[FinnishFlash]

A piece of music that may permanently change your views on music, love, life and death is Wagner's Prelude & Liebestod...

There are many excellent recordings of this piece, but with the risk of suggesting a borderline cliché I would recommend the Karajan/Philharmonia recording of Wagner overtures on EMI, which is jam-packed with what IMHO is some of the most beautiful and dramatic music written in the 19th century.

 

[wavoman]

Orff's Carmina Burana is a cliche, but Catulli Carmina from the same trilogy is not, and I like it better! Critics don't agree, but listen for yourself. And the lyrics (love poems by Catullus) border on X-rated just for fun (assuming you know Latin; 4 years of it in high school now pay off).

Other Head-Fi'ers have suggested the entire Trilogy before, and I agree ... must have album.

 

[Sordel]

Wow, for a thread about non-cliche classical music I can't believe the number of pieces that have been mentioned that I would consider to be cliched. Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, for example, is one of my favourite pieces of classical music but it is used a lot for television. The same could be said of many of the other recommendations: "Death and the Maiden" is a masterpiece, but does crop up on a regular basis. Britten's Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell (aka The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra) was famously reorchestrated by Andrew Lloyd Webber to sell the Conservative Party: it was a cliche long before then.

Some that you don't hear so often:

Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
Shostakovich: Symphonies no. 13 and 14 (both vocal and little-known)
Tippett: Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli (one of my favourite pieces ... difficult for me to imagine anyone not liking it)
Bernstein: Symphony no. 1, "Jeremiah" (an extraordinarily overlooked piece: both accessible and powerful)
Robert Simpson: Symphony no. 9 (major work by an unrepentent twentieth century symphonist)
Robert Hovhaness: Lousadzak (single movement piano concerto)
Sorabji, Toccata no. 1 (best single-disc work for piano that I know)

and, just for fun,

Robert Simpson, String Quartet no. 9, 32 [palindromic] Variations on a theme of Haydn (a brain-twisting listening experience)

 

[scompton]

I have a very nice 2 disc set of Poulenc chamber music by the Nash Ensemble. Very nice stuff that you won't hear much of on the radio.

 

[Assorted]

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concerto in E, D minor, Vivaldi: Gloria, L'estro armonico, Handel: Water Music and Messiah, Geminiani: La folia, Pachelbel's Canon, Corelli's Xmas Concerto...

The list never ends! They are like so underappreciated!

Is Shostakovich 14 considered cliche? I just discovered it, and I think it's one of the very few contemporary vocal works I like.

I rarely hear of Granado's guitar + orchestra suites, so I'm pretty sure that's not cliche at all.

My other favorite's have been mentioned multiple times, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[ronin74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sordel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow, for a thread about non-cliche classical music I can't believe the number of pieces that have been mentioned that I would consider to be cliched. Some that you don't hear so often: Shostakovich: Symphonies no. 13

Yeah I'd say that Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 "Babi Yar" is not cliche, considering it was written for and dedicated to the 34,000 Jews that were massacred at Babi Yar. Written in a time of Soviet oppression and censored upon it's debut. Yeah that's certainly is non-cliche.

 

[tru blu]

Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3, Op. 36

It has become somewhat popular in the last 30 years, but there's this one early performance by a Polish orchestra and soprano (Stefania Woytowicz) that I think is kind of a cut above.

 

[ronin74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tru blu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3, Op. 36 It has become somewhat popular in the last 30 years, but there's this one early performance by a Polish orchestra and soprano (Stefania Woytowicz) that I think is kind of a cut above.

Although Dawn Upshaw sounds pretty good too.

EDIT: I take that back, Upshaw sounds screw*** GREAT! I'm listening to her right now, got the goose mumps poppin', got the hair standing on end, can't breath.

Tru thank you for reminding me of this.

 

[Arpeggione]

Apropos cliche classical. It has struck me how conventional the great film maker Ingmar Bergman picked the music to most of his films. Bach cello suites, Goldberg Variations (one), violin concerto in E, Moonlight sonata, Chopin blockbusters, Mendelssohn concerto, Nutcracker, the Gluck piece, Schumann quintet, Dvorak Humoresque, Winterreise.

Bergman was reportedly very interested in music. ”If I had to choose between losing my hearing or my sight – then I would keep my hearing. I can think of nothing worse than having my music taken away from me”, he said. Statement by a visual genius. Perhaps he just hadn’t got the time to explore further.