# Romantic music recommendations



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I'm starting to expand some more romantic music that I've been listening to before. So far baroque and classicism was my favorite music era, but the romantic ideals and statements of music are closest to my heart. 

I already enjoyed Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Schubert, Mussorgsky. I heard "something" by Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Mahler, Saint-Saens, Schumman and few more. 

I can't say my knowledge about any of them is perfect or even satisfying. I guess I still don't know many of their brilliant works. So I'm asking you to recommend me some of them and, maybe, some other composers.


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## JTech82 (Feb 6, 2009)

I would give Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams, Bax, Bruckner, Sibelius, Berlioz, Dvorak, Rimsky-Korsakov, Franck, Borodin, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Elgar, Holst, Richard Strauss, Bartok, Stravinsky, and Nielsen a try as well.

Also, since you mentioned you like moody music in another thread, you should check out Debussy and Ravel.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Thank you, but any sugestions what I should start with? I mean some works good for beginning.


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## JTech82 (Feb 6, 2009)

Aramis said:


> Thank you, but any sugestions what I should start with? I mean some works good for beginning.


Here are some good ones for you to start with:

Debussy, Ravel: Orchestral Works (8-disc EMI box set with Jean Martinon and Orchestre de Paris, just go ahead and buy this set, it's worth every penny)

Bartok: Concerto For Orchestra (Fritz Reiner and Chicago Symphony Orch.)

Vaughan Williams: The Complete Symphonies (8-disc EMI box set, Sir Adrian Boult, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, New Philharmonia)

Elgar: Orchestral Works (John Barbirolli, London Symp., New Philharmonia, Halle Orchestra, etc.)

Sibelius: The Symphonies; Tone Poems (Neeme Jarvi, Gothernburg Symp.)

Mahler: The Complete Symphonies (Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic)

Bruckner: The Complete Symphonies (9-disc EMI box set, Eugen Jochum, Dresden Staatskapelle)

Shostakovich: The Symphonies (11-disc Decca box set, Bernard Haitink, Royal Concertgebouw, London Philharmonic)

These should get you started. Check all of these out. They come highly recommended from yours truly.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I don't live and breath romantic, but I do like it.

For *Rachmaninoff* it's hard to go wrong with the Piano Concerto No. 2.

If we are to consider* Vaughan-Williams *a romantic composer, I would start with Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis before the symphonies - although they are quiite stunning too.

Although *Brahms*' works are very classical, he composed in the romantic period. Some of that sound and style had to influence him. I think his 4th Symphony is quite romantic.

For *Liszt *I enjoy the tone poem Les Preludes and the Hungarian Rhapsodies (the orchestral versions)

Though he borders on the modern era, *Richard Strauss' *Death and Transfiguration seems to be loaded with romantic histrionics to me. I enjoy it a lot.

I could think of more - but you have a lot already. Enjoy!


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Gonna get it. Thanks a lot.


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## JTech82 (Feb 6, 2009)

Aramis said:


> Gonna get it. Thanks a lot.


Let me know if you need any more help in your final decision.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Romantic composers? There are too many to name. Here's a list of composers to get you started:

Ludwig van Beethoven 
Ferdinando Carulli
Anton Reicha
Bernhard Henrik Crusell 
Johann Nepomuk Hummel 
Fernando Sor 
Mauro Giuliani
Daniel Auber
John Field 
Niccolò Paganini 
Louis Spohr 
George Pinto 
Carl Maria von Weber 
Giacomo Meyerbeer 
Gioacchino Rossini 
Franz Berwald 
Vincenzo Bellini 
Adolphe Adam
Hector Berlioz 
Mikhail Glinka 
Johann Strauss I 
Fanny Mendelssohn 
Felix Mendelssohn 
Frédéric Chopin 
Ferenc Erkel 
Robert Schumann 
Ambroise Thomas 
Louis Antoine Jullien 
Friedrich von Flotow 
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Ernst Haberbier
Giuseppe Verdi 
Richard Wagner
William Sterndale Bennett 
Niels Wilhelm Gade 
Charles Gounod
Jacques Offenbach 
Franz von Suppé 
Clara Schumann 
Gaetano Donizetti 
Franz Schubert 
Joachim Raff 
César Franck
Édouard Lalo 
Anton Bruckner 
Bedřich Smetana 
Jean-Baptiste Arban 
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II 
Louis Moreau Gottschalk 
Jan Gerard Palm 
Alexander Borodin 
Johannes Brahms 
Amilcare Ponchielli 
Camille Saint-Saëns 
Henryk Wieniawski 
Léo Delibes 
Georges Bizet 
Max Bruch 
Modest Mussorgsky 
John Knowles Paine 
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 
Emmanuel Chabrier
Antonín Dvořák 
Jules Massenet 
Arthur Sullivan 
Edvard Grieg 
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Pablo de Sarasate 
Charles-Marie Widor 
Gabriel Fauré 
Ernesto Köhler 
Henri Duparc 
Vincent d'Indy 
Engelbert Humperdinck 
Leoš Janáček 
John Philip Sousa 
Ernest Chausson 
Julius Röntgen 
Edward Elgar 
Cécile Chaminade 
Ruggiero Leoncavallo 
Giacomo Puccini 
Isaac Albéniz 
Gustave Charpentier 
Gustav Mahler 
Richard Strauss
Edward MacDowell 
Hugo Wolf 
Claude Debussy 
Frederick Delius 
Pietro Mascagni 
Ricardo Castro 
Richard Strauss 
Paul Dukas 
Alexander Glazunov 
Carl Nielsen
Jean Sibelius 
Ferruccio Busoni 
Erik Satie 
Umberto Giordano 
Enrique Granados 
Amy Beach 
Albert Roussel 
Franz Lehár 
Oreste Ravanello 
Alexander Zemlinsky 
Ralph Vaughan Williams 
Alexander Scriabin 
Sergei Rachmaninoff 
Max Reger ]
Arnold Schoenberg 
Franz Schmidt 
Reinhold Glière 
Maurice Ravel 
Mieczysław Karłowicz 
Manuel de Falla 
Ottorino Respighi 
Wanda Landowska


