Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1820s

Another Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6T8ZcQMpXBbRm8aWR5xUZE (not yet finished but based around the above recommendations so far...)

Nag! the real MVP as always. Thank you!

For Der Freischütz (as for all things), Carlos Kleiber is absolutely incredible.

Yes, much appreciated Nag!, invaluable service for me.

Omg

whenever somebody asks me what the greatest decade in music is, i answer "the 1820s". this is mostly a challops - obviously the _true_ answer is "the 1980s" - but yeah that's a murderers row of compositions there. as always i'm most appreciative of the opportunity to listen to some stuff from this decade i haven't heard before, as well as recordings i don't know of pieces i do. i'm really enjoying the Voříšek right now.

i'm voting beethoven's ninth because i'm basic like that but there are a number of deserving pieces that could (and, given the challopsy opinions of voters so far, probably will) win

String Quartet No. 12! The second movement!

need to revisit all these schuberts

Truly impossible

I could vote in good conscience for any of the following, they are all in the running for best piece of music ever:

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy - String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 (1825)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy - ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Overture in E major, Op. 21 (1826)
Franz Schubert - Symphony No. 8 in B minor, ‘Unfinished’, D. 759 (1822)
Franz Schubert - Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795 (1823)
Franz Schubert - Piano Sonata in G major, D. 894 (1826)
Franz Schubert - 4 Impromptus, D. 899 (1827)
Franz Schubert - Winterreise, D. 911 (1827)
Franz Schubert - Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, D. 929 (1827)
Franz Schubert - String Quintet in C major, D. 956 (1828)
Franz Schubert - Piano Sonata in C minor, D. 958 (1828)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 (1820)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (1822)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 (1819-1823)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Missa solemnis in D major, Op. 123 (1819-1823)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Große Fuge in B-flat major, Op. 133 (1825)

threw a vote at schubert's fantasy in f minor because it's my favorite piano duet piece and a friend and i have been learning it together. it's also a beautiful piece, and in an uncommon key.

loving these threads, so much to listen to

Can an ignoramus (who loves the late quartets) ask where to start with the Mendelssohn and Schubert on this list? The playlist is amazing, but I'm a busy man, damnit!

Like which pieces to start with, or fave recordings of those pieces?

Listen to the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture. It's absolute magic.

Can an ignoramus (who loves the late quartets) ask where to start with the Mendelssohn and Schubert on this list?

The Octet is the canonical early Mendelssohn pick, with good reason imho. I quite like the classic Wiener Oktett recording. His first two String Quartets are precocious pastiches of Beethoven's late essays in the genre, conceived a mere couple of years after the old man from Bonn wrote his. The Minguet Quartett's Mendelssohn cycle (still in progress) is a good way to get acquainted with them.

As for Schubert… it's all sublime, really. If I had to POV, I'd probably go with the last Piano Sonata (Radu Lupu), the String Quintet (Hagen Quartett & Heinrich Schiff), String Quartet No. 14 (live version), the Unfinished Symphony (Carlos Kleiber) and Winterreise (Matthias Goerne & Graham Johnson). Maybe.

(Disclaimer: there are countless incredible recordings of these works – I'm just listing those that have moved me the most. Others will have their own preferences, obviously.)

Like which pieces to start with, or fave recordings of those pieces?*

The former, with the latter appended if possible plz.

Xp Cheers, pom.

*In a nutshell why I often run screaming from classical discussions. My poor brane can't cope with the permutations.

Err, for Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 I meant the Alban Berg Quartett's live recording.

Winterreise and Die Schöne Mullerin are the two essential song cycles; art song is probably the one thing Schubert is best known for. If you have any tolerance for classical vox, I def recommend those.

Rating the 1980s over this = good God someone think of the children

I still find Große Fuge harsh on the ears. I've never heard a version where the players sounded like they were having an easy time.

The struggle is part and parcel of the experience. Maybe seeing the players tackle it head-on would help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13ygvpIg-S0

The Ardittis do make it seem almost effortless, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA5PbJmcbwQ

I've had a bastard of a week. The Mendelssohn in E-Flat Major (particularly the 3rd movement) just broke me.

my #1 Schubert non-vocal pick for the newbie just might be the D929 Piano Trio. The funeral march movement = could die happy with this playing

Can't argue with that. I'd watch Barry Lyndon again had I not developed an inexplicable aversion to all things filmic over the past decade.

While we're at it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e52IMaE-3As

I can't not vote for 'Winterreise'. That one's hugely important to me.

Can't argue with that. I'd watch Barry Lyndon again had I not developed an inexplicable aversion to all things filmic over the past decade.

