Best classical 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.

Yes. Classical and Heavy Metal (seriously). I can't stand boring music. I usually listen to Chopin, Bach, and Brahms, and I don't like modern classical.

I highly recommend you buy this CD, it's pretty amazing.

I read your comment and thought: "there are lots of commercially unknown orchestras with great recordings....". Then I went to the amazon page for the Beethoven collection pictured: http://amzn.com/B00012QMDG

Listen to the opening of Beet 5. Yuck. I'm not trying to be an elitist or anything. It just really really sucks even compared to other cheap CDs. Shit, you can get the entire 1963 Karajan Beethoven cycle used for about $15 on amazon: http://amzn.com/B000001GBQ

If you like classical music as background music while you work or whatever, fine. But if you want to hear it the way it's meant to be heard, you can do much better for the same amount of money.

EDIT:
I'll be constructive and recommend a few cheap and great recordings (buying used off amazon, nothing more than $5). Others might be able to do better....

Mozart Symphonies 40, 41

Mozart Symphonies 32, 35, 39

Beethoven 5, 7

Bach cello suites

Bach Brandenburg 1-3

Goodreads' Users Choice awards for the "best" books of 2016 are out. The history category is, uh, well it exists. The winner being a ghostwritten celebrity death cash-in is not great. Oddly the only book on this list I'd heard any buzz about at all this year was White Trash, which I didn't get around to reading.

This Mozart 220 CD collection is being tooted as the "best selling album of 2016." Don't believe it - it's only because they're counting EACH CD as an individual sale, so any other album has to sell 221 copies to make up for one of these doorstoppers. It's not even the #1 classical album on Amazon for pete's sake. Sloppy journalism.

The Great Beethoven Natural Sign Debate got even spicier after last week. I am pretty invested now.

Nyet comrade! Only Red Army Choir is appropriate. Full album on YouTube.

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

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

$329 for the 200 CD box. If I liked Mozart more, I'd be tempted to pull the trigger.

https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-225-New-Complete-200/dp/B01FW8XWSG

It seems like people are just naming their favorite composers rather than music similar to Williams. Well, to me Williams sounds the most like Wagner (grand orchestration and leitmotifs) and Bartók (primal rhythms and also a fair bit of the orchestration).

For Wagner, you could start with some overtures, e.g. Lohengrin, Lohengrin act III, Dutchman, Tristan (I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Liebestod), Parsifal... but those don't really sound that much like John Williams, so sooner or later you'll just have to hunker down and watch the Ring with her. (You'll be surprised at the similarities to Star Wars, and I'm not just talking about the music.) Wagner certainly knows how to "build large-scale works".

Most of Bartók isn't orchestral, but then that wouldn't really sound similar, would it. Popular orchestral works include the five-movement Concerto for Orchestra and four-movement MSPC. If anything, Bartók will sound more like Williams than Wagner does, not because he learned more from Bartók but because his most "distinctive" stuff sounds like Bartók while everyone who ever writes an orchestral film score echoes Wagner.

Once you hear these, you'll realize just how much of a copycat Williams is, but there's nothing wrong with that, and it's hard to fault his choice of source material.

A few to consider, some more affordable than others:

• Complete Webern
  
• Complete Varese
  
• The DG Complete Beethoven Edition (if you can find it anywhere)
  
• The Philips Complete Mozart Edition (if you can find it anywhere)
  
• Steve Reich
  
• Philip Glass
  
• Handel - Orchestral Works
  
• Bach - Orchestral Works
  
• Ravel - Complete Edition
  
• Debussy - Complete Edition
  
• Shostakovich Edition (one of the few Brilliant Classics box sets I can wholeheartedly recommend, unlike many of the others which can be a bit patchy)
  
• Strauss - Complete operas
  
• Wagner - Complete operas (Solti)
  
• Boulez - Bartok
  
• Boulez conducts Schoenberg (far from complete, but this about the best you can do)
  
• Boulez - Stravinsky
  
• Various Bach choral stuff - Gardiner
  
• Stravinsky
  
• Alban Berg Collection
  
• Berlioz - Complete orchestral works (Davis)
  
• Brahms - Complete Edition (absolutely superb collection)
  
• Britten conducts Britten + operas 1 and operas 2 + Complete Britten
  
• Sibelius - Symphonies and tone poems
  
• Elgar - Collector's Edition
  
• Vaughan Williams - Collector's Edition
  
• Barber - orchestral works (Alsop)
  
• Scriabin - Piano works
  
• C.P.E. Bach Edition
  
• Corelli - Complete Works
  
• Telemann - Tafelmusik
  
• Schubert - Masterworks (Brilliant Classics - not always the best recordings, but for the amount of stuff you get, worth the money
  
• Poulenc - complete works
  
• Messiaen - complete edition
  
• Mahler - complete edition (the symphony recordings here are a representative cross-section, you might want to supplement it with another complete cycle, e.g. Solti, Bernstein, Abbado, etc.)
  
