Classical music

Although I wasn't brought up with classical music (my parents loved musicals and so do I) from about the age of 22 I used to go with a friend on Sunday evenings to the Popular Classics concerts at the Royal Albert Hall - it cost 5 shillings to stand up in the Gods, and we heard some wonderful stuff. Came back to classical music in my 50s and now listen to Classic fm most of the time.

I love the 3rd movement of Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony, so romantic! Actually I love most of the Romantic Russians - Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Khatchachurian. Grieg's Piano Concerto is fabulous, as is Beethoven's Violin Concerto. I always said I don't like opera, but went to see Madame Butterfly in the round at the Royal Albert Hall some years ago and was blown away - The Humming Chorus is sublime. And then there's Mozart ....

I couldn't live without music even though I can't play or sing. It takes you away from the here and now to somewhere timeless.

Just listening now on Radio 3 to the finale of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, the choral bit. I’ve sung in that a few times. There’s no greater high. Just incredible.

Yes OldMeg , that was one that I played. And My Baby Grand, Just the Way You Are.
I've stopped playing now because of various arthritic and damaged joints. I've no longer got a piano , but there's always Youtube.

Fennel I love playing Billy Joel. He’s a much underrated musician, my favourite piece to play is New York Frame of Mind. Do you play that one?

Me too, Lucky. I have a couple of those. If you think they need it, you can add your own embellishments! I agree with Fennel that Bach always sounds easier to play than it invariably is! When I get fed up with mangling it, I listen to the wonderful jazz pianist Jacques Loussier. If Bach were alive today, the two of them would have had a ball!

For those pianists who need their music easy, there is a really good series of books:

"It's East to Play"...ragtime, classical, Christmas, Mozart etc. - lots of choices of book.

I can pretend I am a good pianist!!

OldMeg - I used to play the piano too (long story) and like you have many non-classical favourites. eg Gershwin (simplified), Billy Joel, Scott Joplin etc. Fats Waller.
Bach is favourite on piano too, but again, more difficult than it seems to play. Also Chopin.

My favourite choral piece is The Nuns Chorus from Casanova ,its a beautiful piece ,I think its Johann Strauss 11....could be wrong though as I tend to get my composers mixed up .
I'm an opera fan with Madame Butterfly and La Boheme being the ones I listen to most

I was at a bit of a loss to find a piece that would provide a “hook” for my GS to the classics. He doesn’t hear any at home. I played bits of The Planets, Peter and the Wolf, In The Hall of the Mountain King, and such like, but the piece that really captured his imagination was a piece by Rhespigi from ‘The Pines and Fountains of Rome’ called the Pines of the Appian Way. It conjures up a ghostly Roman legion returning in triumph with their consul, appearing out of a misty road, the music getting louder until the sun comes up and they all disappear again. It isn’t a long piece, but it certainly worked its magic on him, as it always does on me! My children weren’t particularly hooked on the classics when they were younger, but they have come to love some classical music in their later years. My son now loves choral music. He had never really listened to any before we went to a memorial service and the choir sang Bainton’s ‘And I Saw a New Heaven’. That was him, then, a choral fan, raiding my collection! Now he downloads stuff onto his tech thingies even I haven’t heard. Result!

My first LP was either Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, gorgeous piece, or Highlights from Peter Grimes (Britten). I had been blown away, as they say, by that opera when I saw it at Sadler’s Wells in the early ‘60s. I can’t quite remember which came first.

I brought my children up on the usual fare of Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals, but they also heard a lot of choral music when I was practising to recordings. I remember my 6-year-old singing bits of
Bach around the house. One child was not very musical, one was but was affected by the pop scene of the 80s. However, now in his early forties he is very keen on classical and especially opera, preferably Wagner. I feel my job is done!

Music! Such an individual thing. I play the piano and sometimes it’s classical, other times anything from pop to film themes to ragtime. All depends on my mood.

Same with the car radio or Alexa. Wherever the mood takes me. We are so very lucky to have access to music at the touch of a button or a voice command these days. ? ?

Thank you all who have contributed to this thread. Grannyactivist, could you please tell me how to bookmark this, so that I can easily return and re-read? I have clicked on Watch this Thread, is that the same thing?

I love classical music, my father played the piano well and played everyday and took me to the Halle Orchestra concerts. I always sang in a choir from being 10 years old, but when I came to Germany and sang in a R.C.choir the Masses written by Hydn and Mozart I found it quite wonderful.
My latest past time is listening to the star tenor Jonas Kaufmann from Germany on U-tube. Hes not only got a lovely voice he's very handsome. I'm still not keen on watching a 3 hour Wagner opera though. U- tube is enough for me but I love a full orchestra, but rarely get the chance.

I used to listen to so much more when I was young and I should get back into the habit of filling the house with music and/or going to concerts.

