# Need Help. Looking for Classical Music Suggestions



## calvary64 (Mar 12, 2018)

Hello,

I love listening to classical music but I'm not very knowledgeable about the genre in general. I would say that the type of classical music that I love to listen to could be described as "gloomy". Being that I don't know a lot about classical music, it can be difficult to find new music for my library that I like. I've tried Pandora and other similar sites but it seems that I have to go through 100 songs to find one that I like. Could anyone help me by suggesting songs/pieces (I don't know what the correct term would be LOL) that fit the type of music I'm looking for? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've listed some of the songs/pieces that I currently have. And the instrument featured doesnt really matter just the feel and tone of the song/piece. Thanks

Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement- Beethoven
Pathetique- Beethoven
Gymnopedie- Satie
Ave Maria
Prelude in C major- Bach
Ase's Death- Grieg
Traumerei
Prelude No. 15- Chopin
Prelude in E minor- Chopin


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

calvary64 said:


> suggesting songs/pieces (I don't know what the correct term would be LOL)


The correct term would be compositions, although pieces or works can be used as well.

Good luck on your discovery journey!

Some suggestions:

Nocturnes - Chopin
Symphony 8 'unfinished' - Schubert
Fingal's cave - Mendelssohn
The old castle - Mussorgsky
Adagio for strings - Barber


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I would say that, if you are in USA, listen to an NPR station when it is broadcasting music. If you are in UK listen to one of the BBC stations. It seems to me you are trying to program your own music without knowing what you like. Let someone else do the programming until you have a better idea of your own interest.

I'm sure this is now an old-fashioned idea but you may also want to read a book or two about classical music and recordings of same. When I was just starting I found this very helpful.

I might recommend the only edition of the All Music Guide to Classical Music published 2005. You will be able to find this used online, no doubt. The All Music Guide also has a website but I think you may find this more confusing than helpful.


----------



## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

Sibelius _Symphony No. 4_

Thank you and goodnight


----------



## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Hi there and welcome to TC . I would suggest the basics such as Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. 

Therefore

Beethoven Symphony no 5
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no 1

These two are usually good starters. 

Looking forward to your posts


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

You want gloomy? Here you go:

1) Silvestrov - symphony 5 (very modern, very gloomy moody. Profoundly moving.)
2) Gorecki - symphony 3 (ditto)
3) Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic (unbelievable gloom and despair for its whole length)
4) Any symphony of Humphrey Searle (hope you like serialism)
5) Sibelius - Tapiola
6) Franz Schmidt - Symphony 4 (besides being dark, and gloomy at times, is also insanely beautiful)
7) Alan Petterson - almost everything this composer wrote is gloomy, despairing, sad. Try the 9th symphony


----------



## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

You might enjoy Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.


----------



## Genoveva (Nov 9, 2010)

Here's a few pieces with a sad tinge that you might try:

1	.	Albinoni - Adagio in G minor 
2	.	Allegri - Miserere 
3	.	Barber - Adagio for strings	
4	.	Haydn - Seven last Words - string quartet version Sonata 2 " Hodie mecum .." 
5	.	Mozart - Requiem - Lacrimosa 
6	.	Part - Spiegel im Spiegel 
7	.	Puccini - La Boheme - "Sono Andati" 
8	.	Purcell - Dido's lament 
9	.	Schubert - Du bist die Ruh (Fischer-Diskeau version is best imo) 
10	.	Schubert - Im abendrot (Fritz Wunderlich version is best imo) 
11	.	Schubert - String Quintet D 956, second movement "adagio" 
12	.	Strauss (Richard) - Four last songs no 3 "Beim Schlafengehen" 
13	.	Strauss (Richard) - Metamorphosen for strings 
14	.	Wagner - Götterdämmerung -"Siegfried's funeral march"

......

Nos 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 are vocal pieces.

If you are new to classical music, don't write off anything immediately; give it a few tries as a lot of this material can grow on you.


----------



## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Another approach is to to seek out more of what you already like. So why not get a complete set of Beethoven sonatas? Some may disappoint, but i suspect that most will hit the spot. The performer is also very important. I recommend starting with Stephen Kovacevich's set, recently released in a budget CD box on Warner, or easily available on streaming. It won a Penguin rosette, and I think deservedly so. The other rosette winner (Kempff) I generally find a bit staid and not as well recorded (it's old and mono). 

Kempff might grow on me, he's subtle, but Stephen is so direct that I think he's more likely to be instantly appealing to a beginner. I had difficulty finding versions of the early sonatas that I liked, but I found that Stephen does a great job on the first 8, so (if you are on my wavelength) you get off to a good start. He is also my desert island pick for the two you mention (8 and 14). He recently won the BBC Building a Library for 8. Also I think he is on the dark and gloomy side of interpreters. And you can compare Stephen on top form with the ones you already have - it's always fun to compare different versions of works you really like.

Then you can move sideways into the symphonies (Beethoven does "gloomy" very well in all genres!) The Karajan '63 set is on the gloomy side, and is great in many other ways. (Careful to get the right set, some later sets from Karajan are not as good...)

And what about Beethoven's string quartets? They get very gloomy. The Takacs quartet are highly recommended for these.

Mozart also does gloomy very well - start with Perahia's set of Piano Concertos (also now available in a bargain box.) But, as with Beethoven, there are dozens of gloomy masterpieces from most genres In Mozart's repertoire (amongst the operas Don Giovani is the really gloomy one... also try his Requiem...)


