# Box of Delights



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I know almost nothing - came to classical music late. So please, cognoscenti, could you name between one & three pieces by your favourite composer that would be a good place to start? Or a sampler for a lesser-known baroque composer, which is my natural taste - not that tastes don't need expanding.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Not knowing anything is the best place for starting a life of discoveries!

My suggestion is *Sergei Rachmaninoff*

*The Symphonic Dances* (Orchestral) - Philharmonia Orchestra u. Neeme Järvi (Chandos)

*Vesper, All-Night Vigil* (Choral) - St Petersburg Chamber Choir u. Alex. Korniev (Philips)

*Etudes-Tableaux, for piano, Op. 33 & 39* (Piano) - Vladimir Ashkenazy (Eloquence/Decca)

I feel that all of these are quite accessible despite being written in the first half of the 20th century, I've taken the liberty to suggest recording as to lessen the guess work!

And because You are in to the Baroque I cant help but suggesting an anthology with a Swedish composer of that Period:

*Johan Helmich Roman* - _Drottningholmsmusiken _- Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble u. Nils-Erik Sparf & Bjorn Gafvert (Musica Sveciae)

Delightful, light, really like a "light music" version of Handel, this is music written as an entertainment during dinner of a Royal Wedding in 1744.

/ptr


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

My favourite composer is *Mendelssohn* but he's pretty well known. Have you heard any of his string symphonies?

Another little known composer who is highly praised on Talk Classical is Heinreich Biber, check out his "Battalia," some of the stuff in that is centuries ahead of his time! You can hear techniques that made Ives and Bartók famous in a work written in the 1600s!!! I recommend Jordi Savall's recording.


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

ptr said:


> *Johan Helmich Roman* - _Drottningholmsmusiken _- Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble u. Nils-Erik Sparf & Bjorn Gafvert (Musica Sveciae)


I really like Roman, he is one of my favourite baroque composers!

I'll tell you my favourite composers (3), since they are so different. 

Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (full ballet), Le tombeau de Couperin, Piano Concerto in G (the one for the left hand is great too, of course!).
Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music, Symphony no. 2 (A London Symphony), Symphony no. 7 (Sinfonia antartica).
Gershwin: Catfish Row (suite from Porgy and Bess), Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue of course! 

Best regards, Dr


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## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

Recommendations that are among my favorites:

Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Debussy: La Mer


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Brahms: Violin sonatas, clarinet quintet
Grieg: Lyric pieces, Haugtussa song cycle
Chopin: waltzes, preludes, nocturnes


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

JS Bach - Matthew Passion, Cello sonatas, Toccatas and fugues for organ
Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde, Kindertotenlieder, Symphony 4
Brahms - Deutches Requiem, Clarinet quintet, Violin concerto
Schubert - Winterreise, String quintet, Symphony 8 (Unfinished)
Shostakovich - Symphony 7, String quartet 8, Symphony 5
Sibelius - Violin concerto, Tapiola, Symphony 4
Moeran - Cello concerto, Violin concerto, Symphony


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Just a few additions to all these fine recommendations

Grieg - Holberg Suite (The string orchestra version is probably the more popular one)
Prokofiev - Piano concerto no.3
Nielsen - Symphonies 2 and 3


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Baroque music is wonderful! A few that I can recommend are:

André Campra - L'Europe Galante
André Cardinal Destouches - Callirhoé
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Castor et Pollux
Jean-Baptiste Lully - Atys
Antonio Vivaldi - Il Farnace
Purcell - Dido & Aeneas
Any of the cantatas by Nicholas Porpora.
Anything by Monteverdi, Telemann, Buxtehude, Balbastre, and Gluck.
And of course there's the immortal Johann Sebastian Bach, choose any of his works, they're all ingenious.

Edit: Oops! This exceeded your request. But still good works to listen to. I recommend them all. The above lists are also excellent; go through them first, definitely!


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

This disc is a lovely baroque sampler, combining soprano, trumpet and a baroque band.

There are several composers on here that could be investigated further.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Of-Baroque-Trumpet/dp/B0000014EZ/ref=dp_return_1?ie=UTF8&n=229816&s=music


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Baroque trumpet must be the best brass instrument. 

Best regards, Dr


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Definitely, we saw Crispian Steele-Perkins at Wymondham Abbey last year and he played an excellent version of Handel's water music - on a hosepipe!







He was also excellent on trumpet as well!


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Haydn: Symphony 44
Haydn: Symphony 45

and the choice one of all:

Haydn: Symphony 43


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

*Distilling the essence of 19th C. Program Romanticism...*

... so you don't have to.

Hans Knappertbusch conducts Wagner's Prelude to Act III of _Lohengrin._

A Bolshoi performance of the final 2½ minutes of Act II from Tchaikovsky's _Swan Lake_.
[Best I can do, limiting it to you tube]

The Slovak Philharmonic in a sufficiently idiomatic performance of Franz von Suppé's Overture to _Boccaccio_. 
[It's not exactly unknown Suppé- 
but it's a worthy work whose melodies have thus far escaped the calliopes, cartoons, and commercials.]


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Woah! Start anywhere. Anywhere at all. I thought you were already well into it based on your other knowledgeable comments.

My recommendation for not so well known baroque would be any set of concertos by Wilhem Friedemann Bach, who wrote some wonderfully quirky counterpoint loaded with chromaticism. They're just good fun. (Okay, they are somewhere between baroque and classical, but they sound baroque enough to me.)


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Ingenue said:


> I know almost nothing - came to classical music late. So please, cognoscenti, could you name between one & three pieces by your favourite composer that would be a good place to start? Or a sampler for a lesser-known baroque composer, which is my natural taste - not that tastes don't need expanding.


Sometimes we are lucky enough to find 3 (or more) top notch works by the one composer on the one cd which kind of covers many bases without the listeners taking too much trouble to get loads of stuff.

Some of my favourites in this regards are:

*Kodaly*: Psalmus Hungaricus, Dances of Marosszek and of Galanta, Hary Janos Suite (RIAS Orchestra of Berlin under Ferenc Fricsay on Deutsche Grammophon label) - these are old recordings but the sound is good and this conductor was taught by Kodaly, so its got that sort of authenticity.










*Bloch*: Violin Concerto, Baal Shem, Suite hebraique (on Naxos label - Zina Schiff on violin with Royal Scottish National Orch. under Jose Serebrier) - Three of Bloch's works featuring solo violin, the concerto incorporates rhythms/melodies inspired by Native American music, the other two are in Bloch's classic 'Jewish' style.










*Sculthorpe*: Sun Musics I-IV, Piano Concerto, Irkanda IV, Small Town (Melbourne Symphony Orch. under various conductors & soloists, ABC Classics label) - this may be harder to get overseas but I think its worth it, still one of my fav recordings. A good selection of music by Australia's best known living classical composer. Sound quality is a bit dated but not too bad.










& if you can't get that, this Naxos cd of Sculthorpe's music has the piano concerto and also two works I really like, Kakadu and Earth Cry. I've not heard it but some TC members said its good.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Weston said:


> Woah! Start anywhere. Anywhere at all. I thought you were already well into it based on your other knowledgeable


 ... comments (missed it off, sorry!)

Weston, that's nice of you to say -  - but my knowledge is very patchy (though growing all the time because 1) my violin teacher is a baroque specialist (plays with La Serenissima) and 2) lovely websites like this). Being a retired teacher, I wanted to get it all into some sort of framework; and also, I'd love to be able 'get the point' when two forumites are debating the merits of particular composers or works.

I'm so grateful for all the recommendations - so far, and I hope it IS 'so far' - and when the thread is finished, I'm going to try & listen to the suggested works, or bits of them, on YouTube etc. What an enjoyable way to learn: thank you, thank you, thank you!


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## rrudolph (Sep 15, 2011)

You used the phrase "Box of Delights" and this is the first thing that came to my mind:

Ricercar Consort: Guide des Instruments Baroques RIC 93001









This 3-disc set contains many and varied examples of baroque repertoire, including not only the usual harpsichord, string, voice, organ etc. but also performance on some of the more obscure baroque instruments such as Tromba Marina, Oboe da Caccia, Serpent and the like. It comes with a thick booklet with descriptions and pictures of most of the instruments. An excellent overview of baroque styles, including some of the odder ones.

