Compilations

Hurdy Gurdy Man

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Over the years,I've seen many tv adverts for packages like "Time/Life Series Greatest Classical Works","So and So's Series of Great Composers" etc.Do you have any particular favorite classical compilations that would pretty fairly cover the bases for the classically un-initiated?While never a huge fan,I am sometimes somewhat intrigued by various pieces I've heard.The technical points of the genre really impress me and,of course,much of the writing is genius,including the intricacies involved in the various "movements" and returns to original themes as part of constructive wholes.............
 

TheSound

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Sadly HGM, there is just so much of this stuff around it's impossible to know where to start, there must be quite literally 100's if not 1,000's of commercially available classical music compilations, most of them simply rotating the same 500 or so 'classical greatest hits' works....but I'd say to avoid any of the ones with ridiculous titles, though even that is a chore as many of them are named from various permutations of 'The Only Classical Album You'll Ever Need'... or 'The Best Classical Album in the World...Ever!' ..... or 'The Only Classical Chillout Album You'll Ever Need' etc. etc.

It's often easier - and far more instructive - to patiently go one composer at a time, and buy a sort of 'Best of' compilation of each one as you go along, and I'd say preferably from the catalogues of the 'serious' classical labels such as Deutche Grammophon, Decca, EMI, Philips....and take it from there, IMO you are unlikely to really learn anything from a compilation of small unrepresentative clips of works by everyone from Bach to Bernstein all randomly thrown together on a 5 Disc CD set.
 

LG

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^^That is "Sound" advice, I would never buy any of the compilations out there with perhaps one exception.

There was a very well received set of the best Baroque pieces made years ago, in the early 90's by either DG or Philips(or maybe Naxos?), I can't remember but it was professionally done and had all the really legendary compositions. I was tempted myself because outside of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi I don't really have very much Baroque in the collection.

I can recommend Rossini's overtures as a great way to dip your toe into the water HGH, that will always be one of my favorites. I'm sure you'll recognize them the first time you hear them, they've been used extensively over the years in film, TV and commercials.
 

TheSound

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Totally agree about Rossini, LG...he's one of the few opera composers I like (along with Mozart and Handel) as his operas are light, funny, tuneful, and charming....as opposed to heavy, miserable, noisy, and depressing (pretty much all the others, especially Wagner)
 

LG

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^^Yeah I only have one Wagner CD, "Orchestral Highlights"...without words. :heheh:

I like some bits and pieces of Opera but I have never delved into it. I do enjoy the first 2 "3 Tenors" concerts, those are fun.
 

TheSound

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My wife when we lived in DC played in some opera performances....I recall I went to a performance of Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde' which she was playing in, and it started at around 5.30pm, and with all the intervals inbetween acts we didn't get home until around midnight...I have several discs of his overtures and excerpts which are brilliant and quite exciting, it's big music, Wagner is really the classical music equivalent of heavy metal, you can even see lots of Germanic style Wagnerian influences on some heavy rock album covers, but yeah, I prefer delicate perfectly formed whimps like Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' or 'Cosi fan Tutte', where you at least get home on the same day it began!
 

Vehicle

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I've dabbled in it.


I've always thought Edvard Greig's In The Hall Of The Mountain King was way cool.

It's classical progpunk.




Actually, I'm sure people know this one.






You can get some groovy cuts watching Bugs Bunny, as well.


Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody






A double shot of Johann Strauss

Tales from the Vienna Woods and The Blue Danube




At the movies...


From Caddyshack, Waltz Of The Flowers, from The Nutcracker






Who doesn't know Ride of the Valkyries ? (watch out...there's some violence)






There's alot out there.
 

LG

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I would recommend the complete Johann Strauss Waltzes, you can't go wrong with that one either HGH.

Vehicle is right about Peer Gynt, but make sure you get listen to the one without the singing, a couple songs are almost opera.
 

Kate

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Bang for the Buck

We live in extraordinary times for the bulk acquisition of excellent classical performances, though that adverb seems inappropriately crude when referring to the genre!

