NB: This is a 'reaction' video in the purest sense of literally not knowing what was on the list until the cameras were rolling. Everything in the video is improvised in the moment. This is why (regrettably) I didn't know some of the pieces (with apologies to Debbie Wiseman and others on the list whose pieces I will now go and listen to in a state of penance!)
3:41 the great thing about Grieg's piano concerto, is that it still sounds good, even if you play '... all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order'.
Loved the thoughts, improv, etc., and couldn't agree more with your conclusions - thank you ... there's a world of other stuff out there to blow the mind and long may it last! 😀😀
I like this format, excellent. I too was fascinated by the Grieg when I was young. In fact, when I started piano I had a Grieg book and many of the works were simple enough for me to read thru. I think I learned to sight read from that book. I also think Knoxville 1915 is Barber's best work. It is a perfect synthesis of words and music and the music is just glorious. You have good taste sir!
The genius of Faure's requiem is his heavy use of cellos and violas. Then, in the Sanctus uses a solo violin which, in contrast to the other movements, sounds so ethereal.
In Beethoven's Ninth, nothing makes me feel the way that recitative followed by the famous theme's first introduction by the basses and cellos does. Sheer magic. It never gets old no matter how many times I hear it.
Thanks for spinning out all those recommendations for further listening! Everything you said is true, which was interesting in itself! Haydn's amazing genius has, as usual, been roundly ignored. Oh well, it's not my loss😌
Yes. It's odd, because Radio Three are very well aware that Bach is their listeners' favourite composer, and they feature him more often on Composer of the Week than any other composer. I'd at least expect the Air from the Third Orchestral Suite to make the list.
I’d vote for Bach’s Chaconne from bwv 1004. Heard Rachel Barton pine play it last week. This piece has it all in every way. Interpretation is also key, and in my opinion, always always on a baroque violin.
Couldn’t agree more. The most beautiful slow movement of them all - in my opinion of course. The middle movement of the Gershwin Concerto in F runs it close, until the piano’s entry at least.
@@dr.impossibleofcounterpunc1984 i never actually realized he lost his hearing THAT young, at 28? i was so sure he was in his forties-- definitely gives a lot of his compositions new perspective!
@basedokadaizo Beethoven liked to drink alcohol a bit too much. Scientists have tried to suggest that Beethoven died from liver failure, maybe. But his hearing loss has remained a mystery. Another aspect was possible lead poisoning. Beethoven suffered a lot in his later years, but he soldiered on until the end. Life is all about experience, pleasure, and pain. It defines us as human beings. Without it, great works would never be heard or created.
@@dr.impossibleofcounterpunc1984 Beethoven had such a tumultuous life and I’m sure that’s why so much of his music is so passionate and at times crazy. Could you compose the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata if you were feeling laid back and peaceful but the first movement on the other hand?
Marche Slav was an arrangement, written 10 years earlier, but had some very nicely crafted bits. I think his heart was in that one in contrast to 1812, a commission he didn't want.
Yeah, it's not about what's interesting, it's a popularity contest from the listeners. Though Rach 2 is one of my favorite pieces of music. BTW, the last movement of the The Planets is Neptune. The Planets is what I have people listen to who say they "don't like classical music".
Professor, I abuse the possibility I have here to ask you about your opinion on the first symphony ("Gothic") of Havergal Brian - I stumbled over it a few months ago and I am simply stunned by the whole work, but I realised that it is not very well known ...
Rhapsody in Blue is as much a tribute to jazz culture as anything else. The glissando was used by lots of jazz woodwinds to indicate a sort of sexy 'swing'. Other parts represent smoky jazz clubs and downtown cities. It ends with a celebration of music itself, weaving the jazz components into a very basic melody Its one of my favorites. Properly understood, its quite an expert level composition.
My guess is Beethoven's number 7 is on there because of the movie The king's speech. It was very moving there. I remember being very surprised how much it touched me being used in that place. It is used as the background of the coaching of the speech that the king Delivers on the war and he goes through the entire thing using just the Symphony.
They really bungled that top 6. After all, there are only 6 different Brandenburg concertos. I looked up some of the romantic and film stuff I hadn't heard before. Quite inspiring, really got me in the mood to put on some Mahler instead! I must have missed it on the list.
Nothing in the to 50 from Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Wagner, and on and on. Nothing from any of their output beats out Gabriel's Oboe? Your video and commentary are really great. This list is bad!
Yes thanks for this. I do in general like ClassicFM but they do seem to favour the tunes that bring the advert money in I feel. You never get anyhting from Buxtehude, or a Sharwenka pianoc oncerto or many many other fantastic pieces. Thanks, I am in total agreement with you.
Ahhh ... the final exams on the last Friday? How the college town become empty and silent overnight? Its like you're Charleton Heston in The Omega Man. Brings back good memories.
I like 8 which is the lighter prelude to 9. What a way to go in your later years with these two. Antarctica is uneven, but the sounds he created. Clever clogs.
I do love the Lark, and would certainly concur that for all its evocativeness there is better RVW about the place; during lockdown, however, my thoroughly unemployed wife and I (similarly redundant) would go for long walks in the East Lothian countryside. There was no hiding from the sound of singing larks which seemed to be everywhere, and were that much more audible thanks to the lack of people and traffic, Walking by the bay in Aberlady one day, my wife said to me something like: "I guess its very lovely to have all this birdsong going on, but don't you sometimes wish they'd bloody shut up!" I saw her point.
Larks are beautiful singers and I think I prefer hearing the real thing to RW's famous version of them (which actually doesn't resemble a lark at all!)
