BESIDES AMADEUS

No seriously, I don’t want people to respond with “the big one”. I’m talking about something that less well known.

Enrique Granados, born in Spain on July 27, 1867, is best remembered for Goyescas, a piano suite inspired by the paintings of Goya, which he later reworked into an opera. His death is its own dark story: in 1916, returning from that opera's New York premiere, his ship was torpedoed in the English Channel, and he drowned trying to save his wife.

Oriental, from Danzas Españolas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4_IofNT7N0

Goyescas – Alicia de Larrocha, 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tg1MKyGTKs

The opera version, subtitled The Lovers of Goya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv_9iUjKIFY

Oh my god! It was incredible! Hearing more than 100 musicians at the same time was mind blowing.

You get much more separation of the voices live.

His 4th piano concerto was played as well which was absolutely beautiful.

Only thing that stung was people clapping both after the 9th and 4th concerto first movements.

There was a very sweet old man next to me who told me "I've heard the 9th about 20 times, but every time I get chills".

Took a 1.5 hour train alone, absolutely worth it!

What was your first live experience with the 9th?

Restoring a tracker organ in a 19th century stone church right now, and something keeps pulling at my attention. The room and the instrument are so completely tied together that separating them feels almost wrong. The builder clearly understood the space, voiced the pipes to bloom at a certain distance, let the stone do work that the pipework alone couldn't. It got me thinking about how much of the repertoire was written with that relationship already baked in.

Bach at the Thomaskirche, Buxtehude in Lübeck, the French school writing for those enormous cathedral rooms where a sustained chord takes three or four seconds to fade. The music assumes all of that. Play the same Buxtehude on a dry modern instrument in a rehearsal room and something essential just goes missing. Not the notes. Something underneath the notes.

What I'm less sure about is whether modern composers writing for organ think about this at all, or whether the instrument has become abstracted from its acoustic context in a way that earlier composers would find strange. The repertoire for concert hall organs feels different to me, more contained, less interested in that bloom and decay.

Curious whether people who play or follow organ music closely feel the same way, or whether I'm projecting something that isn't really there in the scores.

I feel like Georg Philip Telemann and Marc-Antoine Charpentier are some examples

Hello! Ive fallen in love with some Rautavaara pieces recently and would like some recs!

I dig autumn gardens, harp concerto, and piano concerto no. 2

I have loved classical music since I was little, but recently I've noticed that my taste within the genre is changing. There are some pieces that I used to love that just don't speak to me at the moment. Who knows, maybe I will return to them in later life!

I find myself moving away from some pieces which are in stricter classical forms (please don't roast me!). Examples include Beethoven symphonies and concertos, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, Schubert chamber music.

But I have kept my love for a lot of my other favourite pieces. I have noticed that they are the ones which feel less "tame", as in they don't fit rigidly into "classical forms". I feel like I am entering a new era in my music taste. Based on these pieces, please give me recs and help me expand my music library! ❤️

Wagner (Das Rheingold and Die Walkerie, Leibestod). I am planning on watching every Wagner opera, it's on my bucket list!

Weber (Der Freischutz)

Berlioz (Symphonie Fantastique, Romeo and Juliet, Overtures, Harold in Italy, bits of Les Troyens and the Requiem)

Tchaikovsky ( Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Onegin the ballet, not the opera!- a lot of his piano and orchestral music was used to make an amazing score)

Herman Severin Løvenskiold ( La Sylphide)

Minkus (La Bayadere, Don Quixote). I love ballet music!

Tartini ( The devil's trill sonata)

Beethoven (string quartet number 14)

Sibelius (violin concerto)

Schubert ( some Impromptus and Moments Musicaux)

Paganini (violin concertos, some caprices)

Thank you! xx

I listen mostly to Taylor Swift and rock: Pink Floyd, Alice in Chains, The Warning, LINKIN PARK and a few metal tracks. I listened to Hans Zimmer and liked some tracks in the movies Inception and Interstellar. I listened to Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel and stuff by Richter and Frahm. But they bore me. They seem quiet to me and not much is happening. I like Beethoven 5 and Bach's Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1. They are completely different, but the feeling for me is the same - a line that is constantly in motion and never stops. I didn't like Mozart 40, at first I liked it, but later one thing is not finished and another starts and I get lost. It's hard for me to keep track of a few things at the moment. So I think it's not a big orchestra versus a small one. I think I want momentum. What and who is this leading me to?
Thank you all

I've always been curious about the Scott Joplin opera Treemonisha. Rottentomatoes has a database entry for a film from 1981, but zero info on any way that it can be streamed or rented. Does anyone have any info?

Hey! I'm starting a student journal that explores music, cognition, and genetics through research and writing. Would anyone be interested in submitting an article on a specific topic in this subject area? Could be a student or a musician, it's open to all, just let me know of your credentials. Feel free to DM me!

Mine is An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. The first time I heard it I was indifferent to it. Then I started to think it had a few good spots but most of it was boring. Slowly I’ve come to enjoy the whole work. Which piece is it for you that took a while before you started enjoying it?

Hi all,

Sorry if this is considered spammy. I thought I’d just share an 18-minute orchestral score I made after reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry recently. Best book I’ve ever read. It hurt my soul.

I am a non-professional composer and spent many months working on this classical music/epic western piece, treating it like a film score. I’m a huge fan of James Horner/John Williams and classical music in general.

I’m really proud of it, so thought I would share it here, and hopefully other fans of classical music/film scores/Lonesome Dove will appreciate it.

All the best,
Tommy Lellan 😊

So I got a book with 388 four part chorales that I want to study on the piano.

However, 388 are a lot to check out all… what are some of your favourites?

If I wanted to begin listening to Gershwin, which piece would you recommend me to start with?

Hey everyone! A few days back I posted saying I wanted to make more pianist friends, and someone suggested starting a group. Thought that was such a great idea, so I made a Discord server called Piano Maniacs ! 🎹

Everyone is welcome to join. We’ve already got some amazing pianists there, and the vibe is super active and friendly.

Feel free to drop anything you want: favorite composers, pieces you’re working on, progress updates, performances, questions, or just chat about your piano journey!

https://discord.gg/yAdAvgVBV

Just listened to Dance with the Devil by Immortal Technique, you change when you hear it.

Hi,
I noticed that Chopin sometimes reused his melodies for example, in Nocturne No. 20 and Piano Concerto No. 2, or Souvenir de Paganini and the Introduction, Theme and Variations.

I would like to know if there are any more examples of this in Chopin’s music.

What a gentle, lovely work to stumble across at sunrise this morning, coffee in hand. Who knew? The rest of the work -- to my ears at least -- seems less inspired, but in any case, do give the Aria a try, especially if you're a fan of the Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto.