that bartok rocked

lately i've been listening to Andras Schiff's Wigmore Hall Lecture/Recital of Beethoven's Complete Piano Sonatas. he breaks them all down chronologically and it's insightful, funny, and beautiful to listen to.
i recommend it to anyone. Beethoven reverer or not. In fact, it'll make you love him more than you already did because you'll understand him better.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/classica...943867,00.html

also, Mozart's Piano Concertos and German Dances
Chopin's Mazurkas and Preludes
and Haydn's Piano Sonatas.

i just recently fell in love with the piano again and am getting back into classical music. i want to listen to much more.
only problem is i'm not that huge a fan of the Romantic composers, only if they're extremely melodic,
which you will find in some composers cracks (no pun intended) but overall i'm a Classical/Baroque man. but anyway haha.

Since I heard Bartok in The Shining, I was astounded. I thank whoever put some up, for I am now going to get it!

many of you may have heard this series but take alook if you haven't. http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/

Harold Budd interview. nice. thanks.

yeah there is some good stuff on there, there was a 13 part history of american mavericks but i cant find it anymore

My parents used to take my brothers and I to classical concerts at the NAC when we were little kids. But, being little kids, we thought it was really boring.
Now I wish I would have had the taste to appreciate it.

Great link.

ahh the cello pieces are the greatest!

I put only 4 strings on my guitar and tune them in fifths, so I can play Bach cello suites and stuff on it using cello fingerings. Sounds weird though.

Bartok: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, 1st movement:

edit

sounds like that'd be cool

Bach St. Matthew Passion - Come Ye Daughters:

edit

A cool piece is "Vesalii Icones" by Peter Maxwell Davies:

Movements:

1. The Agony in the Garden
2. The Betrayal of Judas
3. Christ and Pilate
4. The Flagellation
5. Christ Condemned to Death
6. The Mocking of Christ
7. Christ Receives the Cross
8. St. Veronica Wipes His face
9. Christ Prepared for Death
10. Christ Nailed to the Cross
11. The Death of Christ
12. The Descent from the Cross
13. The Entombment of Christ
14. The Resurrection - Antichrist

Performing forces:

* solo dancer (male)

* cello solo

* flute (+ piccolo and alto flute), clarinet (+ bass or basset clarinet), *percussion (1 player), viola, piano (+ out-of-tune autoharp or zither, cheap commercial tape recorder, music box, 4 bamboo blocks, claxon, whistle, knife and plate), slightly out-of-tune upright piano (to be played by the dancer or the conductor)

*percussion (1 player): glockenspiel, xylophone, bass drum with foot-pedal, suspended cymbal (small), band kit, tam-tam, wood block (very small), anvil (small), sanctus bells, thunder-sheet, short lengths of scaffolding, grater, ratchet, whistle, toy clarion (e.g. Hohner Clarinet 12), biscuit tin filled with broken glass, chains, manual typewriter, saucepan, 2 pebbles, blacksmith's bellows (or fingers drawn across bass drum to produce analogous sound)

Each movement is based on one of the Stations of the Cross and 14 drawings by Andreas Vesalius from 1543:




Each shows a different part of anatomy.

I got a copy of Mahler's 8th last week. It's great. Recently I was listening to radio 3 nearly constantly. It makes me very calm. Best radio station in Britain, other than Resonance in London/ streaming.

what about classical avant garde 20th century radical contemporary composers, do these guys count in this thread?
personally, i've been listening to cage's prepared piano pieces, steve reich's new york counterpoint, treatise by cornelius cardew and some 12 tone serialism as well (webern etc).

view the link i left earlier on in this thread for twentieth cent composers

I just saw a paper presented that dealt with the Cage Sonatas and Interludes. It was about how the screws and bolts and erasers have changed since the 50's and how that changes the sound of the pieces. Pretty cool stuff.

I know it may be cheesey and cliched and all, but Beethoven's 9th can do it for me any time.

Yeah, it's great - I have a DVD of the Berlin Phil and they rock out with their cocks out.