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## kratos (Feb 24, 2009)

Weston said:


> Although *Brahms*' works are very classical,


Of course, you're not reffering to his Chamber works, aren´t you?


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## LvB (Nov 21, 2008)

Given the names you mention as having already enjoyed, I would recommend that you investigate the music of Anton Rubinstein, who is the natural heir to one side of the Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Schumann repertoire. You don't specify any particular type of music, so I'll give a few suggestions covering a variety of sounds.

For piano music, start with his huge fourth piano sonata (a minor, Op. 100), preferably in Leslie Howard's recording, which is complete. This has drama, beauty, and even humor (the scherzo is something of a spoof of Chopinesque drama). If you want smaller pieces, try the Opus 109 collection (_Soirees Musicales_).

For chamber music, try the Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 99. Again, this covers a great deal of ground emotionally, with a very grand climax in the last movement. Also impressive are the three violin sonatas, the two violoncello sonatas, and. perhaps most of all, the f minor viola sonata, Op. 49.

His most popular large-scale work is the 4th piano concerto, in d minor, Op. 70; if you like the more extended orchestral approach, try #2 as well. The _Caprice Russe_, Op. 102, is also a strong piece; Tchaikovsky admired it both pianistically and orchestrally. If you can find the currently deleted Valerie Traficante recording on Vox that's the one to get, but I've never heard a bad performance of this on CD.

Orchestrally, the starting point is the second symphony, the famous 'Ocean' (Op. 42, in C Major). Unfortunately, the available recordings are mostly only so-so, but Fuat Mansurov's recording on the Vista Vera label is reasonably good (we need a really top-flight recording of the entire seven movement symphony, as all the better recordings are of only the four movement first version). The 'Russian' symphony (#5, in g minor, Op. 107) is another excellent piece, though the best recording, on Marco Polo/Naxos, seems to be currently unavailable. The 6th (Op. 111, in a minor), now on an Arkiv rerelease, is magnificent, especially the very dramatic first movement.

Enjoy!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

kratos said:


> Of course, you're not reffering to his Chamber works, aren´t you?


I actually meant conservative rather than "classical" and I need to become more familiar with Brahm's chamber works. I mostly know his piano works the large orchestral works.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Tapkaara said:


> Romantic composers? There are too many to name. Here's a list of composers to get you started:
> 
> Ludwig van Beethoven . . . [and a few others]


To get started? Goodness me, I don't recognize a quarter of the names on your list. I'm emailing it to myself at home to get me broadened.

-- I can heartily endorse Max Reger however. So often overlooked and to my ears conveys all the good things about the period.


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## C Fridh (Mar 18, 2009)

Hi!

I would strongly recomend the Swedish composer Hugo Alfven.
Listen to his "Elegi" from the "Gustavus II Adolphus suite"

or "Saa tag mit hjerte", sung by the great tenor Jussi Bjorling.

Also his "Swedish rapsody"

Absolutly fantastic music!!!!

Good luck!

/Christian


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

Samuel Barber, ignore the dates.
Even Berg and Schönberg to an extent.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

Yagan Kiely said:


> Samuel Barber, ignore the dates.
> Even Berg and Schönberg to an extent.


Ditto with Barber and his works. Add to that:
David Diamond and Alan Hovhaness.

Jim


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

Oh: Prokofiev


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## JTech82 (Feb 6, 2009)

Yagan Kiely said:


> Samuel Barber, ignore the dates.


Samuel Barber is an excellent choice, but I find you're mentioning of Berg and Schoenberg to be in poor taste.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

Better than words...

Martin Pitchon


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Bruckner's String Quartet in C minor, and I like the Bylsma et al recording.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*I don't like your list...*

Romantic composers? There are too many to name. Here's a list of composers to get you started:

Ludwig van Beethoven 
Ferdinando Carulli
Anton Reicha
Bernhard Henrik Crusell 
Johann Nepomuk Hummel 
Fernando Sor 
Mauro Giuliani
=====================and about 80 more...................

You even have mentionned Arnold Schönberg! and a guy mentionned Rimsky-Korsakov!!!!!

What is wrong here!

Try Anton Rubinstein!

Martin Pitchon


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