• Liszt - Complete piano music
  
• Janacek - Operas
  
• Haydn - Symphonies (Hogwood), not complete, but as close as anyone has come to it
  
• Mozart - Symphonies (Pinnock) - an alternative to Mackerras
  
• Bartok - Piano works
  
• Debussy - Piano works
  
  If you need anything more specific than that, let me know and I'll try to recommend something.
  
  If you have a look in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section for any of these, you'll find many more.

The obvious choice would be Holst's The Planets. Bach would be a good choice as well, since he's kind of awe inspiring and cerebral. However, I would like to suggest an oddball: NASA made a series of albums called Symphonies of the Planets, which are based off of the EM recordings made by Voyager I and II as they passed various planets. It's not exactly music, but it is strange, beautiful, haunting ambient stuff.
purchase
torrent
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And now to finish what I've started...

Robert Schumann - Schumann tended to compose in phases. As a result, the vast majority of his piano compositions were published n the 1830s - and every single opus from 1 to 20 is a piano piece. Most of his best-known piano music comes from this early phase of piano music - Carnaval, Papillons, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana those guys. And of course, all of those are worth listening to. My own personal recommendations for early Schumann piano music would be the Toccata (hard to believe this piece was written in 1832 - when it was first published, it was considered by many to be the most difficult piano piece ever written), Kinderszenen, and the op. 12 Fantasiestucke.

But what I really wanted to address was a couple selections of his later piano music - in particular, the Waldszenen ("Forest Scenes"), a beautifully composed and highly evocative suite. The other piece I wanted to recommend was the Gesange der Fruhe, op. 133 ("Songs of Dawn"), one of his last compositions, written by an older Schumann who was well into his emotional and mental decline. It's always been his most intriguing piano piece to me - odd chord changes, unpredictable and frustrated cadences everywhere, and just overall an incredibly thick work to wrap your ears around. It has a unique sound. Clara wrote of these songs in her diary - "dawn-songs, very original as always but hard to understand, their tone is so very strange."

Interesting that I went on so long about Schumann. To be perfectly honest, he's never been one of my favorites. But there certainly is a lot to say about his music.

Frederic Chopin - Wait, I already talked about that guy, didn't I? Silly me. Go listen to some Chopin! There's never a good reason not to!

Felix Mendelssohn - You may know some of his Lieder ohne worte - op. 19 no. 1, op. 30 no. 6 ("Venetian Boat Song"), op. 62 no. 6 ("Spring Song"). I like [op. 30 no. 3[(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJ9vHBZIFs), "Consolation". I use it as an encore piece sometimes.

What you may not have been aware of, however, are his Preludes and Fugues. Mendelssohn was an avid admirer of Bach (often credited with bringing his music back into the public eye and performance canon). As, I'd assume, something of an homage to Bach, Mendelssohn published his Six Preludes and Fugues, op. 35 in 1837. They're all great, of course, but if you wanted my suggestion for a single one to use as an introductory work, I'd say definitely the second one, D major (9:49 in the video).

Richard Wagner - in a post about piano music?

Well, yes. He was not a particularly prolific piano composer (his entire piano works typically fit on two CDs), and his piano music is almost never played or heard of. The earliest of his piano music, for example the first piano sonata (1831) is...not quite what you'd expect from Wagner. Relatively "classical" sounding. He wrote a few other piano pieces around the same time. Then, 20-someodd years later he made a return to the piano and wrote this A-flat major sonata. It sounds much more Wagner-esque, and also peculiarly like Beethoven. He also wrote an Elegie a few years after, in which he definitely pushes the envelope of tonality, which he did often.