----------



## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

Liszt - Liebestraum
Liszt - La lugubre gondole - two versions 1882 and 1885 solo piano, but there are versions with piano and cello
Liszt - Anees de pelerinage 
Liszt - Transcendental etudes
Rachmaninov - the Isle of the Dead - symphonic poem
Rachmaninov - variations on the theme of Corelli, especially the prelude in C sharp minor Op.3 No2, also prelude in G sharp minor Op.32 no.12
Brahms - Fantasies op.116
Handel - Sarabande
Purcell - What Power Art Thou (The Cold Genius) aria from King Arthur
Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit 
Schubert- Fantasia for two pianos d.940
Schubert impromptu op. 90 no. 3 
Schubert - Der Leiermann (from the song cycle Winterreise although all Winterreise is as gloomy as one could wish)
Tchaikovsky - Barcarolle
William Bolcom - Graceful Ghost
Faure- Pavane especially choral version






Biber - sonata no.2 - from Romanesca album played by Andrew Manze






Arvo Part - Fratres






Also if you're looking to buy an album you can listen to track samples from 'Lieux Retrouves' cd (Steven Isserlis cello) on the hyperion record label website - you might like what you hear


----------



## calvary64 (Mar 12, 2018)

A Thank you to everyone who has posted... These lists will be very helpful. Much appreciated.


----------



## Boston Charlie (Dec 6, 2017)

A lot of people come on to these classical music discussion forums looking for advice on how to get started, how to branch out and so forth. While all the suggestions here are good ones, I'd like to emphasize the idea that classical music is a genre that takes some time and effort. There are a good many outstanding works of classical music that I didn't "get" until after the second, third or fourth hearings; and some things I shelved and didn't enjoy until I came back to it years later. 

Changes in technology have made the listening experience different. When I started out in classical music as a teenager, it was still the days of LPs, which had to be purchased in a store, and being on a budget, I could only be purchased one or maybe a few at a time. Along this line, those limits made it so that I was able to concentrate on each new recording and work with it at length in order to understand it. Now that YouTube, Alexa, streaming and so forth makes the listening experience limitless in scope and instant in acquisition, the tendency to listen for while and move on, I think, facilitates a less mindful approach. 

My advice to any newcomer to the wonderful world of classical music: take your time; have patience, slow and steady wins the race; sometimes the roots are bitter but the fruit is sweet.


----------



## Bill Pearce (Mar 13, 2018)

I am feeling a bit of nostalgia thinking about where to start with classical music. I also did it as a teenager (possibly inspired by a 78 rpm set we had at home way back when, entitled "Rusty in Orchestraville." Anyway, I went to a record strore (I think it was about early 1954) and just picked two lp's I thoght I would like (and I was right): Beethoven's Eroica Symphony (No. 3) and a Haydn symphony (No. 100, I think). That began the weekly consumption of my allowance. Then about the same time my grandmother gave me for my birthday a box set of the complete Chopin Etudes (45 rpm), which I played over and over again. Many years later now I have thousands of CD's and LP's but I can't say just how I have decided which ones to buy and when, but I have accumulated music dating from medieval times to about 1940 or so, and I love it. I studied piano for many years, which is useful if you have a chance, as you necessarily learn a lot about music in general doing that.


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Schumann: Fünf Stücke im Volkston, op.102
Bach: Cello suites
Nyman: Trysting Fields (from Drowning by Numbers), and the slow movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, K.364, on which it's based
Leifs: Requiem, op.33b


----------



## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Any and all of Beethoven's odd numbered symphonies.


----------



## Beet131 (Mar 24, 2018)

Here are a few selections that I'm not sure have been mentioned. Most are movements within larger works, although not all. The gloomiest music I know comes from the 4th movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique." It is dripping with melancholy. The 2nd movement Andante of Barber's Violin Concerto is both gorgeous and somber. Max Bruch's Adagio Appassionato for Violin and Orchestra, Chopin's Mazurka No. 4 in A minor, Op. 17, Dvorak's Largo from Symphony No. 9 "New World," Elgar's "Sospiri," Puccini's "Chrysanthemums," Ravel's "Pavanne for a Dead Princess," Schubert's 2nd movement of String Quartet No. 14 "Death and the Maiden," Schumann's 3rd movement of his Symphony No. 2 "Adagio Espressivo," Shostakovich's 2nd movement Andante of Piano Concerto No. 2, the final movement "Nacht" from Richard Strauss' "Alpine Symphony," the second movement "Andante Cantabile" from Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1, Tchaikovsky's "Serenade Melancolique for Violin and Orchestra,"Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus" by Vaughan Williams. In each case, though there is a feeling of melancholy and brooding there is still great beauty in all of these pieces. So many great composers here to discover!


----------



## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Many of Bach's solo violin pieces have a very melancholy feel to them. I'd very much recommend his 2nd violin partita in d minor; this is my favourite interpretation of the work:


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

A lot of Arvo Part instrumental stuff is nice and Moody but if you wanna go the whole hog then Suk's Asrael Symphony is enough to depress you for years to come.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

calvary64 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I love listening to classical music but I'm not very knowledgeable about the genre in general. I would say that the type of classical music that I love to listen to could be described as "gloomy". Being that I don't know a lot about classical music, it can be difficult to find new music for my library that I like. I've tried Pandora and other similar sites but it seems that I have to go through 100 songs to find one that I like. Could anyone help me by suggesting songs/pieces (I don't know what the correct term would be LOL) that fit the type of music I'm looking for? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've listed some of the songs/pieces that I currently have. And the instrument featured doesnt really matter just the feel and tone of the song/piece. Thanks
> 
> ...


The opening movement of the Mahler Symphony No. 5 and the final movement of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 might interest you.


----------

