Best products from r/classicalmusic

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've got a couple of thoughts to share which might help:

Two pieces that you mention, Don Juan and Scheherazade, are both tone poems. Tone poems are by and large meant to depict a story/scene/landscape, and as such are typically through-composed: this means that the music is continuous, with musical ideas not coming back in the same way they would in a symphony, for example. That’s what made Scheherazade so perfect to be turned into a ballet. Since the music is not grounded in any traditional form, these really aren't the best pieces to judge your appreciation since you’re just listening moment to moment, usually without anything to hang on to. Recalling the first theme of a 10-15 minute long movement of a symphony is MUCH easier than remembering some random melody from a 45-minute long piece like Scheherazade, because in a symphony that theme will form the basis of an entire movement, but in something like Scheherazade, the theme could just show up once and never come back in any meaningful way.

1. Be dismissive! You liked Don Quixote better than Don Juan- great! But get away from tone poems- I encourage you to start listening to the first movements of symphonies (or string quartets, piano sonatas, concerti), because for virtually anything composed between 1750 and 1900, these will be in sonata form. Get to know sonata form and how each composer uses it, and then you can really start to make informed judgements- about composers, about stylistic periods (classical vs. romantic vs. late romantic). Sonata form is less about melodies, and more about how a composer manipulates and develops his musical material, creates and releases tension, which I think is more exciting, moving, and more accessible, to a newbie. Other music like Bach, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, you'll be listening for different things which you’ll have to explore, but I think sonata form is where to start to develop your ear and taste.
   
   
2. Once you become familiar with a piece, you can listen to it less actively than when you first hear it, and then you can start listening to it like you do other music- you can choose to tune it in and out, and come in and know generally where you're at.
   
   
3. Not sure about this one. When I first got into classical it was all I would listen to, but I happily made my way back to other music with a renewed appreciation for it.
   
   
4. Again, I think Scheherazade is not a good example, because there is no traditional form in which the listener expects a melody to come back, or even really be developed in any significant way. Also, music is WAY more than just melody- start listening to rhythm/meter, harmony, listen for shape, the way composers manipulate phrases, listen for texture, orchestration… in my opinion, in the best moments of classical music it is rarely about melody alone, if at all. Like [this one] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YObQ6bP0eDQ&t=21m21s) (listen through to 24:00)
   
   Closing thoughts: 1. start going to classical concerts if you can; 2. Listen to the entirety of [Beethoven’s 5th Symphony] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIEAFlMvxo8&list=PL927C2F72C9AD05BA) as a start to see how different it is to something like Don Juan; 3. Read [this book] (http://www.amazon.com/Listen-7th-Edition-Joseph-Kerman/dp/0312593473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406819509&sr=8-1&keywords=joseph+kerman+listen), even just the guided listening sections.

Personally, I think one of the best ways to explore classical music is to just invest in a big, high quality box-set/collection for each composer. It means that you don't have to buy millions of different albums, which avoids duplicating stuff you already have, and in the long run it's much, much better value.

For Chopin, this complete piano edition is extremely good value and has lots of excellent recordings from good pianists.

If you like Chopin, there's a good chance you'll enjoy his even more virtuosic friend and fellow composer Franz Liszt. This collection provides a good overview, although Liszt was extremely prolific so there's always more to explore.

If you like both of those piano specialists, you might also enjoy Robert Schumann, who was from roughly the same generation. This collection is excellent but Schumann can be a bit of an acquired taste, so if you just want a sample, I'd recommend this album as a good starting point.

For Debussy I'd recommend this collection. If you want to explore his orchestral and chamber music as well as his piano work, this complete edition might be the way to go.

For Beethoven, I'd recommend getting the complete piano sonatas. There are quite a few complete sets - personally I'd recommend Brendel and Arrau. My favourite complete set is by Paul Lewis, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible to download the complete set in one go - you either have to get the different volumes separately or get the complete set on CD.

If you want to move out from there to other piano composers, then Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Mozart, Ravel, Satie and Fauré are all great. I could make some more recommendations for them but I think I've probably already given you more than enough!

Martha Argerich Rach 3 and Tchaikovsky - A classic. First rendition of Rach 3 I heard. Not the most technically perfect (e.g. compare with Kissin) but just so powerful and exhilarating.

Solti Mahler 8 in Vienna - Perfect soloists, perfect sound, perfect interpretation. Completely different league with respect to any other recording in terms of the soloists and Part 1.

