25 Essential Classical Pieces to Know | Ep17

Not every music student or even professional musician has explored classical music, much like not necessarily every classical musician will know something about jazz or any other genre.  However, each genre has certain pieces that one should know from each genre regardless of your preference.  These are 25 of many possible choices, not necessarily "the best", but some pieces you should recognize by title and composer upon hearing.

Musical examples used in this episode:

06:53 P. Tchaikovsky: "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker - (Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit)

12:49 J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (Hannes Kästner, organ)

13:15 J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (Czech Philharmonic; Leopold Stokowski)

17:26 S Barber: Adagio for Strings (New York Philharmonic; Thomas Schipps)

19:48 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (Vienna Philharmonic; Carlos Klieber) mvt 1 and 4

24:03 Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Berlin Philharmonic; Von Karajan) mvt. 4 and 2

28:33 Brahms: Hungarian Dances 4, 5, 6 (Vienna Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado)

30:56 A Copland: "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo (St. Louis Symphony; Leonard Slatkin)

32:33 F Chopin: Grand Valse Brillante op. 18 (Valentina Lisitsa)

34:22 Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Royal Concertgebouw; Bernard Haitink)

36:01 Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" mvt 2 (London Philharmonic; Charles MacKerras)

38:16 Grieg: Peer Gynt and Peer Gynt suite no.1 (San Francisco Symphony; Herbert Blomstedt)

40:13 Handel: The Messiah "Hallelujah" (London Symphony; Colin Davis)

40:43 Handel: Water Music selections (English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard)

41:30 Holst: The Planets "Mars" - (Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit)

42:13 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Marc-Andre Hamelin)

43:22 Mendelssohn: Overture and Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream (London Symphony, Andre Previn)

45:11 Mozart: Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Neville Marriner)

46:16 Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Promenade and Great Gate of Kiev (Berlin Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado)

48:25 Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy; Moscow Symphony; Kirill Kondrashin)

49:38 Ravel: Bolero (Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa)

51:42 Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe (Rotterdam Philharmonic; Yannick Nézet-Séguin)

52:46 Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee (Berlin Philharmonic; Zubin Mehta)

53:08 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade mvt IV and III (London Symphony; Charles MacKerras)

55:06 Schubert: Ave Maria (Barbara Booney)

55:31 R Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Chicago Symphony; Fritz Reiner)

57:15 Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (from Part 1) (New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein)

58:21 Tchaikovsky: Russian Dance, Arabian Dance, Dance of the Reed Flutes from The Nutcracker (Montreal Symphony; Dutoit)

 

Do you have a different recording of these pieces that you'd recommend? 

Let me know by telling me directly at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

The blog post that goes with this episode can be found here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/25-essential-classical-pieces-to-know

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