Still, it's largely accurate, and the advent of inexpensive CD box sets from traditional behemoths in the classical music recording and production business probably reflects - in part, at least - the industry's recognition of physical media's demise among my peers and most certainly in the next wave of potential consumers now occupied with Barbies and kickball (do kids still go outside?). Yet, the phenomenon also provides amateur collectors and the newly initiated an opportunity to acquire compilations of esteemed releases that veteran collectors have worked decades to amass.

Though latent for some time now, this thread might effectively serve as a springboard for reviews of such box sets, not only to the novice, but experienced collectors looking to gap holes while updating already owned releases with potentially superior remasters (note, "potentially"!).

Following graduation from law school a few years ago, I finally had the time and money to engage my love of the Grateful Dead in earnest ("non sequitur", you're thinking, but wait...); however, after a couple of years on a nearly exclusive diet thereof (last Fall, to be exact), I started to look outside the genre for music that would yield the same sense of profound - or perhaps complex - satisfaction that I achieved through the Dead's unique brand of "jazz syntax with a rock lexicon" (description by the inimitable David Gans) and began exploring the vast Classical cosmos.

After much audio sampling and reading countless reviews, I jumped into the deep end with DG's 50-CD Berlin Philharmonic Centenary Edition box and must say that, despite subsequently purchasing an array of fantastic sets - to include Tosca's RCA, Furtwangler's Legacy, Walter's Edition, Arkive's '47-'13, and Phillps Orginal Jackets - this remains my desert island selection on any given day (the Furtwangler collection is a staggering opus itself, but that's another post!).

The audacious scope is augured by opening selections from November 2013 of Nikisch and Hertz conducting LVB's 5th and Wagner's Parsifal, respectively, then unfolding to encompass a menagerie of composing (Brahms; Bruckner; Schubert; Ravel; Dvorak; Gluck; Hadyn; Liszt; Mahler; Stravinsky; Tchaikovsky; Verdi; Wagner; Vivaldi; et al...) and conducting (Karajan; Furtwangler; Abbado; Fricsay; Hindeminth; Walter; and Rattle) giants, while involving remarkable solo efforts by A-S Mutter (my fave!); Zimmerman; Argerich; Anda; and Cherassky, as well as introducing me to the heavenly choral accompaniment of the Choir of St. Hedwigs-Katherdale (mercy! check out their contributions to remarkable performances of LVB's Missa Solemnis, conducted by Bohm (1955), and 9th Symphony, conducted by Fricsay (1958)).

And, while starstruck, don't forget: these constellations of classical genius orbit around one of the planet's most consistently brilliant and universally respected orchestras!

While I could drone for pages, I would likely have to dispense a cocaine and Ritalin cocktail to rescue you dear readers from catatonia.

In closing, I should dearly love to hear reviews of box/compilation purchases by aficionados who possess both the technical vocabulary and understanding of classic themes and concepts to render more helpful insights than mine!/peace, katherine
 

Kate

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White Flag

Okay, late last January I "caught" a vendor on Amazon.Canada selling Reiner's Complete RCA recordings for about $85USD...that window closed almost instantaneously and every month for the past year, Amazon.ca has been sending me emails that basically say, 'If you still want it at this price, we'll keep trying; however, you'd probably have better luck winning Powerball'...Tonight, I've formally surrendered and simply ordered the set off AmazonUS for about $119USD. Much like Furtwangler and BSO, Tosca and the NBC SO, and Szell and the Cleveland SO, there simply aren't any conductor-symphony pairings that've made me salivate quite the way Reiner and that beast of an orchestra he fashioned in the Windy City do! So, I caved. Damned that irresistible hog-jowled genius!!/peace and Merry Christmas, Kate

Reiner.jpg

Amazon.com: Fritz Reiner: Fritz Reiner-The Complete RCA Recordings: Music

Edit: Oh yeah, and I've also indulged my other love by purchasing a couple pair of the NB Leadville 1210s...though, in my defense, the shoe industry's neurotic habit of ditching even successful models after just a short time justifies stockpiling (plus, SALE!). Any other runners out there? Esp. trail and/or ultra nuts?!?/ :) K
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Edit Ad Nauseam: I imagine many here are familiar with the name "John Fowler", but if not, then most certainly check out his review of the Reiner box via the Amazon link provided above. I swear, I've likely dropped 4 figures on box sets after being wooed (funky word!) by his seductive reviews!
 
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