Charles-Valentin Alkan - for a long time, Alkan's name was uttered rarely, and almost exclusively in circles of pianists. In recent years, he's become better known in general, but he's still best known for being unknown. Marc-Andre Hamelin has, in my opinion, played a huge hand in validating his music. He's the only "A-list" pianist I can think of who has recorded a sizable amount of Alkan's music. And the lack of recognition isn't necessarily because his music is bad - it's that a lot of it is diabolically difficult, and he doesn't have quite as much a penchant for memorable melodies as say, Chopin or Liszt.

I've always loved his etude, Le Vent. Apologies for the amateur recording (no idea what happened to the upload of Hamelin's recording). This pianist does an absolutely stellar job with the piece of course, it's just lacking in terms of video and sound quality. Alkan wrote some enormous pieces - the Concerto for Solo Piano is a really cool piece. He also wrote a Symphony for Solo Piano. For another shorter piece, take a listen to his "Diabolic Scherzo". Diabolical indeed!

Cesar Franck - more an organ composer than a piano composer, which you can certainly hear in his Prelude, Chorale and Fugue. He had another similarly structured piano piece - the Prelude, Fugue and Variation in B minor.

That's really all I had to say about him, but both pieces are stellar. If you're curious about chamber music, I'd also say to explore some of Franck's.

Franz Liszt - You could do a whole other post and thread on Liszt alone. In recorded form, his piano output takes up nearly 100 CDs. A large part of this is because of the huge amount of transcriptions he wrote - including a sizable chunk of Schubert and Schumann's songs, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and all nine Beethoven symphonies. Most people associate "Liszt piano music" with big, bombastic displays of technique and flair, and while that is true to an extent, there's a whole lot more to Liszt's piano music than that.

If you haven't already, listen to his B minor piano soanta - a novel approach to the sonata form, and one of the most dazzling pieces in the repertoire. It's quite famous, but hey, I never heard it until my first year of college, everyone needs a first introduction at some point. Beyond that, the best of his piano music, in my opinion, comes from his *Annees de pelerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage"), a set of three different publications he made, each depicting a year of travel. The first book is marked "Swiss", the second book "Italian", and the third book is not marked with a location. My favorites from each book are Cloches de Geneve (never have I heard bells better represented on the piano), Sonnet 104 - a transcription of one of Liszt's own songs, and Jeux d'eau de la Villa d'Este, sometimes referred to colloquially as the "first French Impressionist piece". Lazar Berman's studio recording of the entire Annees de pelerinage (from which all three of the recordings I linked to are taken), is one of my all-time favorite recordings.

Alexander Borodin - Another composer who is better known for other types of music (orchestral, chamber, and Prince Igor, one of his operas). Fascinating piano music though - his Petite Suite is really cool. (Not the complete suite, but Sofrinitsky is fantastic with Russian music so I went with his recording). He also wrote a Scherzo in A-flat major, a fun little piece that totally deserves more recognition.

Modest Mussorgsky - As long as we're in Russia...From what I understand, Mussorgsky has more piano music than just Pictures at an Exhibition, but shamefully I've never heard any of it. But if you haven't yet heard the piano version of Pictures (Ravel's orchestration is vastly more popular), definitely make a point of doing so! Here is Mikhail Pletnev playing the piece. A somewhat idiosyncratic interpretation, but one of the best I've ever heard.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky* - another name that you don't often hear associated with piano music. Admittedly, his piano sonatas (the Grand Sonata, for instance), are not the best piano music out there, but I've found a lot to love in his miniatures. His most popular piano work is The Seasons, a suite in which each movement represents one of the twelve months. I am a fan of May: Starlit Nights, and October: Autumn Song.

Among his other piano music, his Meditation, op. 72 no. 5 is easily my favorite. I also enjoy his Berceuse, op. 72 no. 2. I'm deliberately avoiding concerti and piano/orchestra pieces, but were I to include them, obviously Tchaikovsky's concerti are among the most important - especially the first one in B-flat minor.

I'm approaching the character limit again* (those damn youtube links take up a lot of characters), but if there's any interest, from OP or otherwise, I'll happily continue with a post wrapping up the romantic era and tackling the 20th century.

