nice library

You listen to truly great music. Shall take a listen to what I've missed from your top list. =)

Wow, what a library. And a big fan of tchaikovsky :) his piano trio reminds me of the film music to Schindler's List

Your library is COOL

Hi, Tchaikovsky's Second piano concerto is great, it's one of my favorites, too. About the berceuse and barcarolle - I just love them both, they express so different emotions and so unmistakably Chopin-esque... I really think they're great. By the way, happy New Year and best wishes (although a little late ;) )!

His Concerto's are fantastic for the most part! You are certainly correct that because his volume of work is so large that there much be some...duff pieces! I love his St Mathews Passions although to be honest there are many section that I feel its...getting on a bit :) lol

Wow, you've been bashing out the Bach! I always thought Bach was boring but there are always pieces of his that surprise me completly that I love....

Thanks, you too! You're top 30 is fantastic :-)

The Nelsonmass is really wonderful! You should try to listen it conducted by Bruno Weil with Tafelmusik. I will upload it someday xD

It's not that surprising, given that Mozart's No. 41 is one of my favorite symphonies. I listen to it quite often and I guess you do so with the Ninth... If you don't, it's time you began!:-D

Mmmm, it's quite possible - I listen to that symphony all the time ;).

Hi! Have you listened to Liszt's Totentanz (for piano and orchestra)? It's a really impressive piece of music, one of the many great Liszt compositions. At least I think so.

Much better than nothing! Do you understand and feel your instrument?

I have probably asked this before but do you play an instrument??

My subscription ran out a while ago, I am just waiting till I NEED to renew it :D will be very soon probably!

Happy new year!

Schubert's Ninth symphony is extraordinary even by his standards. I just can't stop listening to it and the more I do, the more addicted I feel, seriously. Have you heard the "Unfinished" symphony? It's great, too.

Happy New Year! I wish you a successful and happy 2009! Keep on listening to great music!

Yeah, I hadn't noticed it was so high in your charts.;)

Beethoven's Fourth symphony is great (like all his others), don't you think?

You're right, this symphony is sublime.

Hey, didn't you say you were obsessed with Mozart's Jupiter symphony? I've been listening to it quite a lot lately, it's kind of stuck in my head. Not that I hadn't realized how great it is before, I guess I'm just in that kind of mood.

Thank you too! I do love those Bach cello suites.

that schuberts sonata in A major is gorgous, have you heard his B flat major sonata? its one of my favorite!

Have you listened to Schumann's Symphony no. 3? It's a masterpiece, definitely, though his symphonic works are not quite popular.

My favorite I think is his 3rd but only because I have not properly listened to his others. Listening to his 4th before was great but I still seem to prefer the 3rd.

Who, me? OK, I'm in!

absolutly hilarious! thank you. Will start to concentrate on his 6th soon.

ahhh! I finally 'get' Mahlers Symphony No.5 now! Just listened to a movement from it a few days ago and for some reasons I just loved it fully! Now I can not stop listening to the full symphony.

thanks for the shout. That was really great advice on listening to Mahler! I do plan to get all his symphony's. Only other I have is number 5 which I find fantastic but dont enjoy it as much as number 6.

Hey. I have recording performed by Sir Simon Rattle! Its a fantastic recording. I need to listen to the piece again but it really is fantastic. Didnt fully 'get it' at first but halfway through ...yea great! I will be getting his 8th ! Cant wait...

one other thing i should have mentioned, i came to serialism via Richard Strauss. first Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht, then Gurre-Lieder, then Pierrot Lunaire (my most profound musical revalation ever), and from there serialism opened up for me. i hope this is helpful. :). -ant

hello again :). if you're not familiar with serialism, it might be worth starting with some early Schönberg (pre- and early 12-tone, i.e. Herzgewächse, Hanging Gardens, Erwartang, Pierrot Lunaire, etc. -- difficult music, to be sure, but it will help you understand what Berg is doing in the concerto). i think it is also important to bear in mind that Berg was inspired by the death of Alma Mahler's daughter. finally, atonal music goes against the grain of our entire cultural upbringing and is very difficult to get a handle on: it may take a long time to 'get'. i listen to a great deal of 12-tone music, but each new piece i hear still takes a long time to grasp. that said, effort and reward are usually linked. i'd also suggest maybe trying Lulu before the concerto, because the narrative makes it much more accessible.. and it's one of the greatest opera's EVER! :). -ant

