# Your future listening goals



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Just wondering what everyone's short-term (6-24 months) listening goals were, if you had any. New styles, new composers, "listening projects". Or, if you want to branch out: non-classical listening goals or even performance/practice goals.

My short term goal in the next 6 months is to not purchase any new music, as I have a large collection that includes a big unlistened to pile, and many that have been listened to only once.

My goals in the following year or so after that: 1) Beethoven piano sonatas. I'm deliberately postponing for now until I'm really familiar with all of my extant solo piano music. But I look forward to picking out a version of his complete sonatas and really getting to know each one.

2) There are a handful of composers who I either don't know any of the music, or I only know a limited output. So once I start exploring music I don't already own, I'd like to delve into the following composers: *Prokofiev, CPE Bach, Delius, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saens, and Liszt*. But they will have to wait awhile.


----------



## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Outside of my desire to flesh out my grasp of C.P.E. Bach, I really don't have any specific listening goals other than to catch up on listening to the endless recordings sitting in my "to be listened to" pile.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Nothing specific. Just got a bit of 'music overload.' So I'm listening to many old favourites now, not branching out that much compared to before.

I anticipate that I will listen to less music in next few years compared to the previous 3-4 years in which I listened to many pieces and composers who I discovered for the first time.

I have also largely stopped purchasing recordings, esp. brand new ones. Also got a large 'to listen to' pile, about 2 or 3 dozen.

I have been reducing going to classical music concerts and I anticipate going to a few non-classical concerts to alleviate the monotony kind of creeping in.

In terms of long term projects, its acquiring on cd pieces I had on tape (deteriorating). A lot of that is the three B's - I've been making inroads into that - and also other composers.


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I have about a million of them all going at once. People say I should slow down but they just don't understand, man.


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I'm working on building out my music server... Ripping, tagging, dumping to the server. It's going to take two more years I think.

Listening-wise, I'm interested in Bach, Mozart and lesser known Russian composers right now.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Lately I haven't been driven by a focused listening ambition, just going with the flow. This shift was set in stone when my classical fixation of a few years was disrupted last week by listening to rock music on my trip, as that was all that was available. Before that, I was discovering Arthur Sullivan and lighter classics more thoroughly. And before that I was working on my sight reading with English Virginal music. But my curiosity for Wagner, and to a lesser extent, Chopin and Mahler is increasing.


----------



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I'm discovering opera at the moment, sparked by a sudden interest in 'The Ring', so I hope that this is going to engage me for some time to come.
Otherwise, I have a ton of music waiting to be appreciated with too little time to really get started. At the top of the list would be:
- Bruckner symphonies (I have the Paternostro box set)
- Shostakovich 14 (the only symphony of his that I have so far been unable to get to grips with)
- Brian symphonies (not all of them, but I really want to know the Gothic and several of the other earlier symphonies. The only one I know and understand at the moment is the 6th).
- Mahlers' 5th and 9th. I love the first movements of both, but other than that I can't get along with them at all.


----------



## Avengeil (Aug 16, 2011)

I'm planning on listening to all of Beethoven's string quartet's while reading the score getting aquainted with it and also reading analysis of the works so that I can understand them better...I'm at the second one he wrote at the moment (chronologically) Op. 18 No. 1 F major...


----------



## principe (Sep 3, 2012)

After some more than three decades of llistening and attending concerts in various ways, I'm concentrating in specialised ways of listening experiences, such as:
- Works of the great Classical composers based on the tonality, e.g. Beethoven in f minor, Haydn in E flat, Mozart in g minor, etc. It's quite revelatory to discover that every piece by Mozart in the minor mode is a musical gem, most of the time, of first order. He used the minor tonalities sparingly, but to create some of his most monumental masterpieces (String Quintet in g minor, Violin Sonata in e-minor, Symphony no.40 in g minor, Don Giovanni -in d minor-, Requiem, in d minor too, etc.)
- Tracing works in more difficult or rare tonalities: How many works do we know in b minor or, even worse, in b flat minor or in e- flat minor? 
- Listening to works of the same tonality but by different composers of the same -more or less- period. For example, how Beethoven treats a C major Symphony or String Quartet or Piano Sonata vis a vis Haydn, Mozart or Schubert.
So, there is much to explore, in various ways, with a view to discovering how the Great composers worked out their final precious products.

Principe


----------



## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

Over the next month or so I want to listen to lots of Bach again and some new Orchestral Music which I have added to my collection recently. As a long term goal I want to cut down or stop purchasing new music altogether (very hard though!) and become familiar with all the music I already own.


----------



## Morgante (Jul 26, 2012)

Tristan und Isolde.


----------



## mensch (Mar 5, 2012)

Sonata said:


> 1) Beethoven piano sonatas. I'm deliberately postponing for now until I'm really familiar with all of my extant solo piano music. But I look forward to picking out a version of his complete sonatas and really getting to know each one.


You're in for a treat!

I'm currently in the process of listening to the Lieder of Schubert and Schumann. After that I'd like to focus on John Adams.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

In the short term, Schubert symphonies. In the long term, Scriabin, Bruckner, Schnittke, Lully.


----------



## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Short term (well not that short) Haydn's symphonies in numerical order.
Short-mid term CPE Bach

I'll continue to keep trying Wagner too.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I've been meaning to get the now almost mythical Svetlanov set of all 27 Myaskovsky symphonies for so long . 
Also to hear more of the Havergal Brian symphonies , (will we ever get an integral set?) , as well as to hear things like more of the Kurt Atterberg symphonies, the Natur symphonie of Siegmund von Hausegger ( best known as a conductor in his day, music by Felix Weingartner, also much more famous as a conductor,
more music by Wilhelm Furtwangler ( I like the second symphony a lot), the Mieczyslaw Weinberg symphonies,
the long forgotten operas by Siegfried Wagner, son of the mighty Richard , which have recently appeared on CD, music by Brian Ferneyhough , Harrison Birtwistle , and zillions of other things outside the standard repertoire . Plus Verdi's first opera Oberto, the only one of his operas I haven't heard on CD , (the Philips recording conducted by of all people Neville Marriner has just been reissued on Decca), Wagner's first two operas Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot (The Fairies and the Ban on Love ), etc.


----------



## Carpenoctem (May 15, 2012)

I need to explore Baroque music more, it's such a huge era, so much stuff to listen to.


----------



## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Outside of my desire to flesh out my grasp of C.P.E. Bach, I really don't have any specific listening goals other than to catch up on listening to the endless recordings sitting in my "to be listened to" pile.


This is where I am. I have just taken a vow to not buy any CDs for a year while I get caught up on my current library. As a relative newbie, however, I am in the position that I am still taking chunks out of the 'repertoire' and essential listening recommendations. I tend to do a lot of repeated listenings instead of sitting down and listening to things once or twice. Anything outside of recordings I do not currently own I can get from YouTube or internet radio.

Specifically what I think I need to focus on more:

Bruckner Symphonies
Later 20th Century works
Haydn Symphonies
Richard Strauss


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

No goals. Just go with the flow. See where it carries me.


----------



## Guest (Sep 5, 2012)

I built up a largish (> 800 albums) collection over the last three years or so. I've greatly reduced new acquisitions and am focusing on becoming more familiar with works I already have.

Who are my 10 favorite composers? Dunno. Which is my favorite Beethoven Piano Sonata? Uh... What is my favorite work by Saint-Saens? Hmmm. I feel so ignorant.

At one point I probably knew every note on my favorite albums by Moody Blues / Pink Floyd / Dire Straits / R.E.M. / Talking Heads / Peter Gabriel / New Order / etc / etc. My familiarity with my classical music collection is almost nil in comparison. I'd like to narrow that gap.


----------



## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

Mine is to just get through the stuff I've downloaded. There is hours of music I haven't even listened to yet or only heard once.


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

BPS said:


> At one point I probably knew every note on my favorite albums by Moody Blues / Pink Floyd / Dire Straits / R.E.M. / Talking Heads / Peter Gabriel / New Order / etc / etc. My familiarity with my classical music collection is almost nil in comparison. I'd like to narrow that gap.


I was in exactly that same place once. Then I heard Wagner and Cab Calloway and it was like the scales fell off my eyes and I realized how much more great music there was to hear that I hadn't even considered yet. I've ever gone back to Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel. It just feels like there are much bigger fish to fry.


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

BPS said:


> I built up a largish (> 800 albums) collection over the last three years or so. I've greatly reduced new acquisitions and am focusing on becoming more familiar with works I already have.
> 
> Who are my 10 favorite composers? Dunno. Which is my favorite Beethoven Piano Sonata? Uh... What is my favorite work by Saint-Saens? Hmmm. I feel so ignorant.
> 
> At one point I probably knew every note on my favorite albums by Moody Blues / Pink Floyd / Dire Straits / R.E.M. / Talking Heads / Peter Gabriel / New Order / etc / etc. My familiarity with my classical music collection is almost nil in comparison. I'd like to narrow that gap.


The Moody Blues and Pink Floyd Rule.


