These performances by the Quatuor Mosaïques (released in 2000) are a great listen, available on streaming platforms, including YouTube Music here —

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lsZAWeHg-WBkFtG6LYMP2uejuM0euTcgc

It's often talked about how Bach never wrote for the modern piano and would create wonders with today's modern piano, and I'm curious about which instruments are also valid for this take and which composer would have the best time with it.

First of all, apologies for the deliberately dichotomous title. I'd also like to add that this is primarily meant for his piano music.

Anyway, I'm asking because since day one I've mostly listened to Brendel's Beethoven, along with similarly restrained and controlled performances. I've always viewed Beethoven, at least when it comes to his piano music, as a Classicist first and foremost, and I've never been particularly interested in hearing it played with exaggerated emotion, dynamics or freedom.

I'd love to hear what kind of Beethoven you prefer: more Classical and restrained, or more Romantic, volatile and indulgent?

I'm also completely open to having my mind changed, so feel free to give me the most excessive, exaggerated, flashy and crazy Beethoven you've ever heard. :)

If there are any even more austere performances out there that somehow work, I'd love to hear those too!

It wouldn’t be until 2040, but if they did a third Fantasia to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1940 version, what would you hope they include?

My list includes
-Mahler 6 (just something big and majestic)
-Fountains of Rome (as a follow up to the cute whale story from Pines of Rome)
-Shine a light on some contemporary composers like Joan Towers. It’s a deep cut, but “Emerge” by Michael Abels would be sweet.
-I don’t think this is in the others, but I’m surprised they never did Pictures at an Exhibition yet.
-something by Aaron Copland.
And I think it would be really cool to feature a different orchestra for each piece with some disney celebrities doing educational banter with orchestra members.

I’m relatively new to classical music, but recently I discovered something that genuinely amazed me.
I listened to Chloe Chua performing the third movement (Rondo: Allegro spirituoso) of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and I was completely captivated.
To me, the opening feels like butterflies dancing joyfully over a meadow. Then something changes. The music becomes increasingly restless, almost uncomfortable. At times, Chloe’s violin feels like an army marching straight towards me. The beauty turns into something strange, almost alien. And then, somehow, the violin becomes tender again, almost like a caress after a storm.
It reminds me of an ordinary day in life: everything starts beautifully, something goes wrong, chaos takes over, and eventually we find our peace again.
Then I listened to Hilary Hahn playing the same movement.
What a surprise.
Hilary felt like velvet. Beautiful, elegant and gentle. Even the butterflies seemed less joyful, more restrained. The storm never affected me in quite the same way.
I’m not saying one violinist is technically better than the other. I simply had no idea that the same composition could create such dramatically different emotional experiences.
So here’s my question for those of you who know classical music much better than I do:
How much of this difference comes from the violinist’s interpretation, and how much might come from the orchestra, conductor or recording itself?
And which performance moves you more — Chloe Chua or Hilary Hahn?
I’d love to hear how other people experience these two interpretations.

A humble cover with a friend

I hope you like it :)

The last 12 months have seen me do a deep dive into classical music that until this year I've really only done for the so-called American made musics, eg: Blues, country, jazz etc. I have found a handful of composers that I am particularly taken by and none more so than Tchaikovsky.

Upon listening to his fifth symphony, I immediately thought that sounds like the Star Wars the clone wars. I Then listened to the love theme "across the stars" and at a minute and 40 seconds roughly the melody sounds, to me anyway, nearly identical to the opening melodic lines of the fifth symphony. Is my brain creating the similarity? Anyone else hear it? I don't see anything online about it despite they're being a plethora of information on the topic of John Williams influences.

Any candidates for the most exciting accelerando? The one I always look forward to and which never fails to excite is the one leading into the coda at the end of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The one working up to the final ‘big tune’ of Rakhmaninov’s Third Concerto is also quite a ride.

I want to create a playlist for my friend with the staples of classical music without being boring. What would you absolutely include?

Thank you deeply for the time you will concede to me.

The Detroit Symphony just posted this to their instagram—I hope it attracts some voting members because I would love to see them get that nomination. Even if they don’t win, it would be great to see them get some recognition.

It can be the end of a movement, an act in an opera, the final notes of a symphony, or anything that's an ending.

Some of my favorite ones are (in no particular order):

Mahler's DLVDE: the ending passage is some of the most gorgeous thing ever composed, and is also an emotionally adequate end of the movement and the entire piece. In fact, I like it much more than the end of Mahler's 9th. Speaking of Mahler's 9th, I've always interpreted the finale as dissolving into a dying breath of indifference, and it's kind of... unsatisfying, to me.