― pomenitul, Thursday, November 14, 2019 6:45 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not to pry, but help me unpack this: you haven't watched or enjoyed any film for a decade? Or do you mean music that is too 'filmic'?

I watch maybe three or four films per year tops. I can't explain it, not even to myself.

Reason I was asking is because I am maybe burned out on watching films too, without explicitly realizing/acknowledging it as an aversion. I'm in the three, six films per annum numbers too, I guess. And they're exclusively old ones. I will shamefully confess I read way more about films than that I see them, to the point where I can appreciate a detailed wikipedia plot summary to read and digest slowly, and prefer it to seeing a movie a lot of the time...

I'm reading way more though, after a 10 year period of "I should really read more", and am very happy that things are this way.

Looks like we suffer from the same condition. I used to love film (and in many ways still do) but it just makes me anxious now, like I should be doing something more meaningful with my time. Or more mindless, depending.

Aye, I'd still say I love film, but with an added "it's complicated". I definitely get the "I should be doing something more meaningful" feeling (except I can also waste away hours doing nothing but procrastinating and think: I could've watched a good portion of Malick's oeuvre in this time... but I digress, somewhat ;) )

I can also waste away hours doing nothing but procrastinating and think: I could've watched a good portion of Malick's oeuvre in this time...

cosign

As a general rule I'm terrible at putting time off to good use, although I do wonder how much of this is a matter of perception… One for the 'psychology of filmgoers' thread, which probably doesn't exist yet.

I doubt that I watch more than three or four films a year, if that. Perhaps it is connected to listening to classical music.

Franz Schubert - Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 (1828)

stupid me went through all the schubert sonatas in order looking for this one, it's my favorite

i don't watch films either, it's just something that takes commitment to and it's hard to find that commitment

As a general rule I'm terrible at putting time off to good use, although I do wonder how much of this is a matter of perception… One for the 'psychology of filmgoers' thread, which probably doesn't exist yet.

― pomenitul, Thursday, November 14, 2019 8:45 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

We could do with that thread... In due time, eventually.. :)

I think this:

i don't watch films either, it's just something that takes commitment to and it's hard to find that commitment

― tantric societal collapse (rushomancy), Friday, November 15, 2019 1:21 AM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

is the (relative) laid back approach I need to this subject. 😎

Meanwhile, the Mendelssohn string quartet Chinaski mentioned (E-flat major) is indeed as beautiful as it is devastating.

Anyone have strong opinions on recordings of the Diabelli variations? I'm becoming mildly obsessed. A bunch of them feel like they presage things decades into the future that I can't put my finger on. Though I've been focused on relatively recent recordings by Staier and Schiff. Who else warrants a listen?

Of those I've heard I love Kovacevich's first recording (from 1968, I think), Pollini's and, more recently, Piotr Anderszewski's.

Kovacevich (60s or 2000s, both are great), Benjamin Frith, Arrau, Brendel (probably the one that came out in a 2CD set of “previously unissued live recordings”), Ronald Brautigam.

Excellent. Thanks peeps.

After much deliberation, it could only really be Exercices très faciles in the end.

Seriously, I think I have to vote for Winterreise. As awe-inspiring as Beethoven's 14th quartet (op. 131) is, I can't lie that I've just spent more time with the Schubert in my life so far.

That 14th lvb quartet is my choice

I caved to sentiment and voted for the 15th quartet, which got me into Beethoven's late style in the first place.

^ Yeah, that was my first as well. I read something about the third movement and decided I had to hear it. That pretty much started me on classical music.

I went with the 12th quartet, though.

Muss es sein? Es muss sein!

Well, it's not the right one, but you catch my drift.

Incidentally, I messed up by not subtitling this poll 'der schwer gefaßte Entschluß'.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Pssh, Symphony No. 9, so not epic.

I'm mildly shocked that no one voted for the 'Unfinished' Symphony or for the 'Death and the Maiden' Quartet but you can't argue with Beethoven's 9th.

27 votes though, that's heartening!

True!

I do want to stress once again that everyone is welcome to vote and shoot the shit in these threads – classical music needn't be forbidding.

Oh god dammit I got it in my head that I voted but seeing the 0 votes for the Schubert trio I clearly didn’t. Argh.

A spectral vote – the 28th, to boot – is perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned. :)

Mvt 1 of Death and the Maiden is all time. The competition was just formidable.

I hard choice between the 9th and Wintereise for me I think I gave it to the 9th because I gave it to Erlkonig in the last poll.

I’d be interested in knowing which recordings people like of the Schubert Lieder. Dietrich Fischer-Diskau is pretty unfickwithable and I like Ian Bostrich as well.

Christian Gerhaher is really great in lieder

Very much seconded.