Early period classical I love harpsichord chamber music, coming as it does right at the beginning of modern music. Before this music was much more influenced by church use. This music is the first intended to be listened to in a concert style setting, hence the name chamber music! It has a simplicity and pureness and it was a period of innovation and discovery. My personal favorite is the music by Jean-Philippe Rameau.
I always feel the best way into enjoying classical is the violin concertos of the following period. Weāre getting now into the earlier period of orchestral music. The instruments and rules of composition are more developed and you begin to get some of the greats. I always suggest works by Vivaldi. The Four Seasons concertos are a lovely listen. Earlier classical lacks the bombastic and baroque complexity of the later music which can be hard to take with modern ears.
The famous works from the height of classical, the Late Baroque period, Bach, Mozart et al are great fun but are not always a relaxing listen. Iād never suggest them to someone who wants to dip a toe. Having said that Mozart is about as metal as you can get before the invention of the electric guitar!
Operas in particular are sometimes a hard listen - not because they are not beautiful but because it is like listening to a recording of a stage play. Without the visuals you are missing a huge amount of the nuances of performance. I love live opera but struggle to listen to a recording.
Late period classical can get a bit over the top, Iām not personally a fan of composers such as Wagner. The bombastic and self importance tends to put me off. An exception is Holst although he overlaps with Modern Classical and probably is best seen as part of the transition phase away from Late Classical to Modern
Modern Classical is my favorite, especially early 20th Century. I love the Musique Concrete of Satie and the concertos of Bela Bartok. For very late 20th century I like music such as that by Wim Mertens.
Re: The Planets. My old standby was Karajan/Berlin, but for a more modern higher res version the Jurowski/London is very good. Also this YT of the youth symphony at BBC Proms is great funhttps://youtu.be/MgIOBa4vK2E https://youtu.be/MgIOBa4vK2E
Any suggestions for Dvorak : New World Symphony
Iāve been listening to the Frank Reiner Chicago Symphony version, but interested if anyone has a different suggestion.
I love electronic music as much as I do classical (or Western Art Music as a teacher I had long ago would require us to call it).
Good electronic music can have well thought out composition, and complex arrangements. The added benefit of how sounds can be layered and play with the soundstage and where they image is something else I love about well engineered pieces
Iām a little late with my reply, but I wanted to second Istvan Kertesz with the London Symphony Orchestra, which is a pretty thrilling performance. My other joint favorites are Mackerras with the Prague Symphony Orchestra (also thrilling) and Ivan Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. I also like the Reiner, which you already have.
Harnoncourtās Dvorak 9 got a lot of great reviews but it just didnāt engage me. I seem to either love or hate Harnoncourtās performances, never in between. Maybe youāll like it.
Kubelik with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra also gets a lot of love, and I like it, but itās another that didnāt quite hit the spot for me, compared to the above list.
I use Apple Music and Iāve been happy with it. I think the quality is on par with Qobuz, and better than Tidal (I had all three prior to Apple launching lossless).
I felt this was a pretty good comparison of the popular streaming services.
TBH, I havenāt used Apple Music yet, but thatās because I got used to using Amazon HD before my wife expanded her Apple subscription to include me. I generally use Amazon for music exploration, and then buy the CD or download if I want to keep it (an old habit of wanting to own my music, which Iām trying to break).
I am quite used to AMHD now, though Hate their search function! Quality is a little thinner than Primephonic was, so I will probably at least ck Apple.
Just got a notice from ndr klassik. Live concert soonā¦11am CST today.
Brahms Requiem. Iāve not seen their live streams before so am interested to
compare with A/V quality of the ones from Frankfurt.
Nice job on the Brahms. I enjoyed the conductor as well. One of my favorite works. Iāve had the pleasure of singing it as well as playing it (timpani.)
Perhaps not quite the A/V quality of Frankfurt @hr-sinfonieorchester, but itās
amazing we can watch a live performance like this at all.