I always have a soft spot for the New World Symphony because it was the first Romantic era symphony that I played in - the second was the Reformation by Mendelssohn. As a youth at the time, I had a lot of fun playing those pieces.
The professor gave it very short shrift, mentioning the somewhat dull Largo. The outer movements are thrilling, powerful structures. The old Toscanini recording gets it right.
I can't listen to Rach 2nd Piano now, without thinking of...... "You've been very far away, haven't you? Thank you for coming back to me" "Oh yes... boo hoo hoo"! 😢
Indeed it’s the slow movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto that is featured in Out of Africa. Robert Redford and Meryl Streep “dance” to it on their mini Safari.
Not a chance that four pieces by Englishmen are in the top 5. Nobody in the entire world outside the UK would ever rank them that high. Not all four of them at least. Overall a pretty biased list in favour of the anglosphere.
My old uni theory lecturer once loudly declared he wished someone would shoot the blasted lark out of the sky. (It's been at the top of the chart for over a decade.)
'Gabriel's Oboe' or the mock Baroque scourge of many oboists who want to play a much better solo piece, but that's the only thing in the band/orchestra library. It's just a motto theme, just like 'La Califfa'.
I discovered Nimrod thanks to your waxing lyrical about how amazing it is on this vid. I've even started to learn the Percy Granger piano arrangement so I can have it whenever I like and it's all because of how you were when it was played. Thanks for starting me down obsession avenue.
Or Pierrot Lunaire. I can still recite the opening few bars. Memory isn’t what it was. Mary Thomas with the Fires of London was amazing live, but what ever happened to the Cleo Laine recording? I know it was in English but come on. Cleo sprechgesangs Schoenberg should be available for ever. And ever. Hallelujah!
I believe "The Mission" soundtrack is one of the greatest scores of all time. Please take a listen. "Gabriel's Oboe" is beautiful and heartbreaking, especially in the context of what's happening in the film. But there is a lot more to the score - beauty, and pain, and meditation, and grandeur.
I was driving to a gig with a cellist when it had only just been announced the queen had died and I had Classic FM on the radio. I should've put a wager on it that I bet the first piece to be played right after the announcement and news was 'Nimrod' as I'd have made £5. Such is the predictability of Classic FM to have it on standby in case of such an event.
@@HarryS77 I don't know the film you are speaking about. Perhaps you are speaking about the film "Battlefield Earth", which has a score of 2.5/10 in IMDB. So, it's a terrible example. Usually the films which get a score of 8-10 in IMDB are good. I only know "Palladio" of Karl Jenkins. It's a good piece in my opinion and I think that people who attack him are only snobs. As I wrote in an other comment, I'm happy to see that Classic FM values contemporary classical music. We can not listen only to Mozart and Beethoven for the next 1'000 years. We also need a bit of fresh air.
Hello, loving your content, even if it makes me feel like I don’t know classical music. I got into classical due to anxiety and I stuck around, but I’ll still bang out some Kendrick Lamar, UK Drill, and Metal quite often. It occurs to me that I’ve done myself a disservice by listening to ClassicFM soo much and really not straying from the pieces I love so much. In that vain it would be awesome to have a video of your top 50 pieces of some sort. As well as any tips on how to discover more classical music, when all your friends are philistines so it’s just me out here trying to find things I like. Chopin is my favourite as I find his music very emotive and I’m a sucker for anything in a Minor key.
Check out Barber's String Quartet. He arranged the Agagio for Strings from the 2nd movt. I aways thought it made more sense as part of the larger piece.
To appreciate the greatness of Grieg’s piano concerto, by Grieg, you have to listen to the performance by Eric Morecambe, conducted by Andrew Preview. The one where Morecambe plays all the right notes, though not necessarily in the right order.
Someone once asked Isaac Asimov who was the greater artist, Ludwig van Beethoven or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Asimov said it was Beethoven because Goethe required a translation. The 1812 does not require a translation nor an explanation nor a justification.
Fun video! This is a random question, but I've been meaning for some time to make videos about Vivaldi's more obscure pieces. I've realized that most people haven't been exposed to more than The Four Seasons and maybe the fugue from the concerto grosso from L'Estro Armonico or the A minor double violin concerto from the same opus. Thinking of calling the channel "The Fifth Season" or something like that. I especially want to highlight his eccentric late style. Do you or your editor have any advice for it (software, etc.)? I love the formats of your videos.
(1) In my nearly 40 years of symphony performance, Elgar's NIMROD variation (double-bass, Fort Smith [Arkansas] Symphony Orchestra) provided the most intensely emotional moment I ever experienced on-stage. (2) What? No Delius? His "Florida Suite" is the most heart-tugging beautiful piece ever written, and "In a Summer Garden" ain't bad either.
I love Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and not just because I am a horn player. There is so much of a feeling of Russian peasants about it. [Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony] Franck’s Symphony in D Minor is delightfully quirky and nearly Swedenborgian in its color. [Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra] Richard Strauss, “Death and Transfiguration” is spooky and mysterious, far more subtle than his other works [Fürtwängler, Vienna Philharmonic] The Fürtwängler interpretation of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony at Bayreuth barely stays on the rails at the end, making it the most convincing performance of that piece, while his recording of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony wrenches every last bit of pathos out of the score.
To be honest, I'm just happy that Lark Ascending has dropped out of their number 1 spot, because Classic FM listeners keep voting it number 1 year after year after year.
Late Faure is on a completely different planet let alone level to the Requiem. At times he is really on the ragged edge of conventional harmony, it’s wild.