I think modern culture has promulgated the falsehood of the prodigy and the overnight success, such that we're trained to think everything is just talent that you're either born with or not. The truth is that gaining any skill like photography or cooking or ice skating or piano takes months and years of patient effort. There's really no way around that (even for prodigies), but you can learn to practice much more efficiently. Chuan Chang's book Fundamentals of Piano Practice might be very helpful. The Art of Practicing by Madeline Bruser is also quite good. You choice of music is your own of course, but I will add that my love of classical was absolutely triggered by this one album. I cannot recommend it too highly! It's just such a mind-boggling trip and I can't overstate it's impact on a bunch of us kids in the 1970's who had literally never heard this music before. Give it a shot. It might change your mind about what "classical" music can be! https://www.amazon.com/Switched-Bach-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B00005ORCV [EDIT: Added note on switched on bach]

https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Symphonies-Nos-5-7/dp/B000001GPX

This is awesome

Some of the stuff from this release was put out with a whole lot of other electromagnetic -> audible sound recordings from the other planets a couple years ago on CD.

http://www.amazon.com/Symphonies-Of-The-Planets-Recordings/dp/B000001V2O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLDWKpAkRHs

A lot of them, especially the Jupiter and Saturn ones, would make for a great 'filler' in the music from the default soundtrack, in my opinion. They are also nice to meditate to.

Don't bother with Bohm, it's awful. Go for Karajan's 70's or 80's versions (his 60's recording is not that good either).

Some other versions that I like are the two 1 2 recordings by Marriner, Colin Davis, and Schreier.

Concerning recordings with period instruments, I second Herrweghe's recording, and would also recommend Harnoncourt's recording which is very unique.

The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos have a classic album called Chant.

If you don't mind a cleaner, more professional sound, the group Chanticleer released a fantastic album of chants called Mysteria.

Some people enjoy the chant albums created by the group Ensemble Organum. They are high quality but not for everyone.

Another excellent album done by professionals (as opposed to monks) is 12th Century Monophonic Chant by Paul Hillier / Theatre of Voices.

For an authentic chant sound, recorded in a monastery, check out Salve Regina by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Maurice and Saint Maur, Clervaux. On Amazon it's listed under the generic artist name "Benedictine Monks."

If you're looking for propers, a good one is Alberto Turco's Adorate Deum / Gregorian Chant from the Proper of the Mass.

Another good chant album that contains a couple of Masses, including the sublime Missa de Angelis, is a 3 CD set sold on Amazon.

One more. Chant - Music for Paradise (also known as Music for the Soul) is very good. The antiphon for In Paradisum, the first track, brings me to tears.

You can find a lot of these on YouTube.

Mozart 225: The New Complete Edition [200 CD Box Set] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FW8XWSG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_rqytybTRV2J19

I guess this is it

Mozart will last me a long time. (Now imagine how huge that collection would be had he lived to be, say, 70.)

If you really want to test your system...
Get a mic that can record down to 1-5 Hz and set it up on a laptop in front of your "system"
Find a copy of this:
https://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Overture-Kunzel-Cincinnati-Multichannel/dp/B00005AVNH
The gold coated disc version is impossible to find, but the regular CD will suffice.
You should recognize the music - just play the main track all the way through at a modest level, then you can test the limits. When played on good systems it's easy to close your eyes and be there in the auditorium with the musicians

The Boku to Kimi to no Ongakuchou album contains the vast majority of the performances you're looking for.

Some others, like Mozart's Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" and Tchaikovsky's Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty, can be found on the Twinkle Little Star album.

Masaru Yokoyama's arrangement of Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor can be found on Yuna Shinohara's Estreno album.

The version of wacci's Kirameki that is played in the final episode can be found on the limited edition Kirameki album.

Sorry for replying so late. It's generally regarded that Karajan's earlier stereo recordings (late 50s-60s) are his best, with some exceptions. His Beethoven set from the 60s is often considered one of the greatest of all time. If you like Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Webern, Berg) then you might like this CD. Karajan's Mahler is generally regarded as excellent, any of it really; his Mahler 6th is what got me into the composer. If you like Tchaikovsky, in my opinion Karajan was authoritative in that music—here is a CD that I enjoy very much. Bruckner, again, take your pick. There's a live recording he made of Bruckner 8 that is well liked. Karajan made about 900 recordings so it's hard to even remember some of them, but mostly he excelled in the Romantic composers. I think he was underrated in Mozart. This CD has my favorite performance of Mozart's 40th, bar none. Hope this post was helpful.