This has been a favorite of mine since I bought it about 10 years ago.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> ... I wanted to get it all into some sort of framework; and also, I'd love to be able 'get the point' when two forumites are debating the merits of particular composers or works.


This box set is good then because it is a taster which runs from the 16th century right up to date. It includes instrumental, orchestral, chamber & choral works and therefore provides a good starting point for discovering the various classical styles in the past few hundred years.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EMI-Eminenc...SH9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362421337&sr=8-1


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I don't have a "favorite" composer or even a favorite work by individual composers because there's so much of it I love . But welcome to the wonderful world of classical music ! It's never too late to get started .
You could start with works by Bach such as the Brandenburg concertos , the Goldberg variations,
the B minor mass, the St. Matthew passion , the four orchestral suites , the Well Tempered clavier etc,
Handel's Messiah , his Water music , Concerti grossi etc. , The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, than progress to 
symphonies by Joseph Haydn such as nos 88, 94, 100-104, his oratorio The Creation, and then to Mozart 
with his symphonies 35, 36,38, 39,40, 41, piano concertos 20 through 27, violin concertos 3,4,5,
the four horn concertos, the clarinet concerto , etc. 
Then : Beethoven, the nine symphonies, the five piano concertos, the violin concerto, piano sonatas with the nicknames "Moonlight", Pathetique", Appassionata", Leonire overture no 3, Egmont overture ,
Coriolan overture , etc. 
And then on to music by Schubert,Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Saint-Saens, 
Cesar Franck, etc. And then on to music by 20th century composers .
I also recommend you get this excellent book by pianist and teacher David Dubal : The Essential Canon of Classical Music, which is easily vailable at amazon.com etc . It explains classicla music in a clear and 
non-patronizing manner and will be a big help to you .


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

Hmmm, this is a tough one.
To start off with 3 selections from my favorites, here is what I recommend:
Tchaikovsky - Symphonies 4-6 - Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra on DG







Bach - Goldberg Variations - Murray Perahia on Sony







Mahler - Symphony No. 2 - Otto Klemperer conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on EMI








For lesser-known Baroque composers, there is a wealth of choices, depending on what you consider lesser-known. I guess for the general public, they don't know much beyond Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel. I recommend Biber. He has some wonderful masses, as well as some incredible violin pieces. My recommendation from him is the "Rosary" violin sonatas by Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr on Harmonia Mundi. Additionally, there is also a wonderful album of violin sonatas from Rebel, also performed by Manze, Egarr, and ter Linden:







One final one:
Schmelzer's violin sonatas, performed by Romanesca (which includes Andrew Manze):


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## vertigo (Jan 9, 2013)

Start with something easy and cheerful. I suggest Wozzeck:angel:


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

:angel:
Being ignorant, but also a little suspicious, I just looked it up. Thanks!


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I'll do a few, I reckon. These are all 20th century composers, although each of widely different style. I'll also give my recommended recording by way of <performer>/ and I suppose that will be that.

*Messiaen* - _Turangalîla-Symphonie_ (Wit/Naxos) / _Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus_ (Loriod/Erato)
*Carter* - _String Quartet No. 2_ (Pacifica SQ/Naxos _or_ Juilliard SQ/Sony) / _Symphony of Three Orchestras_ (Boulez/Sony)
*Zimmermann* - _Trumpet Concerto 'Nobody knows the trouble I see'_ (Friedrich/Capriccio) / _Die Soldaten_ (Kontarsky/Teldec)
*Feldman* - _Oboe and Orchestra_ (Vis/Hat Hut Records) / _For Samuel Beckett_ (Tamayo/Hat Hut Records)

Well, that's enough to be getting on with, I reckon. Enjoy? I hope you do!


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)




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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Crudblud said:


> *Feldman* - _Oboe and Orchestra_ (Vis/Hat Hut Records) / _For Samuel Beckett_ (Tamayo/Hat Hut Records)


I've been thinking about it, and I think _Beckett_ might be a bit much, it's very static even by Feldman standards, and I think actually the piece _Rothko Chapel_ should take its place for a "beginner" perhaps.


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