frkuhn said:
<font color='#000000'>Hi, there.
After 20 years in the rock and roll domain, and 5 in the jazz, I'm now starting to explore clasical music as a third source of enjoyment.
I know a lot of people here enjoy the classics, so I decided to ask for directions first.
What would be good titles (preferably available in Hi-rez, I acquired THIS habit too!
) to start with? I already bought Mahler's sixth (with Zander) and Dvorak's New World (Harnoncourt) and I'm getting acquainted to those two (it takes me at least 6 months to really get into new music).
So, with the word, the experts!</font>
For someone just starting out with the Classics, i am amazed that you started with Mahler - a composer not entirely known for his melodic lines and preferred using discordant harmonies to convey muscial textures that may not sit well with pop and rock afficionados. (Though rock music often use similar discordant harmonies.) But I guess, you're a rare breed and I congratulate you on your journey to this genre.
I started out with the trite and overplayed Beethoven's Symphony #5 from Karajan and the Berlin Symphony on Deutsch Grammophon (DG). Then bought Brahms, Bach , Straus, Paganini, Vivaldi, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Back, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Wagner, Dvorak and some others who were in the classical, baroque and romantic eras. They have very melodic and tuneful lines with complex but pleasing harmonies that are so easily remembered and appreciated by one who came from a jazz and pop world.
It was a good 3 years or so before I ventured into the more complex, unmelodic and "heavy" classics from Mahler, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, Belini, to mention some of the more 'modern' classical composers who prefer to experiment on radical polyphonic textures often at the expense of lyricsm and melody. I also had difficulty appreciating Opera and just couldn't sit through an entire Carmen or Marriage of Figaro, much less a Tosca or Aida without squirming in my listening couch. But I do like some opera excerpts and some songs culled from them, especially the melodic ones like Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot (right?) or the suites from Bizet's Carmen. These are excellent starters for would-be classical affcionados.
Lately, I have grown fond of solo operatic singers belting out some famous, familiar or melodic songs. Offhand I could think of Andrea Bocelli (Sogno and Romanza albums and the Tuscany DVD live concert I have) and Sarah Brightman (more crossover between classic and pop with Weber's fussion Phantom Of The Opera, Harem, La Luna CDs and the Eden DVD live concert) that should be a good introduction to the world of Opera. Then there are new pop-classical artists like Charlotte Church, Russel Watson, Mario Frangoulis and Haley Westenra, just to mention the more popular ones who seem to have soem flexibility with their voice crossing from pop to classics. Ofcourse, there's the famous three tenors, Luciano Pavorotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras in their albums together or seprately.
You're a bit more advance in your journey, having started with Mahler and appreciated it. Some cross-over afficionadoes I know can't even get by with the album Classical Music For People Who Hate Classical Music. There's a huge world of classics out there. More than 400 years of music to say the least, in the form we know it. Wish you an enjoyable and pleasant journey.
