Music part 3: classical

I learned a lot about classical music from music courses when I was in university. One course took place over a month in Vienna, where we went to concerts virtually every evening.

I’ve recently renewed my interest in classical music, listening to music I haven’t listened to in years and also picking up some music I’d never listened to before.

Artists I’ve seen live: DaCapo Chamber Choir (I also used to sing in this choir), Mark DuBois, and the Silk Road Ensemble (with Yo-Yo Ma). I’ve also seen the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, and the Vienna Symphony on multiple occasions.

For the first three lists, I’m mentioning names of pieces rather than album titles — I thought it would be easier to see what I was talking about (some album titles are vague).

Composers I have multiple albums from:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach — Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concertos, Mass in B Minor…
  • Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphonies No. 1 – 9, Piano Concertos No. 4 & 5, Piano Sonatas…
  • George Frideric Handel — Royal Fireworks, Water Music, Messiah, Larghetto from Xerxes…
  • Gustav Mahler — Symphonies No. 1 – 10
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Symphonies No. 31, 40 & 41…
  • Sergei Prokofiev — Lieutenant Kijé Suite, Romeo & Juliet, Symphony No. 1…
  • Franz Shubert — Symphonies No. 5, 8 & 9, Piano Quintet “Trout”

Composers I have one amazing album from:

  • Hector Berlioz — Symphonie Fantastique
  • Aaron Copland — Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Fanfare For The Common Man
  • Antonín Dvorák — Symphony No. 9, Slavonic Dances, Stabat Mater
  • Edward Elgar — Enigma Variations
  • Leonard Enns — Logos, Missa Brevis, God was a child curled up, Three Motets…
  • George Gershwin — Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Porgy & Bess
  • Franz Joseph Haydn — Symphonies No. 100 – 104
  • Gustav Holst — The Planets
  • Aram Khatchaturian — Gayne, Masquerade
  • Modest Mussorgsky — Pictures at an Exhibition
  • Imant Raminsh — Songs of the Lights, Magnificat, Ave Maria, And I think over again…
  • Camille Saint-Saëns — Carnival of the Animals
  • Bedrich Smetana — My Country
  • Igor Stravinsky — The Rite of Spring, The Firebird
  • John Tavener — Song For Athene, Today the Virgin, The Lamb, Threnos, God Is With Us…
  • Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — The Nutcracker, Serenade in C for Strings
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams — Hodie
  • Antonio Vivaldi — The Four Seasons, Concerto in A Minor for 2 Violins, Harpsichord Concerto in G
  • Carol Ann Weaver — Otter Frolic, Out of the Quiet, Rites of Africa, Daughter of Olapa
  • Eric Whitacre — Sleep, When David heard, Cloudburst, Water Night, Lux aurumque…

Other composers worth mentioning:

  • Tomaso Albinoni — Adagio in G Minor
  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach — Symphony in E Minor
  • Samuel Barber — Adagio for Strings
  • Béla Bartók — Allegro Barbaro
  • Luigi Boccherini — Menuet in A Major
  • Alexander Borodin — Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances
  • Johannes Brahms — Hungarian Dances No. 5 in G Minor & No. 2 in D Minor
  • Frédéric Chopin — Prelude in D Flat, Nocturne No. 2 in E Flat, Waltz No. 6 in D Flat
  • Claude Debussy — Prelude to the Afernoon of a Faun, Clair de Lune, Rêverie for Piano
  • Gaetano Donizette & Salvatore Cammarano — Lucia di Lammermoor: “Il dolce suono”
  • Manuel de Falla — A Media Noche (Firedance)
  • Mikhail Glinka — Overture from Ruslan and Ludmilla
  • Edvard Grieg — Peer Gynt Suite No. 1
  • Franz Liszt — Les Préludes, Nocturne in A Flat
  • Felix Mendelssohn — The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), Violin Concerto in E Minor, Spring Song
  • Jacques Offenbach — Gaité Parisienne: Can-Can No. 4
  • Johann Pachelbel — Canon in D Major
  • Giacomo Puccini — Turandot: Act III – “Nessun Dorma”
  • Sergei Rachmaninoff — Rhapsody On a Theme By Paganini: Variation 18, Prelude in C Sharp Minor
  • Maurice Ravel — Bolero
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov — The Flight of the Bumblebee
  • Gioachino Rossini — William Tell Overture, The Barber of Seville: Overture
  • Robert Schumann — Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15: VII. Träumerei
  • Jean Sibelius — Finlandia, The Swan of Tuonela
  • Johann Strauss, Jr. — The Beautiful Blue Danube
  • Richard Strauss — Also Sprach Zarathustra
  • Franz von Suppé — Light Calvary: Overture
  • Richard Wagner — Ride of the Valkyries

Albums where the focus is on the artist:

  • DaCapo Chamber Choir — Still, Shadowland
  • Mark DuBois — The Music Within Vol. 1
  • Yo-Yo Ma — The Essential Yo-Yo Ma
  • Paul Potts — One Chance
  • The Silk Road Ensemble — Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon

Albums with multiple composers & artists:

  • 111 Classical Masterpieces
  • 300 Years of Classical Music (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern & Opera)
  • Notes Towards — music of Timothy Corlis, Heather Dawn Taves & Leonard Enns

There’s more classical music that I want to listen to that I haven’t yet — including Bartók, Brahms, Debussy, Liszt, Ravel, Shostakovich, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2012 at 9:10 pm and is filed under My thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Music part 3: classical”

  1. Tim Says:

    Hey Dave, Tim S. Here. Stumbled on your website. Love your list here. Brandenburg concertos are the best. Rachmaninof theme on Paganini is my musical bucket list to play. A few more I would add. Love the list. Music is therapy. Tim

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