Part of the problem of ClassicFM list is ClassicFM themselves as they only play "safe" music (which is not to say some of the works on this list are not masterpieces...because they are!) but they don't experiment much with their playlists. For Holst Planets (the fading is Nepture, not Mercury) they only ever seem to play Mars or Jupiter. To those of us who know far more pieces than ClassicFM play, there are composers works much greater. Yes Vaughan Williams/Sibelius' symphonies are wonderful and much more interesting than Lark Ascending/Finlandia. Really enjoyed your comments, piano playing...and even some of the singing :)
Go watch The Mission right now! It's a great movie about human dignity in which music itself plays a part in demonstrating the inherent worth of every human. This simple truth disqualified the racial theories promoted by the colonial governments in South America, interested in exploiting the natives, that were instead defended by the Jesuits.
A Classic FM listener of my aquaintance once asked me who my favourite composer is. Joseph Haydn I replied ... 'Who ? Never heard of 'im' ... and that's all you need to know.
I do think that Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto is indeed the greatest of all four, musically much more profound than his Third, which I think is overplayed.
His third piano concerto is musically FAR superior, its just not as beautiful as his second. It's an incredibly complicated composition that puts off many listeners, including seasoned classical music fans. When I first dived in to rachmaninoff's work, his 2nd PC was my favourite and I saw his 3rd as being a bit messy. It took me some time to recognise the genius of the piece. Rach 2 is very good but it consistently gets the votes it does because of the dreamlike magical beauty and mournful romanticism of the adagio sostenuto. Which after all is a common feature in much of rachmaninoff's work.
Yes, the taste of people, and their insight... As you said: Tchaikowsky Pathétique! Sibelius 4th symphony! Beethoven Quartet c sharp minor! But any of the mentioned pieces are of simpler and more on the surface rather than the real "best pieces". I find such a selection a bit frustrating. But it reflects the choice of mainstream concerts.
The Vaughan Williams 5+6 have it all… the scherzo in the 6th, astonishing - Wayne Shorter’s favourite piece of music apparently. Actually I hear a lot of Vaughan Williams in Wayne. His favourite composer.
The 6th Symphony is wonderful and the moment at the end of the first movement when the great tune emerges is one of my favourite moments of all! I didn't know Wayne Shorter was a fan.
As a Canadian...although of British origins...I can see that this list is (perhaps predictably) very anglocentric. Never did get the enthusiasm for Elgar(my bad!) although I love Vaughan-Williams. Chacun a son gout, I suppose! BTW Since I've lapsed into French...where did the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique place? It would certainly be safely tucked into my top ten.
Isn't it telling that so many are "not his best piece, listen to his chamber music", but hardly anyone really wants to listen to all that chamber music... It's much more fun to play than to listen to, frankly, and it was written as exactly that...
Best thing about this is I can tell 100 percent there’s no British bias. Yes Elgar and RVW are great but Elgar’s cello concerto is far from his best work and you’re not being a very good advocate of Vaughan Williams by parading about lark and Tallis over and over again and ignoring the symphonies and many of his other great works.
Elgar’s Serenade and Introduction and Allegro are two of my favourites. The opening viola figure alone in the Serenade is better than any of the film scores listed.
Grieg's E minor Piano Sonata is a good, if not overly ambitious, work. Gould's copy of the Sonata must have omitted the poco in the Alla Menuetto ma poco lento...or substituted poco with molto. Either way, he injects it with some gravitas.
I'm never not in the mood for at least some part of Beethoven 9 (right now, the 3rd movement). Can't wait to hear it live later this month conducted by Manfred Honeck! Also, its 200th anniversary is coming up.
Elgar actually cyphers the first nine or ten notes of the slow movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata in Nimrod. Forget the original key and time signature, and just concentrate on the Beethoven tune itself.
Absolutely. There's so much incredible classical music and every fan has their own subjective opinion on the matter, myself included. Although there is definitely such a thing as good and bad musical compositions, the best is always going to be a personal opinion and nothing more. Such a list is fun but its nothing more than a popular opinion poll.
@@Zurvan101 Exactly. Even good and bad are subjective. Like Mozart's A Musical Joke for example, someone in the 1700s might think "That's bad" because of how it's a satirical piece parodying what an incompetent composer of the time might have produced, whereas I in the 21st century think that it's just as good as any other Mozart piece. Indeed one of my favorite moments in the whole piece is the moment where the opening motif of the fourth movement breaks down into just quarter notes call and response and then half notes and then tied half notes, all at piano, and then immediately afterwards, the momentum is back at forte. This motivic breakdown into quiet long notes in call and response followed by a loud reignition of the momentum is something Beethoven would do about 20 years later in perhaps the most well known symphony of all time, the Fifth Symphony. But yeah, that just goes to show how different people of different tastes can say opposite things about the piece.
You have to take these lists on their own terms. It’s no use complaining that listeners to a popular classical station prefer The Lark Ascending to The Art of Fugue or the late Beethoven string quartets. Once you allow for that, it’s impressive how good some of the music choices are.
Sorry, really silly list. Some pieces wouldn't have been on my top 500. I more reflects what the general public might think than someone attuned to musical content. I'd rank beethovens fourth concerto well ahead of no.5, but perhaps half a dozen of mozart's ahead of no. 4. No, I am not a mozart bigot. They are really that good. Brahms understood that. Where is brahms, anyway?
@themusicprofessor yes you did. They are all good from 9 onward but 9 plus 13 to 27 are extraordinary. This was a popularity contest. Otherwise nos. 24 and 25 would have been high in the rankings. So would some haydn quartets.
It's a shame how many classic pieces weren't on that list because it was loaded with all of the film scores. Throw all of those out and give me more Schubert, Mendelssohn, Bach, Biber, Wagner, etc. I would even accept Alma Deutscher over some of the stuff that is on there.
