There was a fairly prestigious violin contest over here a few days ago. A lot of the contestants played the same piece: The Shostakovich Violin Concerto 1, Op. 99

What an absolutely beautiful piece. I love "classical" music, but I confess that I never really looked beyond the classical guitar repertoire, romanticism and Bach. Until now. I'm close to tears, now listening to it performed by Vengerov. Incredible. Written in blood.

Audio: http://kew.canvas.be/html/deelnemers_16.html -> "audio" next to "Dmitri SJOSTAKOVITSJ"

What gets you guys going? What are your favorite classical pieces?

Vivaldi and Vanessa Mae.

Vivaldi made the bestestest violin/orchestral pieces, and Vanessae mae, well, she's an oriental girl who plays the violin, need i say more?

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elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
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I recently became enthralled by Schoenberg's music. His "Letters From Warsaw" piece is one of the most moving compositions I've ever heard.

schoenberg ha ha ha wow

In case you don't know, I laugh because Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire is the worst piece of music in the history of the universe.

I totally disagree. Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire is my second favorite piece of the New Viennese school. (The first being Berg's Violin Concerto, which is heavenly.)

I actually just heard a clip of the Schostakowitsch violin concerto today while browsing in Borders; it seemed pretty cool.

My favorite composer, though, is Beethoven. When you say that, many people assume its because you're not very familiar with the repertoire, but I've listened to a lot, and nothing is as deeply moving and incredibly inspired as his works. That's not to say there aren't non-Beethoven pieces that are moving, but his works are the most consistently awesome.

Some of my favorite pieces:

-Beethoven's Violin Concerto
-Beethoven's third cello sonata
-Dvorak's Cello Concerto
-Steve Reich's "Different Trains" string quartet
-Schostakowitsch's 8th string quartet
-Schosty's second piano trio
-Schubert's "Winterreise", especially as performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
-Sibelius' Fifth Symphony
-Saint-Saëns' 3rd symphony
-Copland's Clarinet Concerto

I love lots of other things, but those are the ones that really stand out in my mind.

Ah, and the Bach solo cello suites. The high point of solo string compositions in the history of Western music. Just in my humble opinion, of course.

In my humble opinion, Pierrot Lunaire is musical offal. Every time I listen to it, I'm on the verge of barfing. I mean, it's like Schoenberg went out of the way to make something so appalling you'd want to SMASH whatever was creating the noise. Maybe I need to be a dog alien from the planet Myrkr to appreciate it. Or maybe I just need to know German to understand the Sprechstimme lyrics, though, honestly, I'm kind of scared to know what they mean.

Great taste with Ludwig though. I listened to and loved his Violin Concerto just the other day.

Just played 1812 Overture tonight it was amazing

John Cage's 4'33" gets me going every single time. I love that piece.

The Schoenberg isn't meant to be pleasant, actually, quite the opposite: it's supposed to be disturbing and discomforting. Like "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday, but without the social-reformist message.

It's definitely not something I listen to all the time, and I won't pretend that I enjoy listening to Schoenberg in general as much as the more traditional composers, but still, there's something there to be appreciated.

(BTW, it's nice to find someone who can actually talk about Schoenberg, regardless of whether you like him or not. I'd be surprised if even two of my friends would recognize his name.)



4'33", though, I definitely know what you mean. The melody is just so beautiful...

*me blinks*

I have the Lord of the Rings soundtracks.

There is a reason he isn't well-known.

Schoenberg isn't well known?

Man, I can't get enough of this violin concerto. I tried to find a key for it (apparently it's A minor) but it's pointless: he modulates all over the place. I'd really like to see a score of it - I don't think he writes a key at all. It has a very restless effect.

Beautiful.

Next up for listening:
-Shostakovich string quartets (all 15) and his symphonies by Haitink

-Sibelius

-Rachmaninov

-Stravinsky

-Beethoven (string quartets especially)

- .... ad infinitum

It's a whole damn new world. If anything else pops into mind, be sure to put it here as well.

Compared to other composers, no. His post examples this.

After listening to some samples of Schoenberg's music, I must agree with money?bie. I wouldn't even say he accomplishes a "disturbing" effect well. It just sounds like a poor attempt at being "original" to hide the fact that the composer had no musical talent.