Classical Music

Does anyone else listen to classical music? I was raised on it. My father had a massive record collection of both regular classical music and film soundtracks that covered an entire wall of our house (plus more) and eventually expanded that to a CD collection that was almost as big. When he wasn’t listening to 1920s and 1930s music, he was listening to classical and, of course, I would listen too since as a child, I was a captive audience.

But I still listen to it all the time.

My favorite composers are Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Stravinsky, Debussy and Beethoven for the symphonies. I also listen to a fair amount of Bach. Weirdly, I’ve never been a big fan of Mozart.

Right now, I’m listening to Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije suite, one of my favorites.

I know classical isn’t that popular these days, but am I a lone fan on the forums?

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Classical music fan 'ere! I’ve been listening to classical music ever since I was a baby. In fact, these arrangements below are the ones I’ve been listening to lately from my favorite Japanese puppet show.

Updated links for the 2 songs above:
10. Sonata Pathétique (Adagio cantabile) by Ludwig van Beethoven
11. The Syncopated Clock* by Leroy Anderson

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How could I forget the Strausses! I listen to Strauss waltzes all the time and I love the New Year’s Concert in Vienna, although I usually have to wait to stream it since it isn’t shown in the U.S. unfortunately.

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I grew up with classical music, listened to it long before I got into rock.

I tend to like “program music”… music that evokes a mental picture. Stuff like The Four Seasons, a lot of Tchaikovsky, etc. Rimsky-Korsakov is probably my favorite composer, but my single favorite piece is Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.

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The Seventh Symphony is my favorite, but I love the Pastoral Symphony as well. I have a CD set of all seven symphonies conducted by Leonard Bernstein that I really love.

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Fritz Reiner’s Pastoral Symphony is my preferred version.

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I listen to a lot of classic music, mostly strings and piano.

So Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos, some Mozart, Chopin, Dvorak, Debussy

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If I had to pick an absolute favorite piece, it would be a very, very sad piece of choral music called O Vos Omnes by Tomás Luis de Victoria. The first time I heard it, sung by a live choir, I was brought to tears by how sad and beautiful it is. And I don’t even know Latin.

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Favorite piece:

Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude

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Love Claire de lune, debussy. Noticed that it has been used a whole lot in movies in the past 15 years.

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Another favorite of mine which I listen to often:

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Has anyone ever seen Allegro Non Troppo, the Italian parody of Disney’s Fantasia? It’s very funny and the music is much, much better, even if the animation is not.

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Oh, man. I’d never really been a fan of Khachaturian until I heard his trio for piano, violin and clarinet — holy smokes! Astonishing

I mostly gravitate towards Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Satie chamber works but I was shocked during the lockdown. I completely fell in love with Mahler of all people. Totally out of the blue for me, but it fit the mood of the time!

Classical is about the only genre I buy physical media any more because streaming services absolutely suck for that. Completely clueless. I’m not sure if they actually pay people or it’s a labor of love, but those are the only liner notes worth reading any more (well, Mosaic for jazz but their output is getting less and less frequent)

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Speaking of Khachaturian…
This version of Sabre Dance may be a tiny bit slow, but I still love it nonetheless.

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Overture Marriage of Figaro always reminds me of this.

mike leake highlights GIF

Canon in D for this one.
timothy hutton oscars GIF by The Academy Awards

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Ooo Satie!

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I belonged to a classical CD club in the 90s… can’t even remember which one… it was one of those “we’ll send you a CD every month unless you tell us not to” deals. Of course I never remembered to stop the delivery and seldom bothered to return the CD. I got a lot of good stuff by accident.

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Bringing it back to MST3K, a shout out to Jean Sibelius. Among his compositions is the Lemminkäinen Suite.

Lemminkäinen Suite - Wikipedia

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And of course, there’s Borodin’s Polovtsian Dance no. 17, plaid almost endlessly during Fire Maidens of Outer Space.

(Modernized as the song Stranger in Paradise from the musical Kismet.)

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I’m more of a general fan of classical music. I don’t have any specific pieces or composers that I like, though I do prefer orchestral works over anything else. I will give a shout-out to the Music Choice classical channel. Since they have a lot of time to fill, they tend to play a broader range of composers. It’s because of that channel that I heard works from lesser-known American composers like Don Gillis and Alan Hovhaness.

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