It is because of such point of view there is a lack of understanding for modern classical music. I would prefer to see more film scores, as it represents modern-day writing - at least in some way. And as a composer I am quite happy to see such vast variety in the ClassicFM top pieces list. Although I strongly disagree with the order, as such order indicates poor level of education and unwilling to get to know new music.
I don't see why film scores shouldn't be in the list, considering that a lot of music written for films is excellent. Your comment is only stupid musical racism, as if the quality of a piece of music was determined by the category. It's a good thing for me that contemproary classical music is valued by Classic FM. It's not that we have to listen only to the old stuff for the next 1'000 years.
Beethovens 5th piano concerto 2nd movement is one of my favourites. I have many more, We are all individuals as Monty Python sort of said so what appeals to one may well be a ho hum to the next. I hate to say it but maybe ring tone downloads for phones could be a good measure of the fan base. I’m cringing as I say that. Love your channel and I’m so glad I found you, ❤️🌈🦘cheers from rural Australia. Addit or PS I live in a very bucolic farming, dairy cattle, sugar cane growing area and to have a fellow who was camping in a field in the adjacent paddock to my house with no electricity, running water, cooking facilities or creature comforts to tell me hearing me play the piano late at night was the high light of his life brought home to me how powerful music can be and it doesn’t have to be the worlds most popular tune to touch some one who has never heard live music before and takes the time out to tell you how your playing made him feel. Thanks for your great channel. 🌈🦘
Thank you so much! That's wonderful, and somehow inspiring to know that the channel is being listened to in rural Australia. BTW - Percy Grainger (born near Melbourne) is one of my favourite composers. I've just played his 'Blithe Bells' in a concert (You can hear Grainger playing it here: th-cam.com/video/4fUzlbigOkQ/w-d-xo.html)
@@themusicprofessor yes, I’m a fan of Percy Granger. In fact I was playing Country Gardens just yesterday. The copy I have has the words Violently Wrenched written as an instruction on how to play the arpeggiated chords in the left hand. I’ve always thought what an interesting instruction. Quite different from cantabile or what ever. All the best to you and your dog. I’ve a rescue dog who is nearly 18 and he likes to sit under the piano when I practise.
"Violently wrenched" is fairly typical. He had an eccentric preference for Australian/english terms in preference to Italian ones. But he was such a wonderful original in every way, and his folksong arrangements are completely masterful.
@@themusicprofessor thanks for the info, yes, he uses English. I’ve noticed a lot of American composers who write for students today also use English terms. Call me old fashioned but I like the Italian or French terms as I’ve grown up with them and I think it’s sad that when things get damped down. They also call a crochet a quarter note etc. Learn both terms other wise there is going to be a lot of music you’re not going to understand. Those who think theory and scales etc are a waste of time will never be good sight readers or have a good understanding of how a piece is put together. Just my opinion, I’m sure there will be many who disagree. My dad (now 95) has an AmusA on the piano and an LTCL on the pipe organ and technical work was drummed into me from the very beginning.
I'll speak up for Adagio for Strings. It is better in its original setting as the second movement of a string quartet. The larger orchestral arrangement just amps up the schmaltz too much, but it is very effective when it is in the more restrained setting of a quartet.
Beethoven 9 isn’t my absolute favorite, but it’s very close. My Beethoven symphony ranking list is: 1. Fifth 2. Ninth 3. Third 4. Sixth 5. Seventh 6. Eighth 7. Fourth 8. Second 9. First Reason for the First Symphony being at the bottom? It just doesn’t really sound much like Beethoven to me, not until the finale that is. It’s a good piece, definitely as good as a Mozart or Haydn symphony, but the relative lack of drama and other things characteristic of a lot of Beethoven’s other works, even his other early period works, is why it’s at the bottom of my list.
My current favorites are Debussy's _Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun_ and Mahler's _Adagietto_ from Symphony No. 5. Edit at 15:30 you mention Holst's _The Planets,_ and you mention that Mercury is the final piece with the offstage choir, but that's actually the "Neptune, The Mystic" section.
As I understand it, Classic fm plays music that people know and know they will like, and is for listening while doing other things (hence, much more dynamic range compression than Radio 3, for listening in the car). Don't knock it. Some fine pieces (especially in the 18th century) existed as background music, more or less. But it means that a listeners' poll of Classic fm is not going to foreground _interesting_ pieces. And I was driving along, listening to the local classical music station, and on came a piece I didn't recognise (that's a large field); I was pleased, and tried to locate it, and got it to something like English early c. 20th Arts and Crafts, and lo and behold, the back announcement revealed it was Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, and I resolved to overcome my block about him. And, BTW, 1812 ain't great, but it's better than Wellington's Victory. So now I'm persuaded to give Rachmaninoff a proper try, even though I am averse to the bombast of a modern Main Battle Steinway.
Of course you're right that the station exists for those reasons, and it's certainly a good thing when people get drawn into new and exciting areas of music that they didn't know before. The downside with any platform is when it becomes uncritical in upholding its own set of values, and I guess my (not at all serious) video is just attempting to gently interrogate those values. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that, as an indicator of musical quality, the Classic FM Hall of Fame seems problematic.
