Recommend me some classical...

[Tyre Smoke]

I have a pretty eclectic music taste, and particularly like to listen to classical stuff on a Sunday morning. I downloaded Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and Handel's Water Music Suite 1 both of which I love. Now, obviously not paying attention in music class at school many moons ago, I know the tunes, but not the composer or piece, if you understand me.

So, please fellow PHer's recommend me some uplifting, chilling (err relaxing) classical choices please?

[Chris Type R]

Here's something "modern" you might recognize - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KylMqxLzNGo

[Tyre Smoke]

Thanks Chris, yes I did, but too sombre.

[BritishRacinGrin]

Gustav Holst's 'planets', Mars and Jupiter especially.

[toasty]

Classic FM if you can get it. Radio 3 tends to be a bit heavy going at times.

Get a top 100 compilation from somewhere, there are hundreds about and they're cheap as chips.

You'll soon get a feeling of what you like and what you don't.

[Chris Type R]

Maybe a sampler like this ?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Greatest-Ever-Classical-Go...

[NiceCupOfTea]

It's like saying "I went in a car the other day and rather liked it, recommend me a car"

You need to listen to loads and see what you like. Orchestral, choral, chamber music, what period (baroque, classical, romantic, 20th century). Handel and Vivaldi are both baroque composers and you've been listening to baroque music so far!

Classic FM is a good shout.

[Tyre Smoke]

BritishRacinGrin said:

Gustav Holst's 'planets', Mars and Jupiter especially.

Good call! Thank you.

[GetCarter]

If you like Vivaldi and Handel, then you'll like the Baroque stars

J S Bach is the daddy, but I'm really keen on Handel's - Concerto Grossi

Faves being:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3qogMsVkQU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeqiNjIYKGQ

Maths and music meet.

[vournikas]

Tyre Smoke said:

I have a pretty eclectic music taste, and particularly like to listen to classical stuff on a Sunday morning. I downloaded Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and Handel's Water Music Suite 1 both of which I love. Now, obviously not paying attention in music class at school many moons ago, I know the tunes, but not the composer or piece, if you understand me.

So, please fellow PHer's recommend me some uplifting, chilling (err relaxing) classical choices please?

Oof!

As others have alluded to, the question is "how deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go?". From Hildegard of Bingen to Peter Maxwell-Davies, you've got over 800 years of composed music to choose from in five distinct styles (early, baroque, classical, romantic, and modern) so finding a starting point is tricky.

A colleague at work got me listening to classical about 15 years ago through ClassicFM, and the stuff that floated my boat at the time (and for the most part still does) is the chilled out / relaxing music. Without any idea about which composer did what tunes, I just bought a "relaxed classics" type compilation and went from there. Based on that, I quickly discovered some "relaxed" favourites :

Mozart : Piano Concerto No.21 2nd movement
Dvorak : Serenade for Strings
Allegri : Miserere
Canteloube : The Shepherd's Song (from Songs of the Auvergne)
Chopin : The Raindrop Prelude
Mahler : Symphony No.5 4th movement
Vaughan-Williams : The Thomas Tallis Fantasia

Etc.

From there, I started to gel with composers (Mozart, Chopin, and Vaughan-Williams especially), and it sort of steamrollered from there to the point now where my car radio is hard-wired to BBC R3 which is such a rich source of classical music, it seems bottomless. Through R3, I've discovered Ben Johnson (British tenor), Reynaldo Hahn (ex-pat Venezuelan composer who specialised in French romantic tunes), Andreas Scholl (German counter-tenor), and Irish pianist Barry Douglas. R3 has also confirmed that I will never get on with the music of Ravel or Schoenberg. Ever. And that J.S. Bach really is The Daddy. I'm finally "getting" the music of Liszt, and finally admitting that Beethoven's music is awfully self-indulgent.

Anyway, if you want examples of "relaxed" and "uplifting" these are my two picks :

Relaxed

Maria Joao-Pires plays Chopin's Nocturne No.1

Uplifting

Elgar's Nimrod conducted by Daniel Barenboim

[Simes205]

Mahlers 2nd symphony should keep you busy.
Or anything by stockhausen, ligetti or Webern.

Go on try it!

Seriously though Vaughan Williams is nice for a bit of 20th century England.
All of Brahms 4 symphonies are easy going. The classical (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven) period very easy going.

Edited by Simes205 on Tuesday 10th March 23:09

[Simes205]

GetCarter said:

If you like Vivaldi and Handel, then you'll like the Baroque stars

J S Bach is the daddy, but I'm really keen on Handel's - Concerto Grossi

Faves being:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3qogMsVkQU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeqiNjIYKGQ

Maths and music meet.

Goldberg variations, Glen Gould at the piano.

[kowalski655]

Classic FM is definitely good for the more well known stuff
1 piece guarenteed to relax me(usually I doze off ) is Allegri - Miserere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Y_ztEW1NE
Something more modern but still chilled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMfMAZk24l0
Even more modern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuGOAtabC8M

Start at any YT video & click on what you think looks good,you never know where you might end up (although it's unlikely to be Swedish Death Metal )

Edited by kowalski655 on Tuesday 10th March 23:24

[Simes205]

Ravel
Debussy
Sati.

This thread is like being at work !

[oxford drinker]

Try a bit of Schubert. 9th Symphony "The Great" or the one he abandoned to write it, the 8th "Unfinished"

[Gargamel]

I am especially fond of the Finlandia Suite by Sibelius - Stirring stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5zg_af9b8c

[Fastchas]

I quite like Bizet's Carmen.

[wal 45]

Pieces in a Modern Style by William Orbit, a few classic numbers done with synths which came out around 2000.

You'll ever love it or hate it, I think it's great.

[Tyre Smoke]

Thank you so much everyone. Certainly some stuff to get me going there!

[2volvos]

Thoroughly agree on the Vaughan Williams recommends so far. The Tallis Fantasia is sublime and Lark Ascending obviously comes top of many polls of everyone's favourite.

However, I'd like to suggest his Pastoral Symphony as something that migh fit the relaxing bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v228NtwOvTI

We all paint our own pictures and images while listening to music and personally, I see a Battle of Britain station at first light and a Spitfire in flight in the first movement.