----------



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Indeed neoshredder. I love classical but I never want to turn away from my other genres of music as a result of listening to it. Blues, progressive metal, symphonic metal, good old rock, etc etc. I enjoy the variety.


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I listened to progressive rock when I was in college, and I thought it was sophisticated, deep and skillful. But when I heard classical and jazz, I found all of those things magnified by a hundred. I eventually learned that even blues, country and folk music could be skillful and profound. Latin, Pop Vocals, etc etc. Now when I listen to the music I liked in the early 80s, I cringe. It's so pretentious and flaccid. The only music in that genre that still holds up for me is Steely Dan.


----------



## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

Steely Dan rules--and always has!


----------



## xRIOSxx (Sep 8, 2012)

I've been listening to Mahler a lot recently. I've always liked him, but now I'm really trying to get into his music and gain a strong understanding of it, which can prove to be monumental considering the depth of some of the works. I'm only listening to symphonies 4 and 6 right now, I'll buy the others when the Gergiev/LSO collection releases in the fall. Also looking into some Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Their music has their own unique flavors that I find quite charming.


----------



## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Oh dear.

I have the rest of Wagner's Ring Cycle to watch over the next few days.
14 Beethoven piano trios
I want to go through the Beethoven symphonies again.
95 Haydn symphonies in going through the complete set.
And my new recordings of Mahler 9, along with a general re-examination of his works and my recordings thereof.


----------



## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

For the following days I decide to listen to mine string concertos in historical recordings, on versions very little know or now forgotten. Beggining tomorrow.


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

My listening core of about 130 composers should suffice. I envision only recs of some of these composers works being added.


----------



## opus55 (Nov 9, 2010)

I'm so clueless so I just buy and listen to whatever grabs my attention.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Two life goals:

1) Hear as much Russian music as possible. I want to become (hopefully not just self-proclaimed) an expert, historian and musicologist for Russian music, and if I could become even more specific, a historian and musicologist for Glazunov. <3

2) Gain a better understanding of avant-garde music and acquire a serious taste for it. I mean, I already do have a good understanding, but I want to grow more and more, as far as I can, and still be myself.


----------



## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

My listening core of about 130 composers should suffice. I envision only recs of some of these composers works being added.

My listening has been heading more into this direction. Maybe 7 or 10 years ago I had reached the point where I had a solid grasp of the so-called "core repertoire". In reality this was the "old school" core repertoire that included only J.S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Scarlatti from the Baroque; Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and one or two odd works by other composers from the Classical-era, a whole lot of composers from the Romantic and early-Modernist periods... and almost nothing from the Medieval, Renaissance, or Post-WWII periods. Over the past 5-7 years I have made a concerted effort to gain a greater grasp of the periods beyond Romanticism and Early-Modernism. I'm now at the point where I rarely ever happen upon a composer that is truly new to me... let alone a "new" composer who blows me away and continues to blow me away after an extended number of listens. Yes, I'm still fleshing out my grasp of the Baroque or the Classical era. Boccherini and C.P.E. Bach are composers I am currently exploring in greater depth. But in all reality, I am far more focused upon "new" (to me) recordings of personal favorites. Among the purchases I have made over the past few months alternative recordings of the core repertoire that I have made include:

Ferenc Fricsay- Beethoven 9th
Karl Richter- Bach's Mass in B-minor
Philippe Herreweghe- Bach's Mass in B-minor
Leon Fleischer/George Szell- Box set: Beethoven and Brahms Piano Concertos
Ferenc Fricsay- Mozart's Don Giovanni
Yehudi Menuhin- Bach's solo violin sonatas and partitas
Gidon Kremer- Bach's solo violin sonatas and partitas
Toscanini- Beethoven's 9th
Pappano/Netrebko/DiDonato- Rossini Stabat Mater
Karl Bohm- Strauss' Salome (live)
Arrau/Szeryng/Starker/Brendel- Beethoven's Triple Concerto/Choral Fantasy
2 versions of Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel
Ansermet's Debussy Pelleas...

I don't see this as avoiding new musical experiences... but rather as digging deeper within a repertoire that I already know and love. I can no longer see the value in buying yet another work by Schoenberg or Ligeti or Babbit when the pleasure these works bring is so limited. I find far more joy in discovering Lisa della Casa's marvelous performances of Mozart or Strauss... or Yehudi Menuhin's stunning youthful rendering of Bach's solo violin works.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Right now getting more familiarized with Opera in general but starting with gaining a better familiarity with the Operas of Wagner, Mozart, Monteverdi, Handel and Britten.


----------