@@themusicprofessor Oh, absolutely, and the mild acerbity of my comments was not at all directed at you, but at some other commenters who seemed more dismissive of the poll, or its contributors. I was actually struck by your openness to film music; if ballet music, why not film music, indeed -- but then, I have some hesitations about ballet music. So I should have made it more clear just who I was responding to. You're one of the people who persuade me that I could actually *understand* music, if I were to have another life to start over again. BTW, what strikes me about this poll is that the modern music is all music-as-accompaniment, and not the sort of music that interests my younger hip friends, like Steve Reich or Terry Riley (which is hardly inaccessible). P.S. speaking of film music, I wonder why no Prokoviev? He was quite the darling of my contemporaries, long ago, and Lieutenant Kije and The Love of Three Oranges are a tonne of fun, not to mention Romeo and Juliet. For someone, with a PhD thesis to write, these polls will be invaluable primary sources for a study of popular taste in classical music (what Gareth Farr, a New Zealand composer, describes as "unpopular music." BTW, if you don't know the work of Gareth Farr, I don't think you really need to catch up.)
Well I don't think there's much argument about Prokofiev: the creator of some of the most astonishing music of the 20th century, and his film (Alexander Nevsky, for example) are all marvellous.
I really only came to classical music in my late 20s - there’s definitely a syndrome of a large number of people listening to particular movements of symphonies/concertos (because that’s what’s played on stations like Classic FM) and not to the entirety of the works. I can occasionally get into that “groove” myself - it’s definitely not going to deepen one’s knowledge - or increase one’s appreciation - of the huge amount of extremely inspired music from over the centuries. One heartening thing though from this list is that Ravel’s “Bolero” doesn’t feature (perfectly fine piece though it is) - there was at time - perhaps 20 to 25 years ago - when the “average punter” seemed to “plonk for” that piece when asked to name a piece of classical music they liked !
🍿 been waiting for the rest of the list. Lets do it. Sibelius Violin Concerto is far far superior to Finlandia. Knoxville Summer of 1915 is one of favs. Leontyne Price is my favorite recording Rach 2 is number 1? I guess i am surprised and not. I do love it, but I am not sure I would select it as the greatest. I don't have a different work in mind though. I am surprised Mahler was so high (or is it low?)
NB: This is a 'reaction' video in the purest sense of literally not knowing what was on the list until the cameras were rolling. Everything in the video is improvised in the moment. This is why (regrettably) I didn't know some of the pieces (with apologies to Debbie Wiseman and others on the list whose pieces I will now go and listen to in a state of penance!)
I think the only criteria for this list is how many people can whistle these tunes
More specifically, how many British people*
Love your profile picture. Richter.
Ah, the Old Grey Whistle Test
You are most correct. Somebody once said, if you can whistle it or hum it, you've got something.
@@JESL_Only_1 Adorno had something like that, but I’d not suggest tracking it down. His work on music is pretty reductive.
I have always wished that classic fm would publish a list of pieces with the FEWEST votes. That would be interestinf
Excellent idea.
@@themusicprofessor Maybe a gymnopedie by Satie
John Cage - 4'33
Webern Symphony. That is beautiful.
I think that would be really the best pieces.
I remember a lecture you gave at Guildhall in 1998. Was blown away with your piano playing and musical knowledge. Keep the vids going, Matt!
Thank you Rick!
1812 INSTEAD OF THE PATHETIQUE??? FINLANDIA INSTEAD OF THE 7TH????
Ikr, pathetique is my favourite symphony ever
The banal absurdities of popular taste!
Barber's Adagio should have been replaced by his amazing Violin Concerto, and Mozart's Requiem was excelled by his (unfinished) Mass in C Minor.
He should have named S.'s violin concerto.
Debussy's Prelude a l'Apres Midi d'un Faun was revolutionary. It shook up the establishment.
This series is so fun. Looking forward to upcoming videos!
3:41 the great thing about Grieg's piano concerto, is that it still sounds good, even if you play '... all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order'.
Eric Morecombe entered the chat.
I cant unhear roll out the barrel
@@Zurvan101 Andrew Preview has left the chat
Loved this; been completely blind for 6.5 years now, and enjoyed this much
That's wonderful. Thank you for listening.
Loved the thoughts, improv, etc., and couldn't agree more with your conclusions - thank you ... there's a world of other stuff out there to blow the mind and long may it last! 😀😀
I like this format, excellent. I too was fascinated by the Grieg when I was young. In fact, when I started piano I had a Grieg book and many of the works were simple enough for me to read thru. I think I learned to sight read from that book. I also think Knoxville 1915 is Barber's best work. It is a perfect synthesis of words and music and the music is just glorious. You have good taste sir!
The genius of Faure's requiem is his heavy use of cellos and violas. Then, in the Sanctus uses a solo violin which, in contrast to the other movements, sounds so ethereal.
I went to hear the requiem at the Royal Festival Hall last week and Sanctum gave me goosebumps. So beautiful.
I wish the best for the person that made that list..hope he or she get well very soon
In Beethoven's Ninth, nothing makes me feel the way that recitative followed by the famous theme's first introduction by the basses and cellos does. Sheer magic. It never gets old no matter how many times I hear it.
Thanks for spinning out all those recommendations for further listening! Everything you said is true, which was interesting in itself!
Haydn's amazing genius has, as usual, been roundly ignored. Oh well, it's not my loss😌
Great video
No Bach. All you need to know
Yes. It's odd, because Radio Three are very well aware that Bach is their listeners' favourite composer, and they feature him more often on Composer of the Week than any other composer. I'd at least expect the Air from the Third Orchestral Suite to make the list.
I’d vote for Bach’s Chaconne from bwv 1004. Heard Rachel Barton pine play it last week. This piece has it all in every way. Interpretation is also key, and in my opinion, always always on a baroque violin.
The Chaconne is one of the greatest human achievements in the arts. It is life itself.
Karl Jenkins on the list, but not Bach. That tells you all you need to know about Classic FM.