Karl Bohm + BPO: Complete Mozart Symphonies

EDIT: Also, the Piano Concertos and the requiem.

Plus the operas The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte. The Piano Sonatas, Violin Sonatas, Violin Concertos, Horn Concertos, Serenades.

2nd Edit: I'd recommend you start with the stuff I linked then slowly move your way into the rest of the stuff, because it is a lot of stuff as one user pointed out.

I don't think it was the newer one, but should be whatever year this one was from

Taken from the video's description: Sir Neville Marriner, Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields, Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields Chorus, Laszlo Heltay

To view additional names here's their album: https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Requiem-Wolfgang-Amadeus/dp/B000004137

​

Cheers.

I am quite partial to the Hackers soundtrack back from 1995. The Prodigy, Underworld, Orbital, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Leftfield, Stereo MCs, Squeeze, and more all on one disc.

ProTip: they actually released THREE Hackers soundtracks, all of which are stellar.

I did this very same thing, my friend. Here's what I did:

• Listened to this album (a lot)
  
• Read the book The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross, and listened to a bunch of the recommended recordings, and followed his blog
  
• Listened to lots of EMI's "Great Recordings of the Century" series
  
• Read lots of stuff online about composers I liked, including Wikipedia and this website and this one too. I also started to learn about the different forms/genres within classical music, and the different time periods as well
  
• But mostly, just listened to lots and lots of classical music. The more times you hear the same piece, the more you will feel you understand it and the better it becomes - and there is no upper limit to this. Explore!
  
  I still love rock and metal for the record, they are not mutually exclusive :P

To your last point on Music: There is a Your Lie in April CD album that the Sony has released containing all of the classic pieces of the show as performed by the show's pianists (Tomoki Sakata & Eriko Kawachi) and violinist (Yuna Shinohara). You can hop on YouTube to find their recording of Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso.

You can find the full CD on Amazon, though it comes with a hefty 30 USD price tag as an imported product. And obviously wait until you have finished the show first.

Not sure if this is within your price range, but Liszt: The Complete Piano Music might be an idea? Leslie Howard is a phenomenal pianist and this set is absolutely amazing!

I dived in on a tight schedule (my obsessive compulsion prevented me from seeing Siegfried at the Met Live in HD 'cold') so I made a traipse to my uni's music library. They had THIS with ALL THE BOOKLETS. From 8 pm to nearly 2 pm, what I did was read the booklet of the opera, watch the opera, switch DVDs, repeat.

Sans the inherent craziness of watching them straight through, I think watching a subtitled recording would be the best way for you - even better if you can borrow it from someone, or check it out from a library. This particular set had booklets in each DVD with a detailed synopsis, including the original stage directions (as far as I can tell), and this particular production looked like it made an attempt at recreating the imagery, which again seems fitting for what you're looking for.

As an ending to my little tale, apparently, I sucked at reading the calendar, and thus ended up watching Gotterdammerung WHILE SIEGFRIED WAS PLAYING IN THEATRES ;-;.

Honestly, it's worth it to listen to all of Beethoven's symphonies. Each one builds on the last. The first sounds like a schizophrenic Mozart and the last sounds like pure joy. I've had my hearing all my life and the Ninth still brings me to tears.

Remember, if you do listen to the Fifth, don't just listen to the first movement! A symphony is one complete piece of music, conceived and executed as a whole, but split into four movements; the Fifth is even more unified, since all four movements deal with the same primary theme. Listening to just the first movement of the Fifth is a cop-out, especially because the last movement kicks even more ass.

I find conductor Herbert von Karajan strays too widely from the music as written in general, but Beethoven scholars the world around swear by his 1963 recording. I personally, however, am a huge fan of the late conductor Georg Solti, and think his 1972 symphony cycle is awe-inspiring.

Aside from actually attending a performance of the cycle (pricey, indeed), this is a great place to start. Rich, faithful staging with wonderful performances.

Since you're looking for a traditional production, I'd say the Met's production conducted by Levine is probably going to be your best bet. I haven't seen a ton of Ring Cycle DVDs, but all of the ones I've seen except for the Met/Levine have been "modern" productions (which can still be pretty cool if you go into it with an open mind). As for English subs, as far as I know most if not all DVDs will have them.

