Who are your favorite composers and what are some pleasant, relaxing pieces you would recommend for stressful times?
Classical music gays
by Anonymous | reply 104 | June 11, 2020 4:43 AM |
Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, Glass, Bach, Mozart, Mahler (the Lieder, anyway)
This nocturne always blows my mind.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | June 4, 2020 10:47 PM |
I am not at all religious, but do enjoy this liturgical piece from Tchaikovsky.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 4, 2020 11:01 PM |
Vaughan Williams's "The Lark Ascending", though I always found it a little unnervingly dark for some reason...
by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 4, 2020 11:03 PM |
Max Richter's "Sleep" (at > 8 hours long) has become my go-to for, well, just what it says on the tin.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 4, 2020 11:05 PM |
Mahler - Symphony No. 2. Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolívar Symphony Orchestra.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 4, 2020 11:59 PM |
Schumann.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 5, 2020 12:00 AM |
I’ve really been liking Górecki lately.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | June 5, 2020 12:10 AM |
The OP asks for pleasant and relaxing r1, but Wagner and Mahler might not be the ticket.
That Chopin you linked is gorgeous, though.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | June 5, 2020 12:24 AM |
I've been so obsessed with the Schumann 3 ("Renisch") lately - that fourth movement is so unusual and Wagnerian....
by Anonymous | reply 15 | June 5, 2020 12:58 AM |
There are certain movements in Mahler I find tremendously "soothing" and "relaxing," r13. The rest is quite stirring, but it adds to my total sense of well-being.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | June 5, 2020 7:37 AM |
Eric Satie—Gymnopaedie #1
Beethoven—Moonlight Sonata, mmt 1
Edward Elgar—Nimrod, fr. Enigma variations
Claude Debussy—Clair de Lune
Others
by Anonymous | reply 17 | June 5, 2020 7:58 AM |
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music
The sound on the original recording is much better than this youtube copy.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | June 5, 2020 9:15 AM |
Frederick Delius: Florida Suite, A Walk to the Paradise Garden, Brigg Fair, Songs of Sunset, In a Summer Garden, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, A Song of Summer.
The recordings by Beecham are considered definitive but I prefer Barbirolli's versions.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | June 5, 2020 9:34 AM |
The three Bs I want are the barrelhouse, the boogey-woogey and the blues.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | June 5, 2020 9:41 AM |
Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No, 3 and Symphony No. 4
Richard Rodgers: The Carousel Waltz and 2nd Act ballet from Carousel
by Anonymous | reply 21 | June 5, 2020 9:44 AM |
Arvo Pärt - Spiegel im Spiegel
by Anonymous | reply 22 | June 5, 2020 9:54 AM |
Borodin's String Quartet No. 2, Le Petite Suite and In the Steppes of Central Asia.
The classic Broadway musical Kismet had all of its music adapted from the works of Borodin, including from all of the above. He won the first posthumous Tony Award.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | June 5, 2020 10:21 AM |
[quote]but Wagner and Mahler might not be the ticket.
I specified Mahler's Lieder. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the Symphonies, which I find bombastic.
As to Wagner, there are many passages that are soothing and gorgeous. The Siegfried Idyll is one, ITA.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | June 5, 2020 10:29 AM |
And Mahler's 4th goes from lilting to ethereal at the end, quite unlike his other big works.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | June 5, 2020 10:33 AM |
Sent into space to describe human culture to the universe
by Anonymous | reply 32 | June 5, 2020 10:44 AM |
A million years ago friends of my parents gave me a record of Purcell, Vivaldi, and Haydn trumpet concertos (I was a struggling trumpeter in the school orchestra). Years later I still enjoy listening to it.
I pretty much love anything composed by Vivaldi.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | June 5, 2020 10:57 AM |
To be honest, I think this may be the single greatest piece of music ever composed (and I really don’t care for Bach, overall):
by Anonymous | reply 39 | June 5, 2020 11:06 AM |
Thanks R33, that went perfectly with my morning coffee and crossword.
I have a question for the group.
In 2018 Seth Stephens-Davidowitz wrote in the NY Times that your musical tastes are pretty much formed by the time you're a teenager and don't change much after that. For me it's just the opposite. Up through college (1983) I listened to popular music (and, being a good gay, show tunes) but had little interest in classical.
