Best baroque dance suites music according to redditors

Keep in mind that the term "classical" is very vague. If you ask someone to recommend a good "rock" album, you could get styles ranging from ACDC to Britney Spears, from Beatles to Lynard Skynard. Same thing when you use a broad term like "classical" - you'll range from Gregorian chants to atonal avant-garde. Don't give up on classical music just because you didn't like the first few things you heard - there's a huge range of styles and composers.

Here's a starter list where I've tried to give you an idea of several styles and eras, staying in the realm of "popular" classical music - nothing here is too obscure or fringe. You can get some quick samples from the Amazon links, or try searching Grooveshark for the full pieces.

• Barber: Adagio For Strings Op.11 - Slow yet intense string piece.
  
  
• Dvorak: New World Symphony - Good symphony with a wide range, from slow moving parts to more bombastic parts. (this piece is sometimes referred to as the "Star Wars" symphony, it has a similar tone at certain parts)
  
  
• Rachmaninov: Vespers - One of my personal favorites. Choral music - intense, haunting at times, interesting harmonies founded on that trademark Russian low bass.
  
  
• Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro A very accessible opera, and one of Mozart's most famous, perfect for a beginning opera listener.
  
  
• Beethoven - Symphonies 5 and 9. Easily two of Beethoven's most famous symphonies. Beyond the parts you hear in movies and commercials, very moving and complex pieces. The 9th has massive depth, particularly the 4th movement. I literally have over a dozen recordings of this piece alone, and hear something new every time I listen to it.
  
  
• Vivaldi: Four Seasons. You'll recognize this in quite a few places. Try the Winter suite, especially the third movement.
  
  
• Bach: Brandenburg Concertos. A good example of Bach's counterpoint style in Baroque string music.
  
  
• Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto #2. Intense and melodic, this piece transitions from sweeping melodic lines building to full frenzy - almost chaotic at times.
  
  
• Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 - Emporer. You could call this a "fancy" piece - several running lines across the piano, including heavy ornamentation and embellishments, particularly in the 1st and 3rd movements. The 2nd movement is more reserved, and it's tranquility bridges the more lively movements.
  
  
• Stravinsky: Rite of Spring. Fascinating, driving intensity - asymmetrical rhythms make this very interesting, unconventional.
  
  
• If you're feeling adventurous and want to delve into a longer piece of a different style, Handel's Messiah or Mendelssohn's Elijah are two great oratorios.

Here are 2 sets of Bach. One occupies 155 CD's (remember those?) and the other occupies 172 CD's. Most CD's are 60 to 80 minutes long, so very roughly, perhaps 200 hours.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Works-Johann-Sebastian-Bach/dp/B003LR4QPE/ref=sr_1_sc_2

https://www.amazon.com/Bach-Complete-Works-155-Box/dp/B000HRME5U/ref=sr_1_sc_3

Snobs and purists will turn their noses down at the suggestion, but Naxos has tons of collections and boxed sets to get you into the various sub/genres.

Naxos actually uses a lot of well regarded, but out-of-print or older recordings that have been superceded by a new performer. A new performance by Yo-Yo Ma will sell better than something from 20 years ago.

An article on Stereophile on Naxos. Worth the read as an intro to the music.

FYI, Naxos is to classical what Vaynerchuk is to wine. The product is still great, but the Old Guard is offended by the new marketing.



There are also the mega-collection boxed sets of different composers:

Beethoven

Mozart

Bach

I'll hazard some suggestions:

Mozart: Piano Concerti, Uchida/Tate/English Chamber Orchestra

Bach: Mass in B Minor, Gardiner

Debussy: La Mer/Nocturnes etc., Boulez/Cleveland

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, Boulez/Chicago

Beethoven: op. 59 quartets, Tokyo SQ

Webern: Works for String Quartet, Emerson SQ

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Ensemble Intercontemporain

Bach: Orchestral Suites, Neville Marriner

Mahler: 9th Symphony, Karajan/Berlin

Schubert: Winterreise and Goethe Lieder, Fischer-Dieskau

And Karajan doing the Brahms symphonies on DVD.

I agree. Boston Baroque has a great 2-disc set of the Brandenburgs on period instruments. Link!

