help my brain: classic recommendations please
 

"They" say that Classical music is brain food. I'm looking for some recommendations of background classical that's inducive of growin' brains. I'm not just looking for composer/piece though. Please give me recommendations of specific recordings. Cover art might help the best, as classical recordings are confusing as hell. Thanks, y'all.

iannis xenakis-pithopratka

yeah

You cannot, and should not, continue existing without Glenn Gould doing JS Bach's Goldberg variations. You should also get the same doing the Art of Fugue.

They say Mozart is meant to the be the one that's good for the brain. If opera seems like the thing for you, I can't recommend Giulini's rendering of Don Giovanni enough. If not, then try some of the quartets - the Franz Schubert Quartet have done a few of the mid-period ones which I'd recommend (KV #s 464, 465, 499 ('Hoffmeister'), 575)

You should get a complete set of Beethoven symphonies as well. I personally think Karajan's complete set is worth it, but there's a lot to be said for what I've heard of Furtwangler, Toscanini or Solti.

I'll leave it there by let me know if you want more recommendations.

Don't bother with Xenakis unless you like unerringly impossible music. I'm trying to play a solo violin piece of his at the moment and it's just a total cunt.

thanks Glice, that's definitely the kind of list I was hoping to get. And if you think of others that are must-have recordings, by all mean expand on yr list.

I always liked playing Tchaikovsky when I played clarinet. I never really listened to many recordings though, as I got enough of it playing it.

I made a recording of Mozart's Symphony #35 in D, and the first movement of his 40th symphony in G minor.

Here are the individual tracks:

Symphony 35 in D
I. Allegro con Spirito
II. Andante
III. Menuetto - Trio
IV. Presto

Symphony 40 in G minor
I. Molto Allegro

get the harry partch collection volume 2

Bach sonatas and partitas
played by Itzhak Perlman.
He is the most gifted amazing violinist...

 

This is one of my all time faves

 

Isaac Stern 60th anniversary recording. AMAZING mindblowing virtuoso playing throughout.

I was expecting something more like this from 'the Instigator'.

rock n roll is better

Let me ask a question also about you people with classical libraries... what's the best way to tag them. Like take the one above. You've got the composer, the orchestra and the conductor. Would it be like:

Artist= Georg Solti
Title= Mahler: Symphony No. 8

and where do you indicate the orchestra? Do you put Artist= Georg Solti & London Symphony Orchestra? Or... ? Cuz again, all the different classical recordings and re-recordings by various orchestras, symphonies, conductors etc gets confusing to me.

I have CDs and Vinyl. I order them by the name of the composer. I would say the order or precedence should always proceed from the composer, but I have no idea how I'd order a digital collection (and hopefully won't ever have to bother). Depends on how much you've got though. I've still got a relatively small collection, but if I had the complete recorded works of Oistrakh, that'd probably sit on a shelf on its own rather than by composer.

Rock n Roll is the shiznit

I go by composer name, unless it is an album by a specific performer, which will then go under their name.

Glice - I loves the Mahler too. My main preference though is for concertos.

John Williams - ET soundtrack

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to atsonicpark again."

Listen to the man.

I really like Penderecki's "Dies Irae" and Messiaen's "Quartet For the End of Time" lately.

I also highly reccomend iancu dumitrescu, who glice highly reccomended a while back and who blew my mind.

I really like abstract, "dark" classical music... Glice, have any more reccomendations?

I will eternally adore "Rites of Spring" by Stravinsky

The Art of Noises by Luigi Russolo is a piece of prophetic genius

Tuning Up by Edgard Varese rather predicts what the Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth would carry into rock music in many ways

John Cage has too many pieces to mention (and I know, probably wasn't what you meant when you said "classical", but whatever...), however, First Construction in Metal is a composition that I truly love, and In the Name of the Holocaust (for prepared piano) has a "classical" vibe that's really powerful.

Musique d'ameublement by Erik Satie is very beautiful

I'm a fan of the Kronos Quartet and have many albums, my two favorite being Black Angels (which has many amazing compositions played by them from Ives to the awesome title track by George Crumb which is one of the most jaw droppingly good pieces of music ever) and Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector which is Terry Riley pieces (Riley being their mentor in the early days).

I'm a big fan of the whole La Monte Young/"Theatre of Eternal Music" school of classical minimalism, so check out a few of the classic releases from them:

My personal favourites are John Cale's various compositional releases from outside of the Velvet Underground, although these are probably the least traditionally "classical". The Table of the Elements "New York in the 60s" box set is hands down one of my favourite from my whole collection. Truly stunning. It's quite a long way out of print though, but the 3 discs from it have been released separately. The first, "Sun Blindness Music", is my personal favourite, but all 3 volumes are essential. I'd also recommend that you check out the John Cale/Terry Riley collaboration "Church of Anthrax", which is even further removed from any normal definition of classical music, but regardless of anything is just a fucking excellent album.