Now well into middle age, I listen almost exclusively to classical and haven't listened to anything 'current' in over 30 years (to me it all sounds the same: boom boom boom, no melody, unintelligible lyrics, no beginning middle, or end). I do, however, like something from the so-called Great American Songbook (Gershwin, Porter, Kern, etc) with a cocktail.
So my question is: were you always into classical music, or, like me, did you develop an appreciation later in life?
by Anonymous | reply 41 | June 5, 2020 11:14 AM |
Allegri’s Miserere - look up the Mozart connection, it’s a wonderful and true story!
by Anonymous | reply 42 | June 5, 2020 11:23 AM |
Thomas Tallis’ one-of-a-kind, 40-part/voice masterpiece:
by Anonymous | reply 43 | June 5, 2020 11:27 AM |
"Hallelujah Junction - 1st movement" by John Adams
by Anonymous | reply 44 | June 5, 2020 11:38 AM |
Speaking of John Adams, this piece is simultaneously hypnotic and creepy:
by Anonymous | reply 46 | June 5, 2020 11:51 AM |
Here you go, OP. This is not exactly classical, but it is far, far, removed from the current commercial product.
Gavin Bryars' "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" is guaranteed to take your attention away from all the shit going on in the world right now and to leave you transported and relaxed.
Or, possibly, it might break you and send you to any number of residential treatment programs.
Or, you might run screaming from the room in which it is playing.
But stick it out. That's my advice. This piece of music is astonishing.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | June 5, 2020 12:57 PM |
Like Curious Eldergay r41, I started listening to classical music in the 1980s. I'd just bought a CD player, didn't care much for the pop music of the day, and tired quickly of buying the CD versions of my old LPs. Then one day in a record store, a guy played Schubert's last piano sonata, D960, and I thought it was the most magical thing I'd ever heard.
This was the beginning of a decades-long OCDish collecting of classical music for me. CD was the perfect form for it: no scratching, no surface noise. ESPECIALLY no surface noise. And you can collect multiple versions of the same piece of music.
I bought all of Schubert's piano sonatas, by at least two different pianists, Brendel (my original) and Uchida; Mozart's Piano Concertos by Brendel, Perahia, and Uchida; Mozart's Symphonies (I didn't get too obsessive here: Hogwood's were my early favorite; nothing came close). Lots of Beethoven symphonies. With him and Tchaikovsky, I find I like practically every version.
I bought lots of different versions of Mahler symphonies in particular. Tennstedt. Bernstein. Abbado. Rattle. Klemperer. Barbirolli. Whatever the popular ones were at the end of the '80s / early '90s. This remains my favorite classical music. I can listen to nothing but Mahler for hours.
I didn't find a set of Beethoven's piano sonatas I really liked until the '00s, when Paul Lewis and Andras Schiff released sets (2005 or so).
Ones I didn't like: Debussy, Ravel, Saint Saens, Elgar...anything meandering. Strauss (waltz or opera).
Ones I like a little: Schoenberg, Webern, Berg.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | June 5, 2020 3:14 PM |
I have always loved Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp, especially the second movement. Two years I visited his birthplace in Salzburg, and heard this music playing in the gift shop. It was so achingly beautiful that I burst into tears, right in the middle of the gift shop. (Yes, I know....Mary!)
by Anonymous | reply 49 | June 5, 2020 3:18 PM |
[quote]So my question is: were you always into classical music, or, like me, did you develop an appreciation later in life?
