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Just interested to see what everyone rates amongst their favourite music and recordings, outside of the piano repertoire.

A representative of my choices:

Shostakovich Symphony No.5 (LSO/Rostropovich on LSO Live)

Britten Peter Grimes (Conducted by Britten on Decca)

Mozart Coronation Mass (Conducted by Trevor Pinnock on Archiv)

Puccini La Boheme (with Bergonzi as Rodolfo on Decca)

Bach Chaconne in D Minor (played by Jascha Heifetz on RCA)

*** Elgar Cello Concerto (du Pré / Barbirolli/LSO)

Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 (Kondrashin/MPO)

Sibelius Symphony No. 2 (Vanska/Lahti SO)

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture (Dorati / MSO)

Brahms Violin Sonatas (Perlman / Ashkenazy)

Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8 (Borodin Quartet)

Sibelius Violin Concerto (Perlman / Leinsdorf)

Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms Violin Concertos

Beethoven Symphonies 5, 9 (Karajan '63)


(I also like a lot of klezmer / Jewish folk music. I like some jazz, too, especially that album by Perlman/Previn, but it's not my favorite genre.)

Beethoven's symphonies, or the ninth at least (Harnoncourt... haven't heard many other recordings though, but I know I tend to dislike interpretations of classical period music where strings seem to make continual attempts at drowning everything else))

Tristan (Kleiber)

Don Giovanni (Krips)

Tenebrae Responsoria (The Hilliard Ensemble...no, this isn't the only group I've heard doing these pieces)...by Carlo Gesualdo

4th Brandenburg (Harnoncourt)

The Swan of Tuonela by Sibelius (Karajan)

Op. 127 by Beethoven (The Lindsays)

Winterreise (I have to get the Schreier/Richter recording, because I heard some of it from the radio, and so on... I've got, at the moment, the cycles by Dieskau/Brendel, and Goerne/Brendel, but neither of them achieves anything near to the effect that the Schreier/Richter piece had on me)

Schubert's second piano trio (no particular favourite recording...in fact, I would prefer to hear this a bit differently every time)

Violin Sonata no. 9 by Beethoven (Kremer/Argerich...haven't heard by any other duo)

Late Beethoven String Quartets
Ravel Daphnis and Chloe Suites
Beethoven Symphony #9
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
A good chunk of medeival and renaissance vocal music
(particularly Josquin Des Prez and Di Lassus)
Mozart Die Zauberflaute
Cage's Music for Prepared Piano (I don't think this counts as being in the piano rep myself)
Debussy La Mer, Prelude a L'apres-midi d'une faune
Scriabin Prometheus, L'acte Preable du Mysterium, other Tone Poems
Liszt and Strauss Tone Poems

I like the Four Seasons. And the Beatles. Ah, and can't forget the Doors. OH, and definitely Frankie and Dino. Used to love Michael Jackson...until I found out the feeling was mutual...then it just got weird. :p I still think Mariah Carey is one of the best vocalists alive...not to mention, Dang! So, I guess I still love her, despite the eccentricities, and that one's not mutual, but it's a totally different story. :p


Three of my favorite orchestral scores:
"The Divine Comedy"
Dvorak's "New World Suite"
"1812" (<---do I have to put anything else next to that to identify it? :p )

Beethoven tripple concerto (either Mstislav Rostropovich & Richter, or Aimard & etc.)
Beethoven cello/piano sonatas (Mstislav Rostropovich & Richter)

I like choral music second to piano repertoiry. Actually, I'd like to minor in choral conducting. My favs are:
All Morten Lauridsen music
Arvo Part- Mass, Te Deum
John Rutter- most everything, esp Requiem
John Tavener- The Lamb, Ikon of Light
Durufle- Ubi Caritas
Richard Bennet- Sea Change
Palestrina- Pope Marcellus Mass
Gabrieli- In Excelsis
Perotin- Viderunt Omnes

Schubert string quartets

Recently I have been listening to Chinese zither music, some orchestral tone poems by Frank Bridge and the later symphonies of Havergal Brian. I find it just as hard to name favourites outside piano music as I do within the genre.