As a European, I find these particularly offensive examples of cultural appropriation in classical music.

https://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Battle-Wynton-Marsalis-Baroque/dp/B0000027C1

https://www.amazon.com/Haydn-Hummel-L-Mozart-Concertos/dp/B00077F95M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:African-American_opera_singers

/s (if it wasn't clear to begin with)

R. de Leeuw good as well:


https://www.amazon.com/Satie-The-Early-Piano-Works/dp/B0000069CS/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8

I highly recommend this album, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe and played on period instruments. It's my favorite recording of the Requiem, and one of my favorite albums overall. It just sucks me in from the first bar.

However, I would suggest checking out several recordings and seeing what suits you best. The Gardiner, Solti and Marriner recordings all have great aspects to them and are very highly regarded.

Lux Aeterna

Bells of St. Geniveve (See track 1)

Take California Propellerheads (what ever happened to them?)

OMG, that is such a fabulous CD. You started at the top.

What got me started was Maria Bayo, Opera Arias and Cantatas.

Lorraine Hunt recorded a couple of Handel albums earlier in her career, these are also fabulous: Handel Arias and Arias for Durastani

If you get really interested in Handel's vocal music, you are going to have to get used to high male voices, "countertenors", who substitute for the "Castratos" that took the heroic roles in Baroque opera. A good place to start would be David Daniels.

Philippe Jaroussky is another great countertenor singing today.

Complete operas? There are 37 of them, some of which do not yet have satisfactory modern recordings. Generally speaking, the more recent the recording, the better. Some of the old ones are awful. One great exception is Rene Jacobs' 1992 recording of Giulio Cesare, Handel's greatest opera, and by extension the greatest Baroque opera. It's long, and there's a lot of "recitative" that can get a bit tedious on repeated listening, but it's a fabulous performance of a great work. Every aria and duet is a masterpiece.

Speaking of duets, one of my absolute favorite Handel albums is Love Duets by Suzie LeBlanc and Daniel Taylor. The duet from Rodelinda is phenomenal.

Great complete operas include Rodelinda,
Orlando and Radamisto.

Great dramatic oratorios include Hercules and Theodora, although the best recording of it is a DVD featuring Lorraine Hunt in a mind-blowing performance.

Good luck! This is some of the most beautiful music ever composed, and it's still not well-known enough.

I'm not even close to knowledgeable enough to talk about definitive recordings. I have Martin Pearlman's. That's all I have and all I've ever had. For all I know I could be outing myself as a dilettante (which I am), but this recording works for me.

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|about artist|Raglans Formed in a festival tent in 2010 Dublin based 4 piece band Raglans launched the same year. Raglans are Stephen Kelly (lead vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin), Ros Horan (bass, backing vocals), Conn ORunaidh (drums, backing vocals) and Liam Morrow (lead guitar, mandolin, backing vocals). Raglans blaze a trail of muscular new wave guitars, gritty pop melodies and uplifting indie folk arrangements that hops... (more on last.fm)|
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Oh, never mind. I just thought you were into electronic music, maybe a DJ or producer, or something like that. Not to sound stuck-up or anything, but part of the reason I thought that was that 150 albums didn't seem that many. 1 complete set of just Beethoven's, Mozart's, and Bach's music comes to 410 discs already.

The complete works of Bach

http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Complete-Works-155-Box/dp/B000HRME5U

If you are completely new to classical music, I'd try one of those 'Beautiful Adagios' sampler CDs that are common on adagios. Perhaps the Baroque Adagios of which Pachelbel's Canon is track one. I wouldn't pay full price, there must be similar playlists on youtube or spotify.

If you are not a newbie and are specifically looking for similar multi-violin canon-type chamber pieces, I would check out Henry Purcell's Fantasias for the Viols. There is a three parts upon a ground which is remarkably similar. The Fantasia Upon One Note is also well known.

I like you. I played sax for 6 1/2 years, studied musicianship for 4. One of my teachers was adamant that Bach was best, without question, he even bought Bach 2000 when it came out and brought it to class. I often use a Mozart collection when I study, it's like it makes me smarter. Even with some historical inaccuracies I just love the directors cut of Amadeus, which I think is on Netflix. If not that then either vivaldi's four seasons or Hungarian rhapsody no 2

More wallowing, if you're into that kind of music: Erik Satie. Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIVp05sEPhE

I highly recommend "Early Piano Works", performed by Reinbert de Leeuw..

Incredibly sad and great at the same time.

Here you go