We had a few classical records around when I was a kid that I liked...Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky's Peter and the Wolf...but not a ton of exposure, aside from the well-known popular stuff. I started to appreciate it more when I got into figure skating, though I am hardly any sort of expert. I like the fact that it is generally music that has stood the test of time, and wasn't recorded on an Ipad with autotuned vocals. Our culture has become so lowbrow and trashy that I welcome any antidote right now.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | June 6, 2020 12:52 AM |
Speaking of Adams, who is not among my favorites, The Arrival of Nixon in China from his opera Nixon in China, is extraordinary.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | June 6, 2020 12:56 AM |
Fauré Requiem is the most sublime music, all of it (35 minutes).
by Anonymous | reply 52 | June 6, 2020 12:58 AM |
If you need a good cry, Karl Jenkins, Benedictus.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | June 6, 2020 1:51 AM |
R52 - YES! The Agnus Dei is my favorite movement from Fauré’s Requiem:
by Anonymous | reply 54 | June 6, 2020 2:47 AM |
Staying home has gotten me into Chopin nocturnes and I discovered a great pianist, unknown to me until listening to about 10 different performances of this one, which kept sticking in my head: Nocturne opus 9, No. 3. Ivan Moravec. One of the great Chopin pianists of all time apparently (Czech-1930-2015). His whole recording of the 20 nocturnes (originally 1965, remastered in 2005) is for me addicting, especially this one, which is not one of the best known ones.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | June 6, 2020 3:50 AM |
[quote] So my question is: were you always into classical music, or, like me, did you develop an appreciation later in life?
I started getting into film scores and 'ambient' instrumental, before making the leap into classical.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | June 6, 2020 4:24 AM |
Holst: The Planets - II. Venus, the Bringer of Peace
by Anonymous | reply 59 | June 6, 2020 4:33 AM |
[quote]So my question is: were you always into classical music, or, like me, did you develop an appreciation later in life?
I was in band and choir in high school, so I was introduced to classical music during that time. That was almost 40 years ago. My appreciation for has grown over the years and continues to grow even now. But I like all kinds of music - pop, rock, country, show tunes, standards, etc. The two genres I've never really developed more than a surface appreciation for are hip hop and jazz. But I think that's mostly because I've never taken the opportunity to explore those genres and educate myself about them.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | June 6, 2020 4:41 AM |
R51, Also from Nixon in China, [italic] I Am the Wife of Mao Tse-Tung [/italic] is even more extraordinary.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | June 6, 2020 6:54 AM |
Someone on another thread turned me onto The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto. Really very lovely. I would post a vid link, but could only find 20 min+ ones, which would probably slow down the thread.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | June 6, 2020 7:21 AM |
^^^ That’s Kathleen Kim hitting high D.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | June 6, 2020 7:38 AM |
My hobbies include singing in a Baroque and Renaissance ensemble, and also organ-fondling. For this reason, I'm going to go with Byrd, Victoria, and Bach. This is my favourite Bach fugue, played by one of my favourite organists. I can't play it anywhere as well as he does, but it's a lot of fun.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | June 6, 2020 10:41 AM |
R66 - Thanks for sharing! I love that fugue as well, although please note that it is a spurious piece that has long been misattributed to J.S. Bach.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | June 6, 2020 11:33 AM |
His feet just dance over the pedals
by Anonymous | reply 68 | June 6, 2020 12:52 PM |
R67 thanks. I didn’t know that it was one of the spurious works, and I thought I knew my Bach.
I’ll go stand in the corner and listen to Schoenberg as punishment.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | June 6, 2020 1:16 PM |
R68, It’s called the “gigue” (jig) fugue for a reason! It was a signature piece of Virgil Fox, and there are anecdotes of people getting up to dance in the aisles when he played it.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | June 6, 2020 1:24 PM |
Handel: Sarabande (used as theme for "Barry Lyndon"
by Anonymous | reply 73 | June 6, 2020 2:32 PM |
MOZART: PIANO CONCERTO 21 ANDANTE (used as theme for "Elvira Madigan)
by Anonymous | reply 74 | June 6, 2020 2:37 PM |
R73, thanks. Voices of Music are a superb ensemble.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | June 6, 2020 2:38 PM |
R69 - No problem! No matter who composed it, it’s no less joyful nor superb.
As for your “punishment”, none is required; however, here’s some Schoenberg that’s actually palatable:
by Anonymous | reply 76 | June 6, 2020 3:09 PM |
The sublime "Humming Chorus" from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly"
by Anonymous | reply 77 | June 6, 2020 4:40 PM |
The sublime "Humming Chorus" from Puccini's, "Madame Butterfly"
by Anonymous | reply 78 | June 6, 2020 4:43 PM |
dammit, why does this double post, or rather why does the first one not post until the second one does and then both show up?
by Anonymous | reply 79 | June 6, 2020 4:47 PM |
Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni
by Anonymous | reply 80 | June 6, 2020 4:48 PM |
I love Cavalleria Rusticana, R80. It’s a straight hour full of magnificent music. I always love how Mascagni used the arpeggiotic fall at the end of a lot of phrases.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | June 6, 2020 4:55 PM |
noted above
Gustav MAHLER, CINQUIEME SYMPHONIE,, Mouvement 4 : Adagietto
but with opening scene from Visconti's "Death In Venice" which used the piece brilliantly
by Anonymous | reply 88 | June 6, 2020 5:13 PM |
“Trois Nocturnes” (Nuages, Fêtes, Sirènes) by Debussy.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | June 6, 2020 5:54 PM |
Diana Ross
by Anonymous | reply 90 | June 6, 2020 6:04 PM |
R67 /76, thanks again. That Schoenberg was very pleasant to listen to. Did I hear a nod to Brahms, or should I take another tablet?
by Anonymous | reply 91 | June 6, 2020 6:10 PM |
Hey R91! When I first heard Transfigured Night, I was stunned. It demonstrates that AS was equipped to be a fine composer, but he took a different path. (Yes, I definitely hear the Brahms!)
It’s like some of Picasso’s first paintings: he demonstrated that he’d mastered the craft, and then took off in his own direction.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | June 6, 2020 11:08 PM |
Well, this isn’t exactly “relaxing”, but it is one of the cleverest and most joyful pieces ever composed for the piano - even though it’s called The Banjo.
Gottschalk totally nailed the effect!
by Anonymous | reply 93 | June 8, 2020 2:27 AM |
Now for something more calm and relaxing. Ralph Vaughan Williams uses both melodies and harmonies in such a way that it always makes me nostalgic for bygone times.
The Lark Ascending was recommended by someone else on this thread and I believe it is one of RVW’s best works. It was composed in the summer of 1914, just before the outbreak of WW I, and for me is the apotheosis of the Edwardian Era and a time that will never return.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | June 8, 2020 2:36 AM |
I'm afraid that decades of repeated playing of The Lark Ascending on UK classical music radio has made me fall out of love with it. But I totally agree with the comments about RVW. Here is one of his earliest extant compositions: it's not as relaxing as the Lark, but it has that same yearning quality.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | June 8, 2020 5:38 AM |
R88, see r21.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | June 8, 2020 5:51 AM |
Another one from Tchaikovsky -- None but the Lonely Hearts
by Anonymous | reply 97 | June 8, 2020 6:11 AM |
Since OP wanted pleasant and relaxing and others have mentioned Vaughan Williams we can't leave out 'Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis' by RVW.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | June 9, 2020 5:45 AM |
Less well-remembered from Death in Venice, r93, and sehr langsam rather than adagietto, we have this movement from Symphony No. 3.
So take your "see" and stick it where we can't see.
by Anonymous | reply 99 | June 9, 2020 7:25 AM |
Coronavirus Étude for Organ and Disinfecting Wipe
by Anonymous | reply 100 | June 9, 2020 7:48 AM |
R99 - What did I do to offend you?
by Anonymous | reply 101 | June 9, 2020 8:24 AM |
I'm a pianist, so I have always listened to a lot of piano recordings. I love Rachmaninoff, particularly the piano concertos and preludes. I love the schmaltzy, heavy-romantic stuff, which Rach always provides. Ravel is also a favorite, Daphnis in particular, also his solo piano works; Jeux D'eau, Une Barque Sur L'Ocean and Ondine are great aural treats. Vivaldi's L'Estro Harmonico and Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are fun in that they have the relentless underlying Baroque momentum that is so satisfying. The climax in Ondine at 3:50 in the following video is so beautiful; I love the descending chordal progression and the movement over the keyboard, which dissipates into a murky puddle.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | June 9, 2020 1:12 PM |
R102 - Have you heard the Gina Bachauer recording of Gaspard de la Nuit with Sir John Gielgud reading the Aloysius Bertrand poems before each piece? It’s an amazing experience!
by Anonymous | reply 103 | June 9, 2020 2:22 PM |