The impenetrable world of classical music

I bought that Moog album of Debussy pieces that Tomita did the other day actually.



I'm lucky to have a few friends who are knowledgable about classical so I usually pick thier brains... but you can get very good paperback guides from most new and s/h bookshops that break down the rough eras, stylistic movements, key composers etc, and they usually have a list of recommended recordings in them.

the aura of impenetrability is the concretization of class priviledge with time, and now fed by tumorous capitalism foisting endless needless versions of the same shit to the captive audience of the polite undead, knowing that the next lot will be serenading themselves away to the rockcrit nostalgia complex

a lot of the new $$$ releases reviewed each week seem to be famous conductors adulterating the old canonical shit with super slow tempi to eke out every last drop of holiness or profundity, or virtuosi who can play chopin etudes at warpspeed as if this is a good thing in itself

just get the nearest or cheapest, eg any randomly chosen debussy will likely suffice, there isn't a lot of it and it's almost all good

ignore the above post completely.

gfc is right, lots of good guides around cheaply

personally id start with the poppier minimalist stuff (Reich, Riley, Satie, Budd) that probably has a lot in common with your current tastes and work back from there. and listen to radio 4 in the evening, they have loads of good documentaries. I imagine the BBC might have some good bbc 4 documentaries on the iplayer download section, also catch howard goodall's 20th century composers series which gets repeated on channel 4 every so often, fantastic.

Check Hans Otte out, he's composed some of my favourite piano works and I just found out last night that he died on xmas day 2007. I'd been reading up on him considering id had his music for ages but knew nothing about him and id been sampling the hell out of him.

a neophyte to the huge fucking metannarrative of western music isn't going to substantially err by going for richter instead of pollini in schubert d9xx, that's all

tht said:

the aura of impenetrability is the concretization of class priviledge with time, and now fed by tumorous capitalism foisting endless needless versions of the same shit to the captive audience of the polite undead, knowing that the next lot will be serenading themselves away to the rockcrit nostalgia complex

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For. Fuck's. Sake.

that'll be you one day dicksuck, hot water bottle, afternoon tea, catheter and an ipod full of counting crows

"Hmm. I'm detecting a distinct strain of anti-intellectualism in this tavern." - Homer J Simpson

Man, I just feel so concretized sometimes...
I reckon my semiotic metanarrative must be sclerotized something rotten. Woe is me!

Unfortunately know next to nowt about classical music, with a grand total of 1 CD in my collection, a Satie compilation on Naxos.

Incidentally what do people think of the Naxos stuff? It appears to be an accessible, cheap way of getting into classical music and I was thinking of starting there. Are their recordings generally of a good standard?

This is where I start scratching my head. Do you just dive in buying lots of cheap cds of a wide range of stuff, or try and research and dig up definitive 'classic' recordings. There's so much music, and so many different interpretations. I mean, how many different recordings of Beethoven's 9th must there be in existence?

Keep a lid on the personal disses please.

Thank you.

But this is the thing; I don't want to be the equivalent of the knob who just has a copy of Bob Marley' 'Legend'....

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shit term though it is, 'classical music' isn't that esoteric

if you found out king tubby >>>> bob marley by yourself, then you'll find what you like in any field, without the help of some arcane directive that only a rare 1971 upsetters unlabelled acetate will allow you to understand either

a few hours of wikipedia will trace the edges of the continuum from machaut to bach to debussy to webern and then you can focus upon which regions interest you most

like beethoven op132, by common consent a sublime work and it isn't difficult to see why, though if you follow the book it'll say it's too dissonant and complex and why not be a good child and sit through something nice like the third symphony (the pet sounds of notated music)

this is cos if you're used to afx, ruff swad, sonic youth, then your concepts of dissonance and complexity are likely diferent to the widows sitting through evening classes on how to appreciate nice music

similarly whichever facet of debussy floats your boat, then any of saint saens, schumann, messiaen, cage, schoenberg, etc might interest you, there's a vast amount of stuff and really and it's entirely up to you

Benny B said:

Unfortunately know next to nowt about classical music, with a grand total of 1 CD in my collection, a Satie compilation on Naxos.

Incidentally what do people think of the Naxos stuff? It appears to be an accessible, cheap way of getting into classical music and I was thinking of starting there. Are their recordings generally of a good standard?

This is where I start scratching my head. Do you just dive in buying lots of cheap cds of a wide range of stuff, or try and research and dig up definitive 'classic' recordings. There's so much music, and so many different interpretations. I mean, how many different recordings of Beethoven's 9th must there be in existence?

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You can get well-recorded canonical pieces for about a fiver (and often less), it's great. I'd suggest sticking to these for a while as you try and work out which composers/styles/periods you like, then it might be worth looking out specifically for 'definitive' recordings which may cost a little more.

Listening to Radio 3 is a pretty good (and free) way of finding stuff that interests you - programmes like the Lunchtime Concert, Afternoon on 3, Performance on 3, Through the Night and Composer of the Week cover European art music from about 1700-1950 with a lot of depth and quality, so you can just listen until you start to figure out which composers / styles interest you most.

Specialist classical CD shops tend to be staffed by very knowledgeable people, so if you know you want a recording of, say, Beethoven 7, it would maybe be worth going in and asking for their advice on which version is best. They'll probably have a copy of some of the big classical guides with reviews of the various versions, too, and if it's a slow day you might end up spending half an hour being played extracts of each recording and muttering things about vibrancy and clarity and suchlike. It might seem a bit intimidating but they'll probably actually be quite glad that da yout are showing an interest. Plus I think it still compares favourably with buying anything at all in somewhere like BM Soho...

at the record and tape exchanges in london, the classical shop in notting hill is the only one where the people at the counter seem not only happy to help, but genuinely delighted to see you

a lot of music in there too