Solti Brahms cycle - Great cycle. Either I love CSO/Solti recordings or I can't stand them. This is one of the former probably because Brahms is more in line with Solti's type of conducting. The fourth is particularily strong.

Mahler 2 Bernstein - Another classic. Not your everyday Mahler 2 but then again you don't listen to Mahler 2 every day. Pushing the score to its romantic limits as one reviewer put. Spiritual listening experience of death and transfiguration for the listener.

Eugene Ablulescu's Hammerklavier - Very interesting academic performance (not as slow or heartfelt as Solomon in the adagio for example). Rigid adherence to marked tempi. No idea why it isn't more well known.

Also I totally second the Gilels/Jochum Brahms concertos.

I did extensive of research a while back, but sadly don't have it all with me now. I still have a bunch of top picks saved on my Amazon wish list tho:
http://amzn.com/w/8LC7V99WN71H

The long and short of it is that I really like Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser, Bose is way overpriced for anything but their noise-canceling ability, and open-air is optimal for classical. I, however, wanted closed or semi-closed 'phones because I wanted to blast opera and Rachmaninoff loud without the person in the cube 2 feet away from me being any the wiser for it. Open air has a great deal of leakage.

In grad school I was using these relatively cheap 'phones mainly because the noise canceling worked amazingly well on the noisy, crowded shuttle bus. They were pretty rugged but with enough abuse eventually broke on me. I can't speak for any of the higher-quality headphones on my list as I have to wait 'till I get a job before I can buy a set.

All the 'phones linked in the above list were ones I set apart during hours of research on sites like head-phi looking for classical/opera 'phones.

Note that the Grados are more rock-type phones but the punchy bass can be pretty nice for classical. However, they were less comfortable than other phones, so if you wear them all day (as I do) people recommended installing the Sennhieser ear pads (also on the list).

Let me know what you get and your opinions on it; the feedback will help me decide what to get someday!

EDIT: Out of that list the favored picks were:

Sennheiser 598

AKG 701

Beyerdynamic 440

I have listened to Vladamir Askenazy's and Georg Solti's Beethoven: The Piano Concertos a lot. I mean like 200 times or more. I love the whole thing.

I also really enjoy Nelson Freire & Riccardo Chailly with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig playing Brahms Piano Concertos. I realize the hallmark for Brahms 1st Piano Concerto is the Clifford Curzon and George Szell recording but for some reason this recording is the one I go back to. Again I have listened to this Nelson Freire & Riccardo Chailly recording a ton of times.

Another album I have been listening to recently and obsessively is Paul Badura-Skoda's Schubert: The Complete Piano Sonatas Played on Period Instruments. I really love how Schubert's Sonatas sound on period fortepianos making it so that you have to play it faster since the strings cannot sustain the notes as long as modern pianos. Badura-Skoda also tried to tie fragment pieces into sonatas and extended some of the unfinished fragments like combining the F-sharp Minor D.571 fragment with D. 604 and two movements from D.570 to make "Sonata no. 8" as well as tacking on the C Major Allegretto D.346 onto the end of the C Major D.279 Sonata. While controversial to purists, I have quite enjoyed these additions especially C Major Allegretto D.346 which makes a unique use of the fagotto lever that gives a shocking power to the piece that I have never heard before. I will admit there are times where the playing is muddled which I think is attributed to both the artist and the instrument but for some reason I really like the sonatas like this plus I really love Schubert's piano music. This doesn't mean I love Kempff, Brendel or Richter's playing less but I really appreciate what this album does.

I like some of Zimmer's scores, but he does tend to use electronics symphonically, whereas I prefer scores played by actual orchestras with no synthesized sounds mixed in.

Aside from Beethoven's 9 Symphonies, his 5 Piano Concertos are my second favourite, following by his 32 Piano Sonatas, and 16 String Quartets are great. I really love all 5 piano concertos.