Sorry, I don't have that particular CD. Looks like it is pretty cheap on Amazon, though: http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Your-Mind-Wolfgang-Amadeus/dp/B0000041CB/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1212181026&sr=8-1

I was lucky enough to receive the complete works of Mozart as a gift ( http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Complete-Works-170-Box/dp/B000BLI3K2/ref=pd_sim_m_img_1 ). It took me months to listen to it all, and I was going at a very fast pace. Great recommendation for anyone that is interested in classical music, and almost all of it is great "thinking" music. Mozart's music is very structured (practically everything he wrote is considered "perfect" in an objective musical sense), and yet it is beautiful and elegant at the same time, so I find it to be very conducive to programming.

Chant, by The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos

http://www.amazon.com/Chant-Benedictine-Monks-Santo-Domingo/dp/B000002SKX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370448388&sr=8-1&keywords=chant

Wow, looks like somebody found their parents' Chant CD!

This is excellent advice. Custodianship of memories is as important as custodianship of the eyes, if not moreso. You must replace the sinful memories and experiences with the sacred and bury the sinful past as much as possible. Buy a couple CD's of Gregorian Chant:

https://www.amazon.com/Chant-Benedictine-Monks-Santo-Domingo/dp/B000002SKX

https://www.amazon.com/Sæcula-Sæculorum-Selections-Perennial-Chant/dp/B0089FI7I0/

https://www.amazon.com/Adventus-Gregorian-Chants-Sundays-Advent/dp/B001C98EN8/

https://www.amazon.com/BENEDICTA-Marian-Chant-Norcia-Monks/dp/B00V66GNMQ/

Listen to it whenever you would listen to other things. Watch movies like The Passion of the Christ, Ben Hur, etc.

Read the classics, ideally stuff before the 1960's, if not before the 20th century. Especially this: https://books.google.com/books?id=3PkYNcU0k94C&pg=PA3


Confession, early and often. Weekly or bi-weekly until you can break it. Mass as often as you can. Ideally, daily Mass but that might not be practical. If you can do that for a month, you should break the hold.

Obviously pray. You are not strong enough alone. I certainly wasn't. You can and should be begging the intercession of Our Blessed Mother. Pray the Rosary daily. Get formally invested in the brown scapular and wear it to remind you to pray your daily Rosary.

Pray before bed and when you wake up. An examination of conscience followed by a Confiteor and at least a decade of the Rosary. If you make it a habit, you will replace your lustful habits...

Get a free Spotify account and listen to the different recordings. Read reviews if you feel inclined. For Mozart's Requiem, you have to choose between recordings on modern instruments or period instruments, so it comes down to personal preference. On modern instruments usually the most recommended CDs are this, this, and this. Have fun finding something you like.

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.

Scott Ross' Complete Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonatas.

Yes! Wendy Carlos, who used to be a man. I think he/she did some of the work on The Shining too. Amazon even seems to sell it.

http://www.amazon.com/Switched-On-Bach-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B00005ORCV

http://www.amazon.com/Clockwork-Orange-Carloss-Complete-Original/dp/B00000DGXX/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1457982168&sr=1-3

Does anyone know why CDs of Switched-On Bach sell for such a premium?

I managed to get a second-hand one for about €10, but I've seen them on offer for $60+
Here, for example

My friend, also, has one of these chairs (along with lightning goggles, elephant chode headphones - the works). He actually had to go out to Cali to be trained by the creators; and had some... interesting... experiences while there. When he finally got back with the chair - which reclines back to the point where you practically feel zero gravity - I gave it a test run. . . . . . . . DEEEEE-YEEEEE-CENT! He had me listening to the NASA Voyager (1&2) recordings, and I went on a fucking holy voyage to the great beyond. I whole-heartedly recommend every psychonaut check these recordings out. And, if you can, listen to them on one of these chair machiney type thingies.


edit: for the boobytube links:

Symphony 1

Symphony 2

Symphony 3

_____ <-This is where I draw the line.

JS Bach wrote 6 solo suites for cello for cello. Suite is just a fancy word for a group of peices, often in the style of popular dances of the day, that are considered a gropu of music. Consider a suite something like an anthology of short stories- enjoyable individually, but when viewed as a whole, epic themes and ideas emerge.

The prelude to the g major suite is probably the most famous bit from the suites, but don't over look the rest of the G major suite, or the other suites. They are as strong as each other.

