Hahaha, yay classical music! I was a clarinet performance major for a year, before realizing I didn't want to practice 8 hours a day for the rest of my life, but I still listen to orchestral music a lot.
Orchestral music: Shostakovich - symphonies 5, 9 and 10 Beethoven - 9th symphony is great, 5th is good but overplayed, the rest is pretty good too Holst - The Planets Brahms has some good stuff, but I'm only somewhat familiar with his symphonies. Ravel - Bolero Respighi - Pines of Rome Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra, Till Eulenspiegle's Lustige Streiche Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherezade Mahler - 5th is excellent, don't know the rest well enough to comment
If you like jazz, I would recommend the contemporary composer Nikolai Kapustin *points to signature* Being considered both a piano virtuoso and a talent jazz pianist, he composes classical pieces infused with jazz idioms. I have been listening to him for the past 1 1/2 years and he never ceases to amaze me. Some will definitely find some of his works too busy or involved but I love the flurry of ideas and the directions he takes with them!
Some pieces I have enjoyed so far (you'll never know until you give them a listen!):
Op. 39: Piano Sonata No. 1 "Sonata-Fantasy" for piano Op. 40: Eight Concert Etudes for piano Op. 41: Variations for piano Op. 45: "Motive Force" for piano Op. 46: "Big Band Sounds (The Sounds of Big-Band)" for piano Op. 58: Andante for piano Op. 86: Trio for flute, cello and piano Op. 105: Concert for violin, piano and string orchestra
You can find some of his works over the internet, and you/anyone can always PM me if you can't find it/like it. He's still composing to this day. Long live Kapustin!
If you get overwhelmed by the sheer number of recommendations here, just stick to searcher's posts for now. His advice is great if you're new to classical music.
For more passionate music the late romantic/patriotic periods might be interesting e.g. Tchaik, Rachmaninov, Shost (Russian) (dissonant tho, he was abit crazy imho), Dvorak/Smetana (Czech)
Shostakovich is not considered part of the romanticism movement. In fact he's very far from it.
Yeah, the enthusiastic responses are great but they are not always so considerate for the beginning listener. I second SonuvBob's suggestion; searcher's post is some great advice. But, I disagree that you should shy away from showpieces; even the showiest of the classical repertoire has enough substance to warrant listening to. And it will certianly make you more likely to be hooked to the genre.
On October 03 2009 10:53 phosphorylation wrote: Yeah, the enthusiastic responses are great but they are not always so considerate for the beginning listener. I second SonuvBob's suggestion; searcher's post is some great advice. But, I disagree that you should shy away from showpieces; even the showiest of the classical repertoire has enough substance to warrant listening to. And it will certianly make you more likely to be hooked to the genre.
yes showpieces ftw it's difficult to get into the deeper pieces at first..
For more passionate music the late romantic/patriotic periods might be interesting e.g. Tchaik, Rachmaninov, Shost (Russian) (dissonant tho, he was abit crazy imho), Dvorak/Smetana (Czech)
Shostakovich is not considered part of the romanticism movement. In fact he's very far from it.
Thanks for the rectification, shos is more into the 20th century but the influence of Tchaik can still be clearly seen in the early 20th century Russian composer imho
There's enough recommendations above for at least a few months of listening, so I don't think I'll be listening any of my favourites here~ (I mean, they've been mentioned already above somewhere).
If you liked Clair de Lune, maybe you've tried Arabesque (#1, in E+). Both are people's favourites, and they aren't too technically challenging, making them more popular amongst budding pianists and such.
Next steps - I'm actually recommending something! lol. - next steps, I'd say, may go like: 1) More abstraction -> Maurice Ravel. His pieces are of similar nature to Debussy's, but they are more technically challenging (jeux d'eux, or Water Games, recommended) and slightly more abstract in general. If you like the technical virtuosity, Rachmaninoff next!! 2) More romantic -> you've already sensed it, it's time to enter the Romantic period. Since you started at Debussy, I'd do the Romantic period from the back (no pun intended!) so that means Richard Wagner's famous Ring Cycle (few excerpts should do, but the whole thing is pure epic), Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (movements 4 and 5 recommended), and some of Liszt's later pieces. Ok, Berlioz wasn't so "back" of Romantic period, but his symphony is definitely awesome.
Enjoy!
P.S. I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet - Richard Strauss's piano accompaniment for Lord Tennyson's "Enoch Arden" is quite an epic. Enoch Arden is a long long poem story thingy, and Strauss basically added a bunch of picturesque music to accompany it. It's about 20 minutes of recitation+piano, 20 minutes of pure recitation. Definitely the best if you like romantic poetry and music together.
EPT