Among the 32 piano sonatas, this one is my favourite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAFjOcOv868

Here is Beethoven's Piano Concerto 1. The stunning first movement cadenza starts at 13:05.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ywv0JwoTuk

Another performance of it I enjoy watching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf2xPDmzkYg

The most famous of the 5 is probably number 5, known as The Emperor Concerto. Here is the great Pollini playing it quite recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTLOQGF-c1E

My personal favourite of the 5 piano concertos is number 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXq2Dq0W5lY

If you want a CD recommendation for the Beethoven Piano Concertos:

https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Piano-Concertos-Ludwig-von/dp/B0000041K9/ref=sr_1_1

or a video recommendation, here's an old but awesome performance

https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Piano-Concertos-DVD-Video/dp/B000V9B7PW/ref=sr_1_1_twi_dvd_1

• 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.

Ok that helps! There is a book that the Minnesotan composer Carl Schroeder said I should get, that I think would benefit you too! It's around $6 give or take on amazon, and here it is:
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Dictionary-Orchestration-The-Series/dp/0739000217/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z
There are others in the series that would help too, but this is the one I suggest. It has a list of many many instruments, both standard and non-standard, what the timbre is like, the range of the instrument, among other things. It's not really a good read, but more of a reference to go to. As for general orchestration. Do what I do (sometimes) just combine random instruments together, have them play together. Plug it into some software and see how it sounds. After awhile you get a sense of what works together and what doesn't. For example, flute and oboe sound nice. Clarinet and bassoon go well. Horn and Viola section are pretty decent. When high together, viola and cello sound very cool. All those sorts of things. If you say you've been listening and listening to music, then unfortunately I'm going to have to say you've probably been listening to them wrong. Get a score to read off of while you listen and highlight passages you find intriguing and find why it is. Is it the instrumentation? The melody? A combo of both? Best of luck, my friend!

Writing short little concentrated pieces is a very good idea. Try creating as much material out of the smallest idea you can. I like to pick a small little theme/motif and just run with it.

The piano music I've been listening to includes; Scriabin (I have a book of his Piano Sonatas on my desk right now), Bartok, Prokofiev, Roslavets, Mosolov, Bach, and Beethoven. If you like Scriabin then I suggest going on youtube and listening to Roslavets and Mosolov, they write in a very Scriabin-esque fashion.

Books, I personally love reading about music. I do a lot of reading about composers and about harmonies and stuff. Wikipedia is a good place to start, but it's certainly not a definitive source. Persichetti's book on harmony is a good book for harmony, it certainly helped me think about harmony in different ways. And Modernism in Russian Piano Music is very good if you're looking to mimic Scriabin/Prokofiev and other composers of that musical language.

Well, it depends how far into it you're looking to get. There are entire college courses on orchestration, i.e. the art of writing for one or more instruments to get a specific sound/effect. On a more basic level, which will work well for many of the ones I linked since they're already quartets, you can just assign parts that fit the range of the instrument - make sure you're transposing them!

http://andrewhugill.com/manuals/ranges/brass.html <- this is a nice chart of the ranges for most common brass instruments, and includes both the written pitch and the sounding pitch. It definitely is written with professional players in mind, though, so on the high and low ends it's a bit... overly generous. If you can spend a few bucks this book is a much better guide, I think, and covers every instrument you'd be likely to come across, ever!

http://www.abrsm.org/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t19096.html <- that's a good read as well, starts to get into some other concerns when writing for brass (like leaving space for breathing, for example).

I don't know what your level of experience is with music in general (or brass in particular), so these might not be a ton of help. Google is your friend. You can find the equivalent of a college education on most any subject you choose, you just might have to dig around a little and get it from multiple sources.

Good luck! Let me know if you have more specific questions, I'm not a masterful arranger but I've done a few charts when we needed something easy to read. A good first step is just to start doing it and learn as you go.

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-598-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B0042A8CW2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1462167668&sr=8-4&keywords=sennheiser

Sennheiser 598, highly recommended. Sounds great with everything, open back which is apparently the best style for preservation of intended dynamics and gives the biggest soundstage. Very natural sounding, very comfortable, looks great..not expensive. really good for classical, for sure.

>My last acquisition was a recording of Pictures at an Exhibition and its just not my favourite take on the piece

Which recording did you get? I'd recommend Fritz Reiner with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or Antal Doráti with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.

As for Sibelius, I think the most popular recommendation tend to be for Anthony Collins with the London Symphony Orchestra and it's a really safe pick. You can't go wrong with it. The tempos are quite brisk. He plays through all seven symphonies in three and a half hours, faster than most others.