I adore the bach cello suites, I feel that all the ideas of western music are distilled into these 6 suites.

When listening to a recording of the Bach cello suites which performance you choose is going to have massive impact on what you hear and what you take away from the suites.

For a more traditional interpretation of the suites, you can not go past Pablo Casals while for a more modern interpretation have a listen to rostropovich

These two sound like they are playing different music completely, even though they are reading the same black dots on the page.

Happy listening.

Time Life had a popular collection known as Classical Thunder that you may want to check out. Such collections of excerpts are great introductions, IMO. The list of tracks on this jacket will probably closely match responses on this thread.

https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Thunder-Richard-1-Strauss/dp/B00081U6XC

The spotify list mentioned earlier is awesome. I highly recommend it. Specifically, though, I have three songs that I use to test out headphones (which also are great for fun/bassy types):

Foy Vance - She Burns

1812 Overture (this version with the badass canons at the end)

Blue Man Group - Above


EDIT:

If you ever splurge on some hi-fi speakers, definitely use that telarc version of the 1812 overture to demo them. With the right setup you'll damn near feel THX certified.

Hacker's Soundtrack

fuck that, I'm listening to Classical Thunder!



oh yea Gustav make me want it bad, real bad, make me beg for it bring war to my fertile red surface.

and Grieg I want you to mountain king me in the hall

Oh Ravel, I think you got the key to unlock my Great Gate!

Strauss my sweet Strauss my Hero I want you to ravage my Battlefield.

We tend to use Gregorian Chants this disc is really good. We've also used stuff like The DaVinci Code Soundtrack, or the Soundtrack to 1492 that kind of thing

I'm personally working on getting Wardruna (Traditional Norwegian music, very cool) into the rotation

We have a guy with a Bluetooth speaker and his phone who handles the music and have it going whenever there is no one talking (both degrees and regular meetings) like when visitors are entering, waiting for someone to enter, perambulation, balloting etc. that type of thing

If by barbershop you mean a capella and by Druids you mean monks, try Chant by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo

| | |
|-:|:-|
|name|The Oh Hello's|
|about artist|The Oh Hello's are Maggie and Tyler Heath, music-making siblings hailing from the great state of Texas. Their influences range from Mumford & Sons and The Civil Wars to Los Campesinos! and The Pogues, bending and blending styles and genres into a unique mixture of eclectic folk rock. Their debut EP draws inspiration from traditional irish folk songs in both its sound and its message, from the foot-stomping rhythms of Lay Me Down and Trees to the quiet introspection of Cold Is the Night. The EP begins by confronting the difficulties of love and freedom and ends by embracing them. ([more on last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/The Oh Hello's))|
|album|Oh. Hello., released Dec 2011|
|track|Hello My Old Heart|
|images|album image, artist image|
|links|wikipedia, official homepage, discogs, soundcloud, twitter, facebook, mp3 on amazon, album on amazon|
|tags|folk, eclecticfolkrock|
|similar|Branches, Beta Radio, Seryn, The Paper Kites, Judah & the Lion|
|metrics|lastfm listeners: 59,321, lastfm plays: 681,576, soundcloud plays: 49,334, radd.it score: 6|


Please downvote this comment if this data is incorrect!
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The Saint

Empire Records

The Crow

Hackers

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.

Look at the link you posted. Do you see how it has the "ref=" section to it? That means it's a ref link. It happens automatically if you're signed in when you're looking at the link. If you remove everything after the slash, you get http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0043UOQ26/, which goes to the same results but without the ref link.

SECTION | CONTENT
:--|:--
Title | Red Army Choir: Cossack's Song.
Description | Song: Cossack's Song. Performed by the Red Army Choir. From the Red Army Choir Definitive Collection, Disc 2. I take no credit for the creation of the music or the image used in the video, I just chucked the two together for everyone's enjoyment. If you like the music please buy the CD's at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Red-Army-Choir-Definitive/dp/B000066RMJ and support Koch Entertainment
Length | 0:01:57






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On top of the answers already provided there are 2 more soundtracks.
[Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso Boku to Kim to no Ongakuchou = all the performances in the show] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N23RGU4/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687702&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00TA3PZ8A&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0HEW8K1DDNJ99QC4V9CZ)
[Shigatsu Wa Kimi no Uso Twinkle Little Star = Other performances related to the show] (http://www.amazon.com/SHIGATSU-KIMI-TWINKLE-LITTLE-STAR/dp/B00TA3PZ8A)

> information about the piece apart from the performers

Right at the bottom, it lists "by Neville Marriner, Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields." It's probably from this recording.