The Grieg piano concerto's 2nd movement gets nowhere near as much love as the first, but I think it's rather sublime
Couldn’t agree more. The most beautiful slow movement of them all - in my opinion of course. The middle movement of the Gershwin Concerto in F runs it close, until the piano’s entry at least.
Agreed. The 2nd movement is my favorite.
If I made this list, it would be all Bach.
yes
I think you need to get out more
Not a single piece by Bach on that list. Very telling.
Yes, 'Ich hört' ein Bächlein rauschen ...' (folkesong).
Alternatively Beethoven Symphony 6/2-
Indeed, 2nd violin partida would be on the list
@music professor how bout you make a video with your own top 10 or 20 favourite pieces. I'm sure there would be some nice discoveries for some of us 🙏
I'll have a think about that. It's incredibly difficult!
Allegri's Miserere (13:43) is the work that Mozart famously copied from memory after hearing it once at age 14.
Allegedly
If Beethoven was alive today and listening to the Classic FM Hall of Fame on a radio, guess where the radio would've ended up?
He would gave done nothing, hearing nothing out of this strange little box
@madrigal1956 28 yrs of hearing. Still time to hear the shocking state of the countdown. 😆
@@dr.impossibleofcounterpunc1984 i never actually realized he lost his hearing THAT young, at 28? i was so sure he was in his forties-- definitely gives a lot of his compositions new perspective!
@basedokadaizo Beethoven liked to drink alcohol a bit too much. Scientists have tried to suggest that Beethoven died from liver failure, maybe. But his hearing loss has remained a mystery. Another aspect was possible lead poisoning. Beethoven suffered a lot in his later years, but he soldiered on until the end. Life is all about experience, pleasure, and pain. It defines us as human beings. Without it, great works would never be heard or created.
@@dr.impossibleofcounterpunc1984 Beethoven had such a tumultuous life and I’m sure that’s why so much of his music is so passionate and at times crazy. Could you compose the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata if you were feeling laid back and peaceful but the first movement on the other hand?
Marche Slav was an arrangement, written 10 years earlier, but had some very nicely crafted bits. I think his heart was in that one in contrast to 1812, a commission he didn't want.
They’re quite different pieces really. Marche Slav is definitely more interesting, definitely more memorable (aside from the cannons).
The violin solos in Schindler's are played by Itzhak Perlman
Yeah, it's not about what's interesting, it's a popularity contest from the listeners. Though Rach 2 is one of my favorite pieces of music. BTW, the last movement of the The Planets is Neptune. The Planets is what I have people listen to who say they "don't like classical music".
Is it not Saturn, bringer of old age?
And much of the popularity is due to a certain work beig played every hour, on the hour. And on the half hour.
If you listen to The Planets you don't have to bother with John Williams
Professor, I abuse the possibility I have here to ask you about your opinion on the first symphony ("Gothic") of Havergal Brian - I stumbled over it a few months ago and I am simply stunned by the whole work, but I realised that it is not very well known ...
I barely know it (I am ashamed to say) but your comment will spur me to check it out.
Beethoven 9 will always be the best for me
Yeah. Even though it's probably not my favourite Beethoven piece, it is indeed the greatest of all.
Rhapsody in Blue is as much a tribute to jazz culture as anything else. The glissando was used by lots of jazz woodwinds to indicate a sort of sexy 'swing'. Other parts represent smoky jazz clubs and downtown cities. It ends with a celebration of music itself, weaving the jazz components into a very basic melody
Its one of my favorites. Properly understood, its quite an expert level composition.
My guess is Beethoven's number 7 is on there because of the movie The king's speech. It was very moving there. I remember being very surprised how much it touched me being used in that place. It is used as the background of the coaching of the speech that the king Delivers on the war and he goes through the entire thing using just the Symphony.
They really bungled that top 6. After all, there are only 6 different Brandenburg concertos.
I looked up some of the romantic and film stuff I hadn't heard before. Quite inspiring, really got me in the mood to put on some Mahler instead! I must have missed it on the list.
Beethoven's Kreutzer was always my favorite piece of music
Nothing in the to 50 from Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Wagner, and on and on. Nothing from any of their output beats out Gabriel's Oboe? Your video and commentary are really great. This list is bad!
Classic FM is a joke, these lists prove it
Yes thanks for this. I do in general like ClassicFM but they do seem to favour the tunes that bring the advert money in I feel. You never get anyhting from Buxtehude, or a Sharwenka pianoc oncerto or many many other fantastic pieces. Thanks, I am in total agreement with you.
Unfortunately, the only reason I’ve heard of Buxtehude is a arrangement by Prokofiev of one of his organ pieces
Bux 272 is the best
ClassicFM lists are just the most superficial list possible.
@@ShaunakDesaiPiano Try the Prelude and Fugue in G Minor as a starter
I’ve only ever heard people mention Buxtehude in relation to JS Bach, I’ve never actually heard the music of Buxtehude.
Ahhh ... the final exams on the last Friday? How the college town become empty and silent overnight? Its like you're Charleton Heston in The Omega Man. Brings back good memories.
Vaughan Williams is one of the greatest symphonists of all time. My favorites are 4, 5 and 9
I like 8 which is the lighter prelude to 9. What a way to go in your later years with these two. Antarctica is uneven, but the sounds he created. Clever clogs.
They are all great. But I agree with Matthew - 5 (first) and 6 (second) are my picks.
If I had to pick just one I’d say Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. It’s the pinnacle of orchestration and everything cool about classical music.
Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is my all-time favorite! It's what I describe as "beautiful melancholy".
