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Heavy Classical Music - Page 4

post #46 of 54
8/24/09 at 1:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBenway View Post
No one has mentioned Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique?

The fourth movement is a musical representation of an execution, dreamt of by a man heavily sedated by opium. When we covered this in my colledge music history course, even the kids who were generally bored to tears sat up and listened.
Just bought a version of this yesterday -- Cincinnati, SACD, binaural -- based on (I think) Uncle Erik's recommendation.
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post #47 of 54
8/24/09 at 1:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by West726 View Post
Cincinnati, SACD, binaural
Always wondered what binaural meant....wikipedia is quite confusing at times...something to do with headphones only?
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post #48 of 54
8/24/09 at 2:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeusEx View Post
Always wondered what binaural meant....wikipedia is quite confusing at times...something to do with headphones only?
Binaural recordings are indeed intended for headphones only; they do not reproduce properly through loudspeakers.

Binaural recordings are made with a technology that much more closely simulates the spatial imaging of natural hearing, when compared to conventional recordings.

The recordings are made with microphones placed on either side of a physical model of a human head. The mics are placed in the "ears" of the model. Because the mics are separated by the physical mass of the "head" on which they are mounted, the results simulate very closely the placement of actual human ears, which of course are separated and isolated from one another by an actual human head.

There are many good examples of binaural recordings floating around here at Head-fi. Probably the most dramatic is a skit, involving music and conversation, that simulates a visit to a barber shop. Sounds are vividly placed in space, with pinpoint locational accuracy.
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post #49 of 54
8/24/09 at 2:15am
Very interesting....can't believe I never really caught on. When you say they don't reproduce properly through speakers, do you mean they sound wrong spatially?

Any links? I'm very interested in hearing what it sounds like. How is it different than regular stereo?
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post #50 of 54
8/24/09 at 2:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeusEx View Post
Very interesting....can't believe I never really caught on. When you say they don't reproduce properly through speakers, do you mean they sound wrong spatially?
Exactly, and the tonal balance can sound wierd also.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DeusEx View Post
Any links? I'm very interested in hearing what it sounds like. How is it different than regular stereo?
I'm trying to find a good link to the Virtual Haircut; I'll post it as soon as I track it down.
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post #51 of 54
8/24/09 at 2:28am
This post lists a slew of musical and non-musical binaural recordings.

This link is from that post; it's a direct download link to the Virtual Haircut file. Try some of the others in the thread; some of this stuff is truly mind-blowing.

Notes:

1) The OP of this thread describes all of the links included as free and legal. I have no reason to doubt that, but I have not tested every link in the thread.

2) I did test the direct download link to the Virtual Haircut (about five minutes ago) and it downloaded and played without incident.

Let me know what you think.
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post #52 of 54
8/24/09 at 3:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by larki View Post
I second that, Prokofiev is amazing! The Argerich/Dutoit CD you mentioned is one of my favorites as well.

The darkest of the piano concertos is certainly the second one. In it Prokofiev deals with the suicide of a friend. Just check out the long cadenza in the first movement, and then the reentry of the orchestra...incredible. My favorite performances of the second concerto on CD are the one by Horacio Gutierrez with Jervi, and the Ashkenazy one with Previn and the LSO.
Ooooo--I'm going to have to check that out.

Quote:
Slightly OT: Although not particularly dark, I have to mention Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra, which is a piece that I think is usually underrated. If you are getting into Prokofiev, have a look at this piece! Of course one can't go wrong with Rostropovich's recording of it, but I really like the recent CD by Han-Na Chang with Pappano and the LSO, which happens to have an amazing sound quality as well.

Other dark music I enjoy very much are Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony, Berlioz' Sinfonie Fantastique (big parts of it are not very dark or heavy, but the last two movements do rock hard!), Liszt's Faust Symphony (the Mephisto Movement is pretty dark), Bernstein's Second Symphony, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
As already mentioned, there are lots of dark pieces in chamber music as well, and they can also be heavy...for example Prokofiev's late piano sonatas, Liszt's piano sonata, some of Bartok's string quartets, some of Shostakovich's String quartets, Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (dark!).
More great suggestions--some of which I've heard but aren't in my library yet. This thread could get expensive.
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post #53 of 54
8/25/09 at 6:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBenway View Post
This post lists a slew of musical and non-musical binaural recordings.

This link is from that post; it's a direct download link to the Virtual Haircut file. Try some of the others in the thread; some of this stuff is truly mind-blowing.

Notes:

1) The OP of this thread describes all of the links included as free and legal. I have no reason to doubt that, but I have not tested every link in the thread.

2) I did test the direct download link to the Virtual Haircut (about five minutes ago) and it downloaded and played without incident.

Let me know what you think.


Virtual Haircut was amazing....

So how much music is binaural these days? (scrambling to find all of them...)
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post #54 of 54
8/26/09 at 4:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeusEx View Post


Virtual Haircut was amazing....

So how much music is binaural these days? (scrambling to find all of them...)
It's never really been a mainstream technology; definitely check out the other links in that thread -- there are lots of them, and some of the classical recordings are as mind boggling as the haircut.


P.S. This is pretty off-topic (my fault; apologies to the OP.) If you want to respond, please PM me.
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