Getting Into Classical and Contemporary Music

[LilJen]

I agree. I have a recording of "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and I'd listened to it a few times but didn't really take too much notice of it. But one year, I was able to go to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and that was one of the pieces they played. I thought I'd died from the sheer beauty of it, and it is now my favorite piece of classical music. That would not have happened had I not gotten to hear it live.

I'm STILL waiting for someone to skate to this. Was rooting for Johnny Weir to skate to it back in the day when he was still skating to good music.

[DustPuppyOI]

Many people would shudder at the prospect but I think that Disney's Fantasia (especially the first one) are great for introducing people to classical music - just ignore the blocky centaurs. I'm not as fond of Fantasia 2000 because they shortened a number of the pieces of music. The Pines of Rome and Firebird were done nicely though.

If your library has some Balanchine DVD's, I've found his neoclassical ballets to music not intended to be for ballet rather illuminating. Paris Opera's recent Jewels production, should be pretty widely available. Arvo Pärt is a fairly popular contemporary composer in the ballet world right now especially since Christopher Wheeldon has been using his works a lot like this central pas de deux from his "After the Rain" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VibqEWACdRo (music is Spiegel Im Spiegel). For me, sometimes dance distracts from the music (I'm not particularly fond of Jerome Robbins' treatment of Ravel's Concerto in G major - loved the music on its own, dance didn't help) but often enhances the music (love Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements by Stravinsky - wouldn't listen to it on its own). I'm still surprised that not many skaters (if any?) use Bruch's Violin Concerto with the last movement featured here in this ABT performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvl7v9VwjOM.

The one thing you do have to find time for is to just sit, concentrate and listen. Not having visual action to go with it makes the brain work in a different fashion.

[kwanfan1818]

I'm going to the Met performance on January 12; I'll let you know what I think. It is either going to work or it isn't; I don't think there will be any middle ground.

Excellent -- I can't wait to hear about it!

Kwanfan, it's OK, I am a countertenor groupie and my love makes up for any dislike on your part.

Ziggy, my favorite Ravel is "Le Tombeau de Couperin". There are orchestra and chamber music versions, and the piano version.


DustPuppyOI's suggestion about finding dance videos with choreography set to classical music is a great one. Balanchine used to say that if you hate the dancing, close your eyes, and you'll get a really good concert.

[Ziggy]

Oh but I love dance, especially contemporary.

[Scintillation]

Excellent -- I can't wait to hear about it!




Ziggy, my favorite Ravel is "Le Tombeau de Couperin". There are orchestra and chamber music versions, and the piano version.

I played this piece with a chamber orchestra for a graduate student's recital and it is SUBLIME.
My favorite Ravel piece is probably "Alborada del gracioso", a really cool piece with a definite Spanish flair. I have an obsession with Spanish music though, so I'm biased.
Ravel was an absolute master of orchestration--he and Debussy both knew how to write for every instrument, how to make each one shine, and how to have them work together in the most harmonious manner possible.

[DustPuppyOI]

Oh but I love dance, especially contemporary.

I like kwanfan1818's suggestion, i.e. to take the skating music and listen to it uncut. The good thing about dance is that they tend to take the music as is or at least orchestrate it. (It's also the reductions, like Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle that's used by NYCB that drives me nuts. I love the original work - having it shortened makes me shudder.)

If you liked Lu Chen's 1995 SP, finish listening to the entire Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto and if you like it, you may as well listen to his popular violin concerto in E minor.

If you like Carolina Kostner's Shostakovich SP to his Trio No. 2 this season, finish listening to his entire thing and then go find videos of Concerto DSCH (http://www.nycballet.com/company/rep.html?rep=579) to his Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102 and have a listen.

Also, you can't go wrong with listening to the whole Naqoyqatsi by Philip Glass courtesy of Jeff Buttle, then branch out to other works by Philip Glass and see In the Upper Room to ... or Glass Pieces.

I'm not the most versed in the contemporary world but there are some borderline ballet works with some interesting modern (in the classical vein) music in addition to Arvo Pärt's Spiegel Im Spiegel that I linked to earlier.
* In the Upper Room (music by Philip Glass): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLW0Jzh05w
* Glass Pieces (Rubric and Façades from Glassworks, excerpts from the opera Akhnaten by Philip Glass): http://www.nycballet.com/company/rep.html?rep=82, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUNQLkzIjyU
* Red Doves (Maxwell's Demon by Richard Einhorn) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7W8jwsYz6A
* In the Middle Somewhat Elevated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVWf-...eature=related, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLWDtbHNzxw, http://www.last.fm/music/Thom+Willem...ewhat+Elevated
To more classical music
* Here's the segment of Twyla Tharp's Push Comes to Shove set to Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 82 in C "The Bear": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAomju3d4xs. Of course trust Tharp to pair it with Joseph Lamb's Bohemia Rag.
* Here's a segment of William Forsythe's Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude to the last movement of Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DY328Aeu5A
* I'm a sucker for Gottschalk so here's recent choreography to his Souvenir de Porto Rico, The Dying Poet, Tournament Galop, La Savane / Oh Ma Charmante, Le Bananier, La Manchiega. These are all orchestrations of the solo piano works.