You can buy the OST on Amazon.

And this is the album with the classical pieces.

The complete works of Bach

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

This man tells the truth! But you might consider this set instead. It also has all of the piano sonatas and costs just a few bucks more. It's ridiculous how good it is.

It reminds me of trying to hack the Gibson.

http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Various-Artists/dp/B000005OMF

Chant : Music For The Soul

• Janowski's Ring Cycle - The version I'm referring to is the 1980-83 studio version. Virtually perfect sound quality owing to the fact that it is a studio recording. There's really no particular part that stands out, it's just an incredible recording in general. Sample
  
  
• Karajan Bruckner 9 Symphonies - The version I'm referring to is the box set that was released by DG. It has all of Bruckner's symphonies and is my favorite collection. Again, they're all nearly perfect.
  
  
• Bernstein Mahler 9 Symphonies - Bernstein actually recorded two cycles of Mahler symphonies, although I don't think he finished them all the second time. Either cycle is great, but the first is classic.
  
  
• Backhaus Beethoven Piano Concertos with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt conducting - They're all amazing but I love the 5th concerto.
  
  
• Brendel Beethoven Sonatas Recorded 1970's - A lot of Beethoven interpreters are either really mechanical or overly dramatic. I find Brendel to be great because of his traditional classical approach, while still having a sentimental tone. I believe it is this version. This set is far superior to the 1990's version in my opinion. He also did this Schubert set which I highly recommend as well.

The instrument used makes a difference with Bach's music. I'm not much of a fan of the harpsichord or the pipe organ, which are two of the instruments his music often gets played on. What really got me into Bach was Switched-On Bach by Walter Carlos, which is the name on the LP. Walter is now known as Wendy, which is the name on the CD. In case the Moog synthesizer is not your thing, I have also made a playlist of the same pieces played by a variety of acoustic instruments:

• Switched-On Bach Acoustic
  
  The Bach Variations: A Windham Hill Sampler is another good collection of Bach played on various acoustic instruments.

It'll be on this, almost certainly. I think the one you're looking for is "Let's Go".

Two books I would suggest are
The Bach cello suites. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhcjeZ3o5us
Sheet music. [2] http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Cello-Suites-1007-1012-Starker/dp/B004610HD4/ There are many out there (some cheaper than this) But this is the copy that I have. I like the fingerings and the bowings.
CD [3] http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Cello-Suites-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B0000CG8EF/ I like Pablo Casals’ recording (of the several I own) because he takes the pieces faster. Yo-Yo Ma and Jacqueline Mary du Pré have good recordings as well.
This has already been mentioned many times on this thread because it’s truly a classic. If he doesn’t have a collection of all 6 then this is a good choice. The first suite is the most commonly heard. It might be a bit hard in the beginning but it’s a collection of pieces he can really grow with. I got a book of the six suites when I was nine and I still play them. I remember the prelude of the 2nd suite got me into the Phoenix Youth Symphony.
Every Body’s Favorite Cello Solos. Sheet music. [4] http://www.thejuilliardstore.com/browse.cfm/cello-solos-(everybodys-favorite-series-volume-40)/4,31636.html Sorry not an Amazon link, those guys only had a used version for $75 (wtf). Either way the link includes a list of the songs that come in the collection. You also get a piano accompaniment, but no worries the piano part has no melody, only supporting harmony. He should find some of the songs easier and other songs will be too overwhelming. Looking through my copy, it ranges from around year 1 to year 3 music. Another book that should last over the years.
Man this is hard. Cello music for the first few years is the hardest to find. There are a lot of different series intended to teach like Suzuki with the “Suzuki method” and the Essential Elements series. I played a few of each of those books and they weren’t bad, but I never really liked them. I had and loved a printed version of the e-book for “Music Book 1 - Cello Part A (melody)” [5] http://www.celloonline.com/cellomusicbooks.htm but can’t find a printed version now. It might not be a bad idea to take him to a music store and have him look around to find something his level (maybe on the day of the anniversary ) I wish I could be of more help, tell me how it goes.

> It is very important you get TELARC edition

Is this the right one?

its an official thing they put out