You should know that you can often listen to complete recordings on youtube before deciding whether you'd like to purchase any of them. Here's a few youtube videos for the complete Sibelius symphony cycle:

• Anthony Collins, London Symphony Orchestra
  
• Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philharmonia Orchestra
  
• Paavo Berglund, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
  
• Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic Orchestra
  
  You can also find samples, usually around 30 seconds per track, at various merchant websites like prestomusic.com or amazon.com. While each sample is short, they can still help give you an idea as to whether you would enjoy the particular recordings.

As with all box sets, there are strong points and weak points, but if I had to recommend a single Schubert box set, it'd be Wilhelm Kempff. Kempff was one of the first (maybe the first? not sure) to record the complete Schubert piano sonatas and did a lot to bring them into the core repertoire. The entire set is of a very high musical quality, with no glaring weaknesses and a great musicality that is typical of Kempff.

Sets that I have listened to and chose Kempff over:

Uchida
Lupu
Schiff

Another good option to consider is this Brendel set: http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Musicaux-Impromptus-Wanderer-Fantasia/dp/B0042LJTQO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1344243350&sr=1-1&keywords=schubert+brendel+box

Though not the complete piano sonatas, it also includes some of Schubert's most popular other piano solo works, and all of the readings are fantastic.

If you ever find yourself enamored with Schubert's sonatas, I suggest looking to Richter as the first stop for supplementing your collection with individual sonatas. His D960 is superb.

Sure! Here are a few that have helped me out:

The textbook that my school uses for beginning theory classes is The Complete Musician by Steven Laitz. It is a pretty comprehensive look at tonality, covering the very basics through 19th century theory. Isn't too pricey either: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Musician-Integrated-Approach-Listening/dp/0199742782

Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum is a great place to begin working on counterpoint: http://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368896313&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=gradus+ad+parnasam+fux

Samuel Adler's The Study of Orchestration is my current go to book when researching the basics of different instruments and orchestration techniques: http://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368896395&sr=1-1&keywords=samuel+adler+orchestration

Lastly, once you feel you have developed a solid foundation with your theory knowledge, I can't stress enough the importance of studying/analyzing scores. It is (in my opinion) the best way of learning how to compose. One can learn so much from one score!

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

What to Listen for in Music by Aaron Copland is a great book for learning how to listen to music more attentively. Also, you can't go wrong with Dorling-Kindersley's Eyewitness Companion to Classical Music. I grew up flipping through that volume - it's a lot of fun to read and is very informative. If your local library has magazine and newspaper subscriptions, they may have a subscription to Gramophone Magazine which is an excellent guide to classical music recordings. If not, their website has a lot of resources for free. There are lots of other great resources listed in this thread, like Adam Neely's youtube channel. It takes a while to build

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.

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

Many of the best books written about 20th century music were written by relatively unsuccessful composers. Eric Salzman, Robert P. Morgan, even Alex Ross who is known as a journalist and not a composer studied under Peter Lieberson (Ross wrote The Rest is Noise).

That said, perhaps you'd enjoy The Aesthetics of Survival: A Composer's View of Twentieth-Century Music by George Rochberg. There's also Michael Nyman's book, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, and George Perle's collection of essays The Right Notes.

If you're really concerned about what composers consider important in composing music, I would read a book about 20th century theory & composition, not a history book. If it must be written by a "successful" composer, check out the classic by Vincent Persichetti - Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice.

Copland's What to listen for in Music was really good, but more geared to the classical novice; still worth the read, nonetheless.

Toch's The Shaping Forces of Music was a serious eye opener for me as a composer. It really out everything I was learning in school into perspective and helped me make sense of the purpose of all that I was being taught.

Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration was a very good book that showed me all the idiosyncrasies of writing for symphony in a very clear manner.

You should check out Leonard Bernstein's "Young People's Concerts". They encompass more than just history, but they do cover a wide range of historical topics... not to mention, they're told by one of the 20th Century's most important composer/conductors. Someone took the liberty of putting them all up on YouTube; here are a few of the better history(ish) themed ones:

• What is American Music?
  
  
• Who is Gustav Mahler?
  
  
• What is Impressionism?
  
  
• Fidelio: A Celebration of Life
  
  
• Folk Music in the Concert Hall
  
  
• A Brithday Tribute to Shostakovich
  
  
• A Tribute to Sibelius
  
  Also, I can't say enough good things about this book. It only covers from about 1880 on, though.

