Veering towards classical music

I’m glad you enjoyed Chanson de Matin, Helterskelter1. It has always been one of my all-time favourites. I first learned to play it on the violin when I was around sixteen and still enjoy both playing and listening to it. It was written in 1898 and conjures a scene of a late Victorian or Edwardian May morning with coffee and petits fours on the lawn, perhaps a game of croquet or tennis in the distance, polite conversation and birdsong.

I agree with Cumbrianmale that Wagner can be an acquired taste, but if, out of my desert island discs, I had to choose only one piece to take with me it would be the Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, preferably sung by Jessye Norman. It is the most heart rendingly beautiful piece of music I have ever heard and always brings a lump to my throat.

Love most types of music but I now have Classical music or Opera as background when driving. It used to be the latest popular music.

I have just listened. And watched Elgar's Chanson du Matin from Music at Minch on youtube. Piano and violin. I think it must have been recorded in Covid lockdown as the church was empty. Beautiful. And I did recognise it although did not know the name.

I shall look through the website today. Minch I think is the shortened version of Minchhampton. Gloucestershire?
My DD1 introduced me to radio 3 Unwind which I have playing this morning. I will also track down Private Passions.

Thankyou for the list Musicgirl. Very helpful.

I have started to listen to R3 while driving. Calming and less distracting than my usual R4. And the calming, late night listening is lovely too. BBC Sounds is an incredibly resource - music mixes to suit all kinds of moods from many different genres, including classical.

Wagner is an acquired taste. The instrumental music that introduces and ends his operas is excellent and very stirring, but the operas themselves are heavygoing, you need to have an understanding of German and need a spare 4 hours. However, those that love Wagner really appreciate the man's music.

@Greyduster, all ravishing pieces of music. However, I still cannot think of Grieg's piano concerto without remembering Morecambe and Wise with André Previn. It still makes me laugh every time I see it. The music itself is still wonderful.

A lot of people, like I did as a child, start their classical journey by being introduced to some of the well known piano concertos - Tchaikovsky’s No.1 in my case and then the ravishing Rachmaninov No 2 (the second movement made popular in Brief Encounter), and of course Greig’s A Minor which whisks you straight off to the Norwegian Fjords from its opening chords.

Greyduster I was a big Jacques Loussier fan. I saw him a couple of times at the Albert Hall. I must still have the LPs somewhere.

I'm afraid I don't follow or know much classical music. My introduction to it would have been through Bugs Bunny! I do love music though, and it seems whenever I try to pick a channel on Accuradio or Sirius, I get bored with music I'm not familiar with. Without access to BBC radio, I should look for either a beginners classic station, or a station that plays familiar music. I recognize some music from ballets.

I'm more of a rock and pop music lover, but am open to all music.

Thank you Madeleine.

Skydancer

Does anyone know if there is an app to identify music? I was listening to a beautiful piece on TV hoping they would announce the name of it but they didn’t.

Try Shazam or SoundHound or there's Google's Search for a Song, although I've not tried that one myself.

Just thought to add that some of you might enjoy tomorrows Private Passions on radio 3 as it is Hugh Bonneville - the actor who played the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey. He is an actor , who of course has done many other things too , and as with everyone else I have no idea what music he may choose, but you might enjoy it as an introduction to the programme.

Could you look up the tv programme you were watching, skydancer, and Google what the music was? It sometimes brings results.

I lost my hearing gradually, from my 50s. I’m now profoundly deaf, I have a cochlear implant, but I just can’t hear music. Any sounds are flat and discordant, and impossible to identify, even church bells.
I miss it so much, I was playing in small groups, which was really fun, I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed it until it was gone. Look after your hearing!

Does anyone know if there is an app to identify music? I was listening to a beautiful piece on TV hoping they would announce the name of it but they didn’t.

If you like Bach with a bit of a twist, try Jacques Loussier. Absolutely amazing.

I like most types of music but classical music is what I mostly listen to now, on Radio 3 and on the playlists I’ve built up from Apple Music where the choice is infinite and you can download a track or a whole album. I stopped listening to Classic FM because the music seemed to be becoming repetitious and I found the adverts intrusive but it is a very good gateway if you want to widen your classical horizons. Bach is and always will be my first love, but Debussy is an easy composer to listen to, and Delius.

An Uncle bought me Madame Butterfly when I was eight - it was the beginning of my great love of classical music.
I'm hard pressed to think of a favourite.
Musicgirl 's taste reflects mine .
I love her list .
My only regret is not learning an instrument.
I think that if you discover the classics later in life then it's a bit like discovering plain chocolate.
Today I'd love a bar of Green and Black's ginger and it would have been Dairy Milk before !

If you start listening to classical music you will probably find that a lot of it sounds familiar as it often crops in advertisements and theme music. For instance the Apprentice theme is taken from the ballet Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev and the recurring theme in Rabid Rabbits from the Mozart opera The Magic Flute.

I listen to Classic FM while doing housework or inthe car.My husband is a keen guitarist and singer at our local folk club..He loves Fairport Convention,Dylan,blues, jazz,as well as some classical music especially Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.He downloads folk shows such as Tim Walkers and Mark Radcliffes.Our house is always full of music and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I ask my Alexa to “play BBC Radio 3 Unwind”. I’m not fond of strings but I love piano music.

I enjoy Classic FM Calm- and have just discovered Amazon Music is free on my speaker as I have Amazon Prime.

I was never a fan of classical music, although I did like Ravel's Bolero after my dad got a copy in the 60 and also Air on a G string when it was the Hamlet cigars ad on TV. But what really turned me onto classical was The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco.
I seem to remember that Harry Enfield did a tv program about appreciation of Opera for beginners.