Schubert Death and the Maiden makes me wish I played a string instrument!
Also Mozart clarinet quintet, Beethoven "Harp" string quartet (opus 70 something?) and Ravel string quartet.
And tons of madrigals, especially Monteverdi.

Beethoven harp string quartet - op.74

i love all Beethoven string quartets.

Beethoven - All the symphonies and Violin Concerto

Brahms - Violin Concerto & Symphony No. 4

Dvorak - Violin Concerto & Cello Concerto

Lalo - Cello Concerto

Mozart - Clarinet Concerto, Violin Concerto No. 3 & Symphony No. 41

Prokofiev - Both Violin Concerti (especially No. 2) and Symphony No. 5

Rachmaninoff - Symphony Nos. 2 & 3 and Symphonic Dances

Ravel - Bolero

Saint-Saens - Cello Concerto No. 1

Schumann - Symphony No. 3 & Cello Concerto

Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto & Variations on a Rococo Theme

Who wrote "The Divine Comedy"?
I know Dvorak's "New World Symphony" (Symphony No. 9), but I find no reference to a "New World Suite". Can you enlighten me?

Regards,

vintage rock, bluegrass, Celtic

My favorite classical works outside piano:

Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade (sp?)

Beethoven's 9th symphony

Gustav Holst, The Planets

Favorite modern music:

Anything by Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits

Just about everything by Mike Oldfield

Some of my faves:

Prokofiev - Romeo & Juliet Suite
Puccini - Tosca
Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending & others
Elgar cello concerto
Barber - Adagio for Strings
Ravel - Introduction & Allegro, string quartet
Bach - cello suites

That would be..

Beethoven 9th Symphony; (Karajan)
Schoenberg (spelled good?) Verklahte Nacht; (Karajan, I think so)

Among my more recently discovered favorites are Sibelius' Symphonies 5 and 6. (I think the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchesra under Paavo Berglund got the interpretations just right.)

A few suggestions:

Symphonies:
Shostakovich (especially Kondrashin, Haitink)
Bruckner (Jochum)
Mahler (Kubelik/BRSO live Audite series or Gielen)
Beethoven (Harnoncourt, Karajan 60s recording)
Stravinsky Symphony in 3 Movements (possibly my all-time favourite orchestral piece...Boulez/Berlin Phil a recommended recording.)

Other Orchestral:
Debussy Images, La Mer
Strauss, Tod und Verklärung
Bartók, Dance Suite
Ginastera: Panambí

Choral works: Poulenc Gloria, Britten Ceremony of Carols, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms.

String Quartets: Beethoven, Britten, Bartok, Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud.

However I can't be doing with all the unnecessary shrieking and melodrama that is opera

- Michael B.

"One can't judge Wagner's opera 'Lohengrin' after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend hearing it a second time."

Gioacchino Rossini, composer

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"In opera, there is always too much singing."

Claude Debussy, composer

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"Oh how wonderful, really wonderful opera would be if there were no singers!"

Gioacchino Rossini, composer

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"No operatic star has yet died soon enough for me."

Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor

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"Opera: A performance involving singers with orchestra (complete with unrealistic scenery and silly costumes), which tells a story so complex that nobody in the audience understands what's going on, although all speak about it as if they did. Consists mainly of fat people bellowing in a foreign language."

David Barber, journalist

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"Opera Buffa: Not, as you might expect, opera in the nude. Not yet, anyway."

David Barber, journalist

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"Singer: A special type of musician, notable for the inability to count at all. Unlike other musicians, who must rely on an instrument to produce sound, singers use only what they call "the vocal apparatus" (and what ordinary people call "the voice"). There are certain inherent advantages and disadvantages: On the one hand, singers wishing to improve their technique can't simply buy better instruments - but then some of the carrying cases are so much more attractive."

David Barber, journalist

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