Shostakovich's 4th symphony: the coda worked really well due to its contrast with the massive chorale immediately before it. Also well for shadowed by the quiet codas of the previous 2 movements.

The end of Tristan und Isolde: that's where the Tristan chord is finally resolved, along with all the emotional, moral and philosophical struggles that persisted throughout the previous 4 hours of music.

Berg's Violin Concerto: the way the final notes recall the very beginning of the concerto is so beautiful.

Mozart was 15. Empress Maria Theresa commissioned it for the wedding of her son Archduke Ferdinand in Milan. The main opera of the celebrations was Il Ruggiero by Johann Adolph Hasse, which had premiered the day before. Hasse was 71 and had given up writing for the theatre; he and his librettist Metastasio had been pressed back into service by the Empress, and Ruggiero turned out to be the last opera for both of them.

Two days after the premiere, Leopold wrote home to Nannerl: "Wolfgang's serenata has so crushed Hasse's opera that I cannot describe it." The Archduke ordered two more copies of the score, and at a later performance he and his bride called out "Bravissimo Maestro" to Wolfgang from their box.

It had been written in a hurry. The libretto came back late from the censors in Vienna, and in a postscript to his father's letter on September 21, Wolfgang wrote that his fingers hurt from writing, with only two arias still to go.

Last year a reader here argued that Leopold probably wasn't exaggerating: Hasse's style was fairly old-fashioned by then, though the opera is actually pretty good. In a letter of October 30, Hasse himself acknowledged that Ruggiero had not succeeded.

Ascanio in Alba, K. 111
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyjEQ1uRtvU

I've just started getting into concertos over the last few weeks, and man they are becoming one of my favorite forms of classical music! As a piano fun I've almost only listened to piano concertos, like:
-Beethoven 4th & 5th(my favorite so far)
-Rachmaninoff 2nd & 3rd
-Tchaikovsky 1st
as for violin:
-Bach double violin concerto (a blast to listen to when you wake up)
-Vivaldi l'estro armonico and the four seasons

Please recommend some others you think I'd enjoy, I'd appreciate if you can state why you love that concerto.

Edit: Funny remark but I remember that this sub hated Mozart and Haydn but now it seems y'all can't enough of Mozart, I'm glad things changed!

I’m aware of some composers but not many, any suggestions? It could also be from the Renaissance period.

As someone who is not a musician or an expert but just enjoys classical music:

Something I’ve noticed is that romantic composers like Mahler, Brahms, Wagner or late Beethoven come up all the time, while Mozart, Haydn and early Schubert and other "classical classical" era composers seem to be mentioned less often at least at first glance.

A recent example was a post I saw with a poll for the greatest symphony. Mahler took the top two spots and I didn’t notice any of Haydns 104(!) symphonies or Mozart’s 41. Why? Mozart and Haydn are considered geniuses. Is there something "classical classical" era music is seen as having less of compared to Romantic music? Such as emotional depth, drama, scale or a message? Is it more about how we engage with music in that big complex Romantic works give people more to analyze while classical music may be so clear that it seems to leave less to say (without calling that "clearness" a flaw)?

Hey everyone! First time visiting Vienna in April. I’m no classical music expert by any means, but I really enjoy listening to it and definitely want to catch a concert.

Which of these options would you recommend?

1. Camerata Classica https://musikverein.at/konzert/?id=00125481
2. Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden - there are 3 options:
   • Option A: https://musikverein.at/konzert/saechsische-staatskapelle-dresden-0006a898/
   • Option B: https://musikverein.at/konzert/saechsische-staatskapelle-dresden-0006a899/
   • Option C: https://musikverein.at/konzert/saechsische-staatskapelle-dresden-0006a89a/
3. Wiener Mozart Orchester https://musikverein.at/konzert/?id=000670d8
4. Wiener Philharmoniker / Lorenzo Viotti & Anne-Sophie Mutter https://musikverein.at/konzert/wiener-philharmoniker-00060eef/
5. Wiener Symphoniker / Adam Fischer https://musikverein.at/konzert/wiener-symphoniker-0006036f/

Thanks!

I don't know if this is the right place to post. If it isn't please direct me where to go. I was wondering if anyone who is a classical music fan would want to be friends. I'm just a fan. I never went to an academy or am knowledgeable about music theory. I do listen to classical music all the time. There's no one I could talk to here about this field and would like to know someone I could talk to and possibly educate me further about the classical world.

I am looking for any recommendations for online video lectures in Music Theory and Composition for exclusively Classical Music that are free resources.