of Nurenburg
- Tristan und Isolde
- Parsifal


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Couchie said:


> - The Flying Dutchman
> - Tannhauser
> - Lohengrin
> - The Ring Cycle
> ...


Only those ones?


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)




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## lecorbeau (May 1, 2010)

Prodromides said:


> Hi, lecorbeau:
> Are you looking for tonal music with dark subject matters? Or are you open to post-WWII dodecaphony (i.e. Boulez, Babbitt)and/or textural sound sculptures (Xenakis, Lindberg, etc.)?


I am honestly open to anything!

Otherwise, I am humbled by the great number of helpful responses! Some of the recommendations I am fortunate enough to already own, but most are new and certainly welcome! Keep them coming!


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Richard Strauss : Ein Heldenleben. Prokofiev: Scythian Suite . Shostakovich : symphony no 7,
"Leningrad". Berlioz : Requiem. Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin. Jon Leifs : Hekla. 
Prokofiev: Cantata on rhe 20th anniversary of the October revolution.
Shostakovich: The Execution of Stenka Razin . Mussorgsky: Night On Bald Mountain .
Berlioz : Symphonie Fantastique. Tchaikovsky: Francesca Da Rimini. 
Sibelius: Tapiola. Roussel: Bacchus & Ariane. Britten: Sinfonia Da Requiem. 
Dukas: The Sorceror's Apprentice . Shostakovich : Symphony no 4. Prokofiev: Symphonies 2& 3. 
Berg: Three Pieces For orchestra . Dvorak: Hussite Overture .

Plenty of bombast here. But exciting bombast !


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Since you like bombastic so much I have no choice but to recommend this:






(Note: I'm sorry I couldn't resist )

On a more serious note, here's something that I believe fits the bill:





A few others that I think you might enjoy include Tchaicovsky's 6th symphony, R. Strauss's Metamorphosen, and like others have mentioned quite a bit of Mahler (like someone above mentioned there's a good contrast of both light and dark stuff with him)


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

lecorbeau said:


> I am honestly open to anything!
> 
> Otherwise, I am humbled by the great number of helpful responses! Some of the recommendations I am fortunate enough to already own, but most are new and certainly welcome! Keep them coming!


Glad to hear it!

Here's a few more:

Dark subject within a tonal idiom

Andre Caplet's CONTE FANTASTIQUE (aka LA MASQUE DE LA MORT ROUGE) is a rather delightful-sounding piece of French chamber music based upon Edgar Allan Poe. The harpist raps on the sounding board to indicate Death's knocking on the door! (about 5:08 into this YouTube clip)






Dark subject with serial atonal music

Roberto Gerhard's THE PLAGUE, based upon literature by Albert Camus, featuring narrator, orchestra & chorus. The narrator's austere and clinical descriptions of the deaths brought about by the plague are affectingly echoed by fluid, yet uncompromising, dodecaphony.






Bombastic music not necessarily dark

numerous works by Icelandic composer Jon Leifs. The bombast of the Organ Concerto by Leifs needs to be heard in order to be believed. Elsewhere in his oeuvre, Leifs typically reserves bombast for his orchestral tone pictures on natural phenomena, such as GEYSIR, HEKLA, DETTIFOSS, HAFIS, etc.











Darkness and bombast together

Malcolm Arnold's ELECTRA ballet music. Arnold still sounds unmistakably like Arnold even with his dissonant eruptions (the bombast) in this adaptation of the classic Greek tragedy (the dark).

FYI: In 1925, Florent Schmitt wrote a score to accompany the silent film SALAMMBO, which is nothing if not bombastic.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Samuel Barber ~ Piano Concerto. Fasten your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride.













Einojuhani Rautavaara ~ Piano Concerto No. 1 -- here's the first movement; modern romantic... I hate the current overuse of the word, but 'epic' comes to mind.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Samuel Barber ~ Piano Concerto. Fasten your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride.













Einojuhani Rautavaara ~ Piano Concerto No. 1 -- here's the first movement (modern / romantic) ...I hate the current overuse of the word, but 'epic' comes to mind.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Only those ones?


In addition to Wagner, try the bible, Koran, or another thing written by God.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Couchie said:


> In addition to Wagner, try the bible, Koran, or another thing written by God.


Like "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy?"


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Like "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy?"


Exactly like that isn't.


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## mitchflorida (Apr 24, 2012)

Has anyone actually heard this entire song? A few bars of it were featured on Hitchcock's TV show.

Funeral March of a Marionette. If a death of a marionette doesn't make you sad, . .


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