Thank you all so much for sharing your favourites, I shall bookmark this page so that I can refer to it as I play my way through some of them.
I like that music, as with all art forms, is so subjective - it would be very dull if we all enjoyed the same things. Unlike Grandma70s I do appreciate some of the works of Rutter and Jenkins. In fact my least favourite hymn, All Things Bright and Beautiful, is transformed into something wonderful by Rutter. www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ECKqYLsBs

My love of classical music began with an inspirational music teacher at school. Morning by Edvard Grieg was the piece that got me all fired up. I love choral music, some of my favourites are the Duet from the Pearl Fishers, the Flower Duet from Lakmé by Delibes, anything by Mozart. I love Schubert, and have several pieces I like by lesser known composers.
I love Gilbert and Sullivan also, and wish more of their works were televised. Years ago I saw the Pirates of Penzance performed by an Australian opera company. It's the funniest thing ever, and well worth hunting for. youtu.be/9DJaNbD6R2s

I was brought up listening to classical music as much as possible during the war. I specially liked Beethoven's violin concerto and have retained a love for the genre ever since. When I was about 10, the Scottish National Orchestra played in a local cinema, a rare occurrence. Dad took us to Gibert and Sullivan operettas whenever the D'Oyley Carte company came to Glasgow - I used to read the libretti and can still quote a number of my favourites - just don't expect me to sing them. When I was given a record player for my 21st birthday, the first LP I bought for myself was Beethoven's Archduke Trio - I love chamber music, oratorio and opera too. Just nothing ultra modern which I find tuneless and boring.

I love classical music and always have done. In the 1960s this extended to pop music but that petered out after I married. I also love steel drum bands, but performing live not recorded.

My favourite composer is Beethoven. I would recommend his piano concertos, early chamber music and some of is shorter piano only pieces; rondos and bagatelles (anybody guess I love piano music?)

DH is an opera fan, watches, sings in and produces. Easy entry into opera. Undoubtedly G&S but then La Traviata (Verdi), La Boheme and Madam Butterfly (Puccini), Tales of Hoffman, Belle Helene and Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach). The last two are very, very funny. A send up of Greek mythology.

I was captivated as a child by hearing Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto, and I was twelve when a friend’s father took the two of us to see a live performance with the Halle Orchestra. Unfortunately I can’t remember who the pianist was, but I was mesmerised by it. I have been hooked on the classics ever since (not to the exclusion of other kinds of music - but mostly). Favourite piano concerto now? The Ravel G major, which has the most sublime second movement. Favourite composer? Everything Bach ever wrote, (but listen to the Prelude in E minor arranged for piano -three and a half minutes of sheer unmitigated joy!), but Vaughan Williams runs him a close second with such works as the Norfolk Rhapsodies - too little played IMO, as is William Walton’s Symphony number one. Favourite choral piece? “How lovely are thy dwellings” by Brahms, which has one phrase toward the end where an elongated note drops by a single tone and stands the hairs up on the back of my neck every time I hear it. A genius moment. Favourite operatic aria? Isolde’s Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Jesse Norman. Breaks your heart. There are hundreds - too many to list. But please, not Phillip Glass ?‍♀️.

I play the piano and sing with a choir. I didn't get my love of classical music from my Dad, he played the piano for strippers in London!
My favourite piece is Beethoven's Pastoral, first movement in F.
Sorry, Grandma70s, I love to sing anything by John Rutter.

I studied classical music and theory and played piano in my youth, basically forced by parental aspirations. However my tastes changed as I got older and I rarely listen to it now. Much more a fan of house,trance, and electronic music generally. However, I can still appreciate the technical skill of musicians classical and modern. Jeff Beck and Rick Wakeman spring to mind, Buddy Guy, Eric, Bowie etc.

The only classical thing that stirred me recently was someone practicing a Bach Tocata and Fugue in
Chester Cathedral (despite the odd error) Now that was impressive! Interesting to read what other gransnetters like though.

Oh, Handel top of the list for me now without a doubt. Tho top fave opera I think Fidelio so Beethoven second.
At school music appreciation was 100% modern (never found out why) wh was a turn-off I’m afraid. I didn’t hear any baroque until I was a student.
Anyone else remember Ace of Clubs LPs?

Just about anything by Mozart is a safe bet. Everything he wrote was beautiful. I was mostly a singer, but when at school I was allowed to play my treble recorder in the school orchestra to help boost the violins in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I loved it so much I used to come home on an absolute high after rehearsals.

Like Luckygirl I’ve been singing all my life, and until I took ill I sang with some great conductors. My favourites are requiems by Mozart, Verdi, Brahms, and Fauré. Beethoven’s 9th, Mahler 8,and Messiah always bring a tear to my eye, more so because I don’t get the chance to sing them any more.
I love Elgar’s Enigma Variations and cello concerto, Intermezzo from Cavalliera Rusticana, Pictures at an Exhibition, Bruch’s Violin Concerto,oh, and many more.

I also love anything by Gilbert & Sullivan!

I've also always loved classical music. Some of my early favourites included Tchaikovskys pathetique symphony and Schubert's Impromptus both introduced to me at school. Like others it's hard to know where to start these days. Most of Mizart esp overture to tge Marriage of Figaro, lots of Vivaldi including of course the Four seasons. Lots of Bach. Choral.music including Faures Requiem (and the Cantique de Jean Racine) , also Verdi''s Requiem. Unlike Grandma70 I do enjoy Ruter and Karl Jenkins. And many more! I cant stand Eienaudi (sp?) though.