Everyone here has listed very good headphones. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the recommendations. I use the Audio-Technica Ath-M50x and have been very satisfied with the sound on them. Guitar Center has a large selection where you can listen to a lot of the headphones mentioned in this thread and see what sounds the best to you. Cheers!

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVLUR86/ref=twister_B07H51KFTJ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This is definitely not a rule for how to write music now, just a rule for how to write music in the style of Bach/Mozart/Beethoven/Haydn etc. If you're interested in Tonal (read: Common Practice) Harmony, here are a few good theory books used in Freshman/Sophomore college music curriculums (in my order of preference):

The Complete Musician


Techniques and Materials of Music


Harmony and Voice Leading


Tonal Harmony

I'm also a composer, and I tend to write more modally (and sometimes without a strict tonality), so I just teach these, I don't necessarily follow them in my own writing.

This is fun and exciting, but this is the best recording of Mahler 2 ever.

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.

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

The Unanswered Question by Leonard Bernstein might be what you're looking for. I confess, I have yet to watch all six talks in their entirety but the ones that I have seen are very interesting. He delves into a "convincing discussion of music's history and forms, with particular emphasis on modern music" and covers a wide range of different composers. Read the review on Amazon for a bit more info.

Well of course a few come naturally:

• Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony
  
• Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic playing Beethoven's 5th and 7th Symphonies
  
• Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra playing The Planets (I wish I could say Levine and the Chicago Symphony, but there are some glaring flaws in it that prevent it from being exceptional)
  
• Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Respighi's Fountains and Pines of Rome.
  
• This one might be a bit odd: London Sinfonietta performing Rhapsody in Blue. This recording is definitely my favorite, no questions asked.
  
• For Copland's music, I actually find Michael Tilson Thomas's work with the San Francisco Symphony to be the best available. I prefer his to the Bernstein, but that's just my opinion, man.

The great American composer Aaron Copland wrote a lovely book that may serve as a primer for you. What to Listen For In Music

Gradus ad Parnassum. Know it, love it, make it your friend.

Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music is brilliant (apart from the last volume which is only OK). It is readable and fascinating.

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!

If you haven't read this you really really should. It's eminently readable, entertaining, and comprehensive and I like it a lot.

Dude, Richard Taruskin has this amazing set called "The Oxford History of Western Music" it covers EVERYTHING.


It's informative, a fun read, and packed into 5 volumes with musical analysis and a historical perspective hardly rivaled.


If you've got the money, I can assure you this is worth every penny.



http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-History-Western-Music-5-vol/dp/0195386302/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

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

This is awesome

This is a great book even though it is a bit dry:

http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Voice-Leading-Edward-Aldwell/dp/0495189758

This is probably the best book for introducing people to classical music. It can be a bit technical but nothing horrible and will give you the terminology to understand the podcast fully.

https://www.amazon.com/What-Listen-Music-Signet-Classics/dp/0451531760

I love the Adler but only because I'm a huge geek

It is on amazon where you can "look inside". The table of contents gives you a good idea of the scope. There are a bunch of other excerpts in there, so you can get an idea of the writing style.

You can combine with what you learn in that book with a little more flair and flavor, from this book: Twentieth Century Harmony. But if you can only get one. Get the Fundamentals of Musical Composition above.

https://www.amazon.com/Twentieth-Century-Harmony-Creative-Aspects-Practice/dp/0393095398/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518151206&sr=1-1&keywords=Twentieth+century+harmony

Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the XXth Century. Covers modern music from the end of the XIXth to now. Most interesting and put in relation to the historical context. A must, although you do not have to agree with all the author's views.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0312427719/ref=mp_s_a_3?qid=1323456660&sr=8-3

Try Theory of Harmony by Schoenberg and The Study of Counterpoint by Fux. If you don't mind reading somewhat dated texts these could work well.

Unfortunately the 598 is closer to $300 in Canada. I would definitely get it if I had the money.

https://www.amazon.ca/Sennheiser-HD-598-Headphones-Accents/dp/B0042A8CW2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462169235&sr=8-2&keywords=sennheiser+598

It's available here: http://www.amazon.com/Unanswered-Question-Harvard-Leonard-Bernstein/dp/B00005TPL8

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Edition-Samuel/dp/039397572X

Aaron Copland wrote a book just for you, called What to Listen for in music.

All sheet music in the public domain (all music by composers who died more than about 75 years ago) is free at IMSLP.org