Suggestions on Classical Composers

Jstas

Granted, everyone has heard of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and so on. But there are tons of them out there. So if you have a favorite one that others might not know about, do tell! Also, if you could give a recording of the composer's music that is available, that'd be awesome!

I'll go first!

Franz Schubert 1797-1828 (died of syphilis at the age of 31)

Has probably well over a thousand works with 600 lieder (German for song), nine complete symphonies including his famous "Unfinished Symphony", as well as piles and piles of liturgical, incidental and chamber music plus many piano solos. He is most well known for his harmonic writing of very original melodies.

In my opinion, his best works are his piano solos, sonatas and his symphonies, especially "The Wandered Fantasy" and Sonata in A major, D. 959.

For critical listening, I highly recommend any Sonata for piano. They are gorgeous works often with just the piano but the sound is full and vibrant. Very relaxing too. They dynamic range and frequency range is very broad. It won't dig deep but he uses the entire keyboard. They are very good test/audition pieces for gear too because they will test transitions and crossover points. Schubert's works have shown glaring shortcomings in crossovers and driver matching on several occasions for me.

Even though the music is not ultra powerful like a Beethoven or a Mozart piece, I recommend LOTS of power and large speakers for optimum listening. Schubert will give your stuff a workout.

Wikipedia article about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert

As far as available recordings of his music, haven't found any yet, still looking for something decent and a bit more comprehensive.

Pinsongs

Jstas,

The Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo is incredible. The Phillips recording with Pepe Romero on Classical Guitar and Sir Neville Marriner conducting is my favorite.

The Panorama series of the Deutsche Grammophon label, is a good source for some of the best of the best.

Sibelius Panorama collection is impressive.

Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" is a wonderful orchestral piece.

Joseph Schwantner is a modern composer that is superb.

happy listening,

Eric

cnh

Alexander Scriabin, Gabriel Faure, Eric Satie....etc.....mostly piano but not just...and more modern.

They're not for everyone.

cnh

Ricardo

Add Ravel, Schumann (Great Cello concertos), Vivaldi (Four Seasons) to that list. I'll post more as they come to mind.

dorokusai

RAVEL / CHOPIN / SAINT-SAENS: Anthology for the Left Hand

megasat16

Also Try classicism and a few others remake from Twelve Girls Band. I bought 12 girls band DVD on eBay for about $7 bucks each.

ViperZ

Johan Sebastian Strauss (or Johan Strauss II).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II

The son of a very famous composer by the name of Johan Strauss .

I used to play all of his waltzes.

The Blue Danube is definitely the one that stands out the most.

BlueFox

Shostakovich. I purchased this CD set based on a recommendation in this forum, and love it.

http://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-String-Quartets-Dmitry/dp/B0000042HV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1241725135&sr=1-1

McCelery

Just 1-clicked my way to a Pollini version of D. 959 based on this thread. I found Scriabin by virtue of his Poem of Ecstasy being tacked onto an evening of more well known works at the SF Orchestra and ended up liking it the best. I've been listening to a lot of Satie, lately, as well, but don't really care for his more lighthearted stuff (term used relatively).

Thanks for the suggestions, all

schwarcw

Check out this thread:

Here See post #14, but there are many good recommendations in there. Borrow some of those discs from your local library. I've found out that you can order almost any disk at the library and they will locate it at another library and have it ready for pickup at your local library. It can all be done on line for FREE!

bobman1235

Holst's The Planets. Both Mars and Jupiter are some of my favorite arrangements of all time.

Ern Dog

Rachmaninoff- Symphonic Dances on the Reference Recording label HDCD. A CD that will blow you away.

John K.

JS, first as to info on available Schubert recordings, I take it that you mean reviews and not just lists of what's available. If so, at Classics Today is one of the best online collections of classical reviews.

As Carl pointed out, the old thread he linked has quite a few good suggestions. Among things that have already been mentioned, I'll second one of my favorites, Holst's The Planets, in my overall favorite of the six that I have, Mehta's performance , available at a bargain price. I'll also second Ern Dog's recommendation of the Reference Recording disc which features the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, and add that an excellent three disc collection of most of his orchestral works is available on sale(around $15)by Ashkenazy . Ravel has been mentioned, and I'll list his gorgeous music for Daphnis et Chloe with Dutoit.

Some recordings that are maybe not as well known as they should be, and are among my favorites, are Ma Vlast with Berglund , Vaughan Williams 3rd and 4th Symphonies by Previn , and Batiz conducting Respighi's Roman Trilogy .

zarrdoss

Basil Poledouris Conan the barbarian soundtrack