Holy shit! I like orchestra!

I've recently been introduced into orchestra/choral music and I have to say, it sure beats anything else I've heard in a long time. I listen to music while on the computer as a background music and most of the crap on TV/radio is just too distracting when I'm working. I would like to increase my number of songs in this genre, however, I have little money and I'd rather know what I'm getting then just randomly buy some CD and have it turn out to be crap, and then not be able to return it. Any suggestions? Favorite composers? Hm?

I you like Symphonies, I suggest anything by Haydn -- one of the most prolific. If you like Baroque, I suggest Handel -- The Water and Fireworks music are amazing. And I think that the most beautiful classical piece in the world in Johann Strauss -- "Waltz: On the Beautiful Blue Danube" (more commonly known as the Blue Danube Waltz).

If you prefer your classical a little more modern and edgy, I would recommend Tchiakowsky and Prokofiev.

Beethoven is awesome(of course). Strauss, like he suggested, is great Schubert and Rossini are all great. I prefer music from the classical and romantic era over music from the baroque era. Classical and Romantic are a lot softer and peaceful compared to Baroque, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is from the Romantic era.

Also if you want something a bit more modern you could always pick up some movie scores, so you might have something to relate it to. I find Ennio Morricone to be my favorite composer of late; he is famous for Spaghetti Western soundtrack like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which is my favorite soundtrack ever and is normally regarded as one of the best soundtracks ever.

So, depending on what you want, you have a lot to choose from. I would get maybe like a best of cd from certain eras to see what and who you like.

I too like orchestrated concerts.
In my opinion what you need to do is find your instrument of choice. And go from there.
Then the main Orchestra plays around & with , lets say a cello.

Also. I went to the Cleveland Orchestra and I thought I had bad seats because they were balcony seats.
Well to my surprise everyone around me new The Q's & A's about classical music.
Most of the buildings are constructed to keep in mind sound. So they actually build these places and hold the venues in these very well thought out architecturally designed Buildings.


Come to find out ,because you do not go there necissarilly to see the orchestra, but to here them, us being in the back seats, gave us the best sound. The sound resignates off the constructed walls to get maximized sound.

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Originally posted by TygrHawk
If you prefer your classical a little more modern and edgy, I would recommend Tchiakovsky and Prokofiev.

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(I fixed the mispelling in Tchaikovsky's name.)

If you want, try finding a CD with various composers and see if there which ones you enjoy more and pursue them. There's so much good stuff out there, but if you're really not sure, just go with the basics: Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Barber, etc. If you're looking for more modern classical, you could check out Gershwin. He's excellent as well.

Yeah, classicals are so great!!. No one mentioned "Vivaldi", I love how he uses violins, and "Beethoven" is the master of all, in my opinion, he has the greatest music, and you could also try "Mozart" and if you like you could watch the movie "Amadeus"; "Rachmaninoff" is really good to, he hits up the piano in so many moods. Enjoy it, its good music :D

It's a bit difficult to find favorites from classical composers, since many works are longer than 10-15 minutes. I suggest going with some "popular" works from each composer. 99.9 percent chance that you will enjoy the Symphony No. 5 in C Minor by Beethoven. That's a start (but most people that have heard the first 10 measures have not heard the entire thing). You probably know Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, which is another "popular" choice. I'm not much of a Mozart fan as I used to be, that is, since I heard more Beethoven, but here are some of my choices:

--Symphony No. 7 in A Major (especially the 2nd Movement)
--Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (mind you this is over an hour; some slower recordings are about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This deserves your full attention, so plan accordingly...it's that beautiful. There are faster recordings, but these were made using the Metronome marks Beethoven himself put...some of the faster recordings do not impact as greatly because of this [many believe he did not know how to use a metronome correctly])
--The Piano Sonata "Trifecta" of 'Moonlight', 'Appassionata', and 'Pathetique'.
--Opus 133, the 'Grosse Fuge'

There's many others, but I suggest these first. I have dozens of other suggestions, but I practically worship Beethoven, so these came to mind first.

If you like full orchestra symphony type stuff I would agree with most of the previous posts to get some romantic era stuff like Beethoven, or even some more impressionistic stuff like Dvorak. If you like Choral/Vocal type stuff I would definately recommend Arvo Part. He is a contemporary composer from Estonia who has some amazing choral/vocal stuff. Some other favoriets concerning vocal music are old classics like Victoria, Palestrina, Lassus, etc.. That is for more of the "sacred vocal music" type sound from the early renaissance period. You can even go back to the middle ages and listen to some vocal music by Hildegard von Bingen, which is very interesting because she is and was world renouned as a religious mystic. For something a little more ethnic, there is a cd by Azam Ali which has a really diverse collection of vocal music interpreted in a more middle eastern type setting. She is from Iran, and she has interpretations of vocal music from medieval to comtemporary, from England, France, Wales, Palestine, Germany, and Syria.
Very interesting stuff, and she has a fantastic voice.