I do love the Lark, and would certainly concur that for all its evocativeness there is better RVW about the place; during lockdown, however, my thoroughly unemployed wife and I (similarly redundant) would go for long walks in the East Lothian countryside. There was no hiding from the sound of singing larks which seemed to be everywhere, and were that much more audible thanks to the lack of people and traffic, Walking by the bay in Aberlady one day, my wife said to me something like: "I guess its very lovely to have all this birdsong going on, but don't you sometimes wish they'd bloody shut up!" I saw her point.
Larks are beautiful singers and I think I prefer hearing the real thing to RW's famous version of them (which actually doesn't resemble a lark at all!)
I always have a soft spot for the New World Symphony because it was the first Romantic era symphony that I played in - the second was the Reformation by Mendelssohn. As a youth at the time, I had a lot of fun playing those pieces.
The professor gave it very short shrift, mentioning the somewhat dull Largo. The outer movements are thrilling, powerful structures. The old Toscanini recording gets it right.
I can't listen to Rach 2nd Piano now, without thinking of......
"You've been very far away, haven't you? Thank you for coming back to me"
"Oh yes... boo hoo hoo"! 😢
Indeed it’s the slow movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto that is featured in Out of Africa. Robert Redford and Meryl Streep “dance” to it on their mini Safari.
Not a chance that four pieces by Englishmen are in the top 5. Nobody in the entire world outside the UK would ever rank them that high. Not all four of them at least. Overall a pretty biased list in favour of the anglosphere.
My old uni theory lecturer once loudly declared he wished someone would shoot the blasted lark out of the sky. (It's been at the top of the chart for over a decade.)
'Gabriel's Oboe' or the mock Baroque scourge of many oboists who want to play a much better solo piece, but that's the only thing in the band/orchestra library. It's just a motto theme, just like 'La Califfa'.
I discovered Nimrod thanks to your waxing lyrical about how amazing it is on this vid. I've even started to learn the Percy Granger piano arrangement so I can have it whenever I like and it's all because of how you were when it was played. Thanks for starting me down obsession avenue.
I suspect ClassicFM don’t play the Rite of Spring very frequently.
Or Pierrot Lunaire. I can still recite the opening few bars. Memory isn’t what it was. Mary Thomas with the Fires of London was amazing live, but what ever happened to the Cleo Laine recording? I know it was in English but come on. Cleo sprechgesangs Schoenberg should be available for ever. And ever. Hallelujah!
The clarinet concerto wasn't just written late in his life, it was in fact the _last_ piece he completed before his death.
Yes! I guess I undersold how late it was.
I believe "The Mission" soundtrack is one of the greatest scores of all time. Please take a listen. "Gabriel's Oboe" is beautiful and heartbreaking, especially in the context of what's happening in the film. But there is a lot more to the score - beauty, and pain, and meditation, and grandeur.
Indeed. Everybody needs to know this composition.
I'd put there any Bernard Herrman work or Max Steiner's
I was driving to a gig with a cellist when it had only just been announced the queen had died and I had Classic FM on the radio. I should've put a wager on it that I bet the first piece to be played right after the announcement and news was 'Nimrod' as I'd have made £5. Such is the predictability of Classic FM to have it on standby in case of such an event.
At least it wasn't Barber's Adagio for Strings!
The more I listen to the Enigma Variations, the more I realize what a masterpiece it is.
It is a masterpiece. And not Elgar's only one!
Also: putting anything by Karl Jenkins over 2(!) Beethoven Symphonies should be illegal
You are speaking about your personal tastes, which apparently don't coincide with the ones of the public of Classic FM.
@@ClassicalMusicAndSoundtracksBattleship Earth is consistently ranked as a top movie in public polls, so.
@@HarryS77 I don't know the film you are speaking about. Perhaps you are speaking about the film "Battlefield Earth", which has a score of 2.5/10 in IMDB. So, it's a terrible example.
Usually the films which get a score of 8-10 in IMDB are good.
I only know "Palladio" of Karl Jenkins. It's a good piece in my opinion and I think that people who attack him are only snobs.
As I wrote in an other comment, I'm happy to see that Classic FM values contemporary classical music. We can not listen only to Mozart and Beethoven for the next 1'000 years. We also need a bit of fresh air.
@@ClassicalMusicAndSoundtracks What are you even talking about?
@@HarryS77 I was responding yor comment here above.
Hello, loving your content, even if it makes me feel like I don’t know classical music.
I got into classical due to anxiety and I stuck around, but I’ll still bang out some Kendrick Lamar, UK Drill, and Metal quite often.
It occurs to me that I’ve done myself a disservice by listening to ClassicFM soo much and really not straying from the pieces I love so much.
In that vain it would be awesome to have a video of your top 50 pieces of some sort. As well as any tips on how to discover more classical music, when all your friends are philistines so it’s just me out here trying to find things I like.
Chopin is my favourite as I find his music very emotive and I’m a sucker for anything in a Minor key.
Thank you! Great suggestion. I'll have a think.
I think the Finlandia Hymn section is the reason it made the list as it is a very famous hymn tune for Be Still My Soul among others.
Lovely
Check out Barber's String Quartet. He arranged the Agagio for Strings from the 2nd movt. I aways thought it made more sense as part of the larger piece.
Has to have been a British radio station.
To appreciate the greatness of Grieg’s piano concerto, by Grieg, you have to listen to the performance by Eric Morecambe, conducted by Andrew Preview. The one where Morecambe plays all the right notes, though not necessarily in the right order.
Someone once asked Isaac Asimov who was the greater artist, Ludwig van Beethoven or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Asimov said it was Beethoven because Goethe required a translation. The 1812 does not require a translation nor an explanation nor a justification.