If you think about it, as a skating fan, you're already exposed to a lot more classical music than the average person. The problem though is that you're overexposed to Bizet's Carmen, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Nutcracker, Rodrigo's Aranjuez, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Nos. 2 and 3. You just have to branch off into other works by these composers or their contemporaries.

[Twilight1]

I am partial to the baroque era in music. I love Vivaldi and Bach. We studied Gregorian chants and Renaissance music in grade 9, Grade 10 we studied Baroque, then grade 11 Classical and grade 12 Romantic era music.

I would start at the very beginning with gregorian, wikipedia is a great resource to get you started and then work your way up. It was really cool listening to the development of music from texture, tone, and polyphony etc.

[kwanfan1818]

The factor for Pisaroni isn't quite there for him as Caliban: he just posted this photo to his "like" page:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

[Artemis@BC]

I'm STILL waiting for someone to skate to this (Thomas Tallis). Was rooting for Johnny Weir to skate to it back in the day when he was still skating to good music.

Me too! It's in my top 3 of I-wish-someone-would-skate-to-this pieces. One of the others is another Vaughn Williams, "The Lark Ascending." I know Angela Nikodinov did it back in her time, but I don't think she really did justice to the lightness and airyness and sublime beauty of the music. I'd like to see someone like Mao do it. Or a pairs team, that could be awesome.

The other is Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain." Not sure who I'd vote for to skate that one -- maybe Patrick Chan, or Daisuke Takahashi. Or hey, how about Javier Fernández, that would be fitting!

[emason]

Me too! It's in my top 3 of I-wish-someone-would-skate-to-this pieces. One of the others is another Vaughn Williams, "The Lark Ascending." I know Angela Nikodinov did it back in her time, but I don't think she really did justice to the lightness and airyness and sublime beauty of the music. I'd like to see someone like Mao do it. Or a pairs team, that could be awesome.

The other is Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain." Not sure who I'd vote for to skate that one -- maybe Patrick Chan, or Daisuke Takahashi. Or hey, how about Javier Fernández, that would be fitting!

Didn't Yuna Kim use Lark Ascending? Or am I thinking of something else?

[BlueRidge]

Didn't Yuna Kim use Lark Ascending? Or am I thinking of something else?

Yes she did.

[emason]

Yes she did.

Thanks, I thought I might be going senile there for a moment.

[BlueRidge]

It was her 2006/7 LP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVKLDfEdVeo

[Artemis@BC]

^ OMG, how could I have forgotten that? Totally perfect piece of music for her. Thanks for the reminder.

[A.H.Black]

Didn't Yuna Kim use Lark Ascending? Or am I thinking of something else?

So did Angela Nikodinov.

[aliceanne]

I picked up "Beethoven's Greatest Hits" out of a bargain bin because I was curious. I can recommend the Allegretto form the 7th Symphony, and the "Turkish March" from the "Ruin of Athens".

Another note about skating music, skaters frequently "level" their music so the audience won't be startled by sudden crescendos or strain to hear soft notes. Elite skaters also sometimes change the tempo to suit their skating speed. You may be surprised when you hear the original piece played as the composer intended.

[michiruwater]

The entire 7th Symphony is, IMO, pretty much perfect. Listen to the whole thing.

[Wyliefan]

The entire 7th Symphony is, IMO, pretty much perfect. Listen to the whole thing.

It's my favorite piece of classical music. I am partial to the second movement, but you're right, the whole thing is beautiful.

[aliceanne]

The entire 7th Symphony is, IMO, pretty much perfect. Listen to the whole thing.

Something to look forward to finding! Thanks (and Wyliefan too).

[Quintuple]

- crazy, avantgarde, disjointed stuff (like Stravinski's "The Rite of Spring" - though I have to say that most of contemporary music is too much even for me, but I'm very open minded )

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- opulent, baroque (I mean character and not time period) stuff (like Saint-Saens' "Samson and Delilah")

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- dark, brooding stuff that makes you want to cut all your veins sideways (can't think of any examples but think of the kind mood that the non-remixed version of Requiem for a Dream score and this have).

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