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.
November 29th, 2021 at 10:47 pm
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