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[sanura]

> WARNING

ailurian is radioactive. Wear protective clothing at all times.

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From Go-Quiz.com


The Mozart was extensively disappointing. They did the overture to Idomeneo and the 4th violin concerto before intermission, and I've never been so close to falling asleep at an HSO performance before. I think the only things keeping me awake were Uri's occasional bad rhythm or sour notes in the concerto, and the deafening snores of the old guy behind me.

The Requiem was a minor improvement. It's a good piece, not too-sweet like the concerto or whiny like the overture... but the balance was off, there wasn't a whole lot of feeling in it (that I could tell), and the end always seems a little anticlimatic to me (swhat Mozart gets, I suppose, for dying and letting Suessmayr compose the end of his requiem).

Well, let me rant a little more about the violin concerto. It didn't suck. Barely. Uri is such a mean comprimario, and he's not even that good. He was behind in almost all of the fast passages with the orchestra, and he flubbed a couple figures in his own cadenza, and he has a lazy way of letting an unvibrated bottom note of a double-stop ring flat... I don't like him. And he got a half-standing ovation. It makes me mad.

Comments

[swiftpaws.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have absolutely NO classical education here, so I'm gonna go download the pieces mentioned above, but what else do you recommend? I'm in the mood for new ("old") stuff I've never heard.

[sanura.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, oh, no! Don't start with Mozart, please! It offends my sensibilities as a fanatic Romanticist. Start with the Romantics. The Russians or the Italians or the Czech or the Impressionist French, the contemporary Brits and Americans, even the more Romantic of the Germans... Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Verdi, Dvorak, Faure, Debussy, Poulenc, Britten, Bernstein, Orff, even Brahms, the classical Romanticist... Hmm. A beginner's list of "classical" music... um. Probably short, yes?

Well, after consultation... The pieces are not short, but the list is. Relatively. In no particular order:

Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony (known affectionately to those who've played it as "Tchaik 6")
Rachmaninov Vespers
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances
Any Rachmaninov piano music, especially prelude in c# minor
Stravinsky Rite of Spring (Sacre du Printemps) (What he's best known for, for good reason)
Verdi Requiem
Dvorak "New World Symphony" (#9) (also a signature piece for good reason)
Faure Requiem
Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (overplayed, but still fantastic)
Poulenc Double-Piano Concerto
Poulenc Gloria
Poulenc Stabat Mater
Britten War Requiem (keep kleenex handy)
Bernstein Chichester Psalms
Orff Carmina Burana
Brahms Requiem

I realize I am a complete music geek, but you know... It's my fandom...