hi Alpha86 :). you asked what i think of Berg's violin concerto... i think it amongst the most breathtaking works ever composed. it deserves the moniker "masterpiece". but even the best musicians can make it sound horrid: see Perlman's positively limp performance (with Ozawa). Perlman is no hack, but he misses the mark with the worst of them. i'm no fan of Mutter or Levine, but they really do hit the mark: their romantic reading is entirely appropriate. i think Berg had quite romantic sensibilities, and his romantic impulse has been very important to the broader modernist movement. the concerto proves that modernists can be as fiercely limbic as any romantic. the concerto is very, very dark. it really is music-to-slit-your-wrists-to. even though i love bleak art, i sometimes find the concerto is just too much, leaving me miserable and teary for hours (like Smetana's piano trio, although that _always_ makes me cry :P). i consider such a visceral response a sure sign of brilliance. .-ant

Have you listened to Mozart's so-called "Little G minor" Symphony? It's number 25, KV 183. That's one of my favourite Mozart works and it certainly isn't as popular as it should be. Also, it shows Mozart's darker, sadder side that's not very well known by most people.

managed to get a copy of Griegs full Peer Gynt! listening to it right now. its amazing! really different even the parts that are familier to me. Really love the folk style Halling and Springer at the beggining.

YEA! its requiem time!

thanks that was great. I really like the dialogue in between the climaxes at the end!

mmm are the acting sections very long? I think i would greatly enjoy it if they were short... I dont think I would enjoy it much if there are long talking parts in a language I dont know! :D If the talking parts are shortish I think I will add it to my 'to buy' list!

is that a version without the acting sections??? :D

Oh, that's a tough question. All four are among my favorites, they are about equally great.

cant find a version without the acting sections...were did you get the 'just music' sections from?

Never heard the full play. Just added it to my list of thing to buy now. Thanks!

I love Peer Gynt, Op. 23 - XIX. Solveig's song. Its so delicate and alive.

Of course, the Choral Fantasy by Beethoven is great, I like it too. Another not too well known masterpiece is his Piano Fantasia, op. 77, maybe you know it.

Have you listened to anything by Ferruccio Busoni? Some of his piano works are really impressive. His Piano concerto, op. 39 is amazing not only with its proportions - it certainly is a masterpiece (and a killer for the pianist). It's also the only piano concerto I know that concludes with a choral movement.

By the way, do you write your tags yourself? Usually I just can't find enough time and enthusiasm to this - it's so boring and sluggish and so on. However, I'm pretty pissed off by the way most people who upload their music on the internet tag audio files. In fact, what really makes me angry is last.fm's way of dealing with classical music tags. There are a thousand ways one can write the title of a classical work or its movements. It's a hell of a thing, surely - it can easily get one hundred characters long. I myself am confused - how should I tag classical music? Sometimes I write only the tempo marking in the title field and fill the work's name as "album". Of course, this causes a lot of confusion here, in last.fm. I might be the only listener of about 1000 tracks with such titles. I agree that it's almost impossible to make all those different titles redirect to one but it's much easier with composer names. Such tags as Schumann, R., Borodin and so forth should be ok. But are not

yes this really is fantastic! Verdi always is great powerful music! Thanks for the info about Dies Irae;)! I have a recording from 1979 by the Philharmonia Orhcestra and the Ambrosian Chorus conducted by Riccardo Muti. I got the cd from HMV it was one of its "HMV Classics" CD's and they are usually fabolous recordings!

chopins scherzo's! I remember I was trying to learn one before hearing it (this was before I really knew was a scherzo was) and I thought I was doing pretty well until I heard how fast it should have been played!!! they have gorgous textures though

Try the "Eroica" variations if you have a chance, they're great. I meant the whole ballet "The Creatures of Prometheus", opus 43, not just it's overture. It's strange but it's quite unknown. In fact, so are "Egmont", "King Stephan" and many other marvelous orchestral works by Beethoven.