In a similar vein to the New York in the 60s box set, TOE also released a 4CD Tony Conrad box set called "Early Minimalism" that's fantastic.

Oh, and if you happen to not be familiar with La Monte Young's "The Well Tuned Piano", rectify this. It's amazing, and has been the background soundtrack to many a long work session of mine. There's no way you'll be able to find one to buy for any non-insane price, but it's not too hard to find online. Any performance will be fine, as there are only 2 or 3 available that I know of, and they're all performed by La Monte himself.

Outside of the Theatre minimalist axis:

It's sadly a bit of a cliché at this point, but Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" is a classic for a reason. I'm personally most familiar with the Nonesuch recording, and would heartily recommend it, but the original ECM recording is also fantastic from what I've heard, and that's the one that people generally often to consider the best, so maybe go for that one.

And if what you're really looking for is some lush classical background music, the ECM new series release of Arvo Part's "Alina" is very beautiful (not because Part is only good as background music; just because it happens to work excellently for that purpose...).

Oh, also, forgot to mention: If you're willing to put the time/money in, there's a fantastic 10 disc "25 Years of the Kronos Quarter" box set, on Nonesuch. They're one of the all time great groups of modern classical performers, and the set covers so many fantastic composers, all beautifully performed, so it makes a really good introduction to the world of modern classical music, or at least I found so...

Yeah, I've listened to this is in its entirety 3 times in my life. All 3 times were mindblowing.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but there is no "s" at the end of "Rite" in that title. Just wanted to mention in to save confusion when NR looks for it.

I love Bartok, especially his string quartets, which are disjointed freak outs of high order.

I won't be able to give specific recordings, apart from the works conducted by Boulez maybe (Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, whatever...).

This recording is very much worth it.




In response to Herr Park - I reckon Jakob Ullman's 'a catalogue of sounds' might be well up your street. I don't think it'd be up a lot of people's streets mind you, but I've been fairly wounded by it.

Also for Herr Park - you really should get on the case with Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. Furtwangler's version, ideally. You mightn't like it straight away, but you really should. Just that fucking prelude alone... madness, I tell you.

Ha! Seriously? The worst of all concerned this particular one. I mean, it's not appalling, but everyone concerned has done lots better.

+1 to Rite of Spring. His other ballets are quite good as well.

even the (fake) helicopters? :)

thanks glice, will look into.

Man, I've always intended to do that, but it's just finding the right 5 hours to say "I am going to listen to a fucking Well Tuned piano"...

if i may add some as well. first do whatever glice says.
especially if it concerns don giovanni. i will definitely have to check out that recording.
if you want quality preformances, you usually cant go wrong with deutsche grammaphone. they usually have quality stuff.
anything james levine conducts is usually great and boulez.
other bartok to check out are his quintet and conerto for orchestra. last year i saw his miraculous mandarin suite which is fantastic.
messiaen turangalilot symphony is amazing. i like messiaen a lot because you can usually get a great mixture of really crazy music with really beautifuly composed lyrical music. the same goes for bartok.
oh and mozarts jupiter symphony (41) if you have not heard it, then you kind of must.
i have not yet heard all of berlioz's requiem but the dies ire is pretty great. there is this insane part composed for 14 timpanis.
two days ago i saw wagner's tannhauser which is pretty fantastic.
and anything by arvo part that have heard has been amazing.l but im sure that glice knows more on the subject and better recordings than what naxos has to offer

Messiaen is kind of ideal - you can listen to him on the 'what the actual fuck is going on?' level or just let it all wash over you. Turangalila or Quartet for the end of time come highly recommended.




I've not heard this specific recording but I've never gone wrong with these editions.

Funnily enough, the Naxos version of Fratres/ Tabular Rasa (Part) is my preferred one, although by rights it really should be
this one. The thing with Naxos is that, while they are cheap, they are very good at former Easter-bloc composers. I've got a fair bit of Schnittke and Lutoslawski on Naxos, and I've got no complaints. It's only when they start faffing about with Beethoven or someone (their edition of the Emperor concerto is poo) that it's not as good, but it very much depends on who's playing.

Anyway - Part - Tabula Rasa on Naxos, and Miserere/ Alina/ Litany on ECM. If you can find a recording of 'If Bach had been a beekeeper', that's well worth it. Quite different to his slightly later stuff. I'd go careful with Part though, he's often iffy - especially his most recent stuff.

This has kind of stopped being about recommendations now, hasn't it?