The 1812 overture was composed by Tchaikovsky, not Beethoven
And Asimov was a chemist
Fun video! This is a random question, but I've been meaning for some time to make videos about Vivaldi's more obscure pieces. I've realized that most people haven't been exposed to more than The Four Seasons and maybe the fugue from the concerto grosso from L'Estro Armonico or the A minor double violin concerto from the same opus. Thinking of calling the channel "The Fifth Season" or something like that. I especially want to highlight his eccentric late style. Do you or your editor have any advice for it (software, etc.)? I love the formats of your videos.
'The Fifth Season' sounds like a great idea! There's so much more to Vivaldi than the 4 Seasons.
Subbed. I love Vivaldi's eccentric pieces.
Super idea! He wrote so much choral music, but the only thing that ever gets sung is the Gloria, and the soprano solo Nulla in mundo pax sincera.
Vivaldi’s mandolin stuff is a ton of fun too, rarely heard outside of dedicated mandolin circles.
(1) In my nearly 40 years of symphony performance, Elgar's NIMROD variation (double-bass, Fort Smith [Arkansas] Symphony Orchestra) provided the most intensely emotional moment I ever experienced on-stage.
(2) What? No Delius? His "Florida Suite" is the most heart-tugging beautiful piece ever written, and "In a Summer Garden" ain't bad either.
I love Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and not just because I am a horn player. There is so much of a feeling of Russian peasants about it. [Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony]
Franck’s Symphony in D Minor is delightfully quirky and nearly Swedenborgian in its color. [Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra]
Richard Strauss, “Death and Transfiguration” is spooky and mysterious, far more subtle than his other works [Fürtwängler, Vienna Philharmonic]
The Fürtwängler interpretation of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony at Bayreuth barely stays on the rails at the end, making it the most convincing performance of that piece, while his recording of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony wrenches every last bit of pathos out of the score.
Beethoven's 'Missa Solemnis'! He even throws in a violin concerto in the middle of it! He really is the greatest!
The Benedictus! That is a great moment.
To be honest, I'm just happy that Lark Ascending has dropped out of their number 1 spot, because Classic FM listeners keep voting it number 1 year after year after year.
I love the Hall of Fame. I know its all the same classics but it's the Easter weekend and it's great to relax to.
Late Faure is on a completely different planet let alone level to the Requiem. At times he is really on the ragged edge of conventional harmony, it’s wild.
Yes. Faure is wonderful in his late music.
Part of the problem of ClassicFM list is ClassicFM themselves as they only play "safe" music (which is not to say some of the works on this list are not masterpieces...because they are!) but they don't experiment much with their playlists. For Holst Planets (the fading is Nepture, not Mercury) they only ever seem to play Mars or Jupiter. To those of us who know far more pieces than ClassicFM play, there are composers works much greater. Yes Vaughan Williams/Sibelius' symphonies are wonderful and much more interesting than Lark Ascending/Finlandia. Really enjoyed your comments, piano playing...and even some of the singing :)
For Debussy they only play 'Claire de Lune' or 'La fille aux cheveux de lin' - occasionally 'En bateau'.
2:55 was so funny and relatable as a reaction
Go watch The Mission right now! It's a great movie about human dignity in which music itself plays a part in demonstrating the inherent worth of every human. This simple truth disqualified the racial theories promoted by the colonial governments in South America, interested in exploiting the natives, that were instead defended by the Jesuits.
Classical music divides into two periods - before Beethoven, and after Beethoven!
In a way yes, but you can also divide it into before Schoenberg and after Schoenberg.
A Classic FM listener of my aquaintance once asked me who my favourite composer is. Joseph Haydn I replied ... 'Who ? Never heard of 'im' ... and that's all you need to know.
I do think that Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto is indeed the greatest of all four, musically much more profound than his Third, which I think is overplayed.
His third piano concerto is musically FAR superior, its just not as beautiful as his second. It's an incredibly complicated composition that puts off many listeners, including seasoned classical music fans. When I first dived in to rachmaninoff's work, his 2nd PC was my favourite and I saw his 3rd as being a bit messy. It took me some time to recognise the genius of the piece.
Rach 2 is very good but it consistently gets the votes it does because of the dreamlike magical beauty and mournful romanticism of the adagio sostenuto. Which after all is a common feature in much of rachmaninoff's work.
@Zurvan101
You are, of course, entitled to your opinions.
Yes, the taste of people, and their insight... As you said: Tchaikowsky Pathétique! Sibelius 4th symphony! Beethoven Quartet c sharp minor! But any of the mentioned pieces are of simpler and more on the surface rather than the real "best pieces". I find such a selection a bit frustrating. But it reflects the choice of mainstream concerts.
I'm pretty sure Schindler's List theme was played by Perlman.
The Vaughan Williams 5+6 have it all… the scherzo in the 6th, astonishing - Wayne Shorter’s favourite piece of music apparently. Actually I hear a lot of Vaughan Williams in Wayne. His favourite composer.
The 6th Symphony is wonderful and the moment at the end of the first movement when the great tune emerges is one of my favourite moments of all! I didn't know Wayne Shorter was a fan.
As a Canadian...although of British origins...I can see that this list is (perhaps predictably) very anglocentric. Never did get the enthusiasm for Elgar(my bad!) although I love Vaughan-Williams. Chacun a son gout, I suppose! BTW Since I've lapsed into French...where did the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique place? It would certainly be safely tucked into my top ten.
Berlioz would certainly be in my top 10 I think. I don't think he made the Classic FM list however.
Isn't it telling that so many are "not his best piece, listen to his chamber music", but hardly anyone really wants to listen to all that chamber music... It's much more fun to play than to listen to, frankly, and it was written as exactly that...
Yes. This is obviously a list for people who don't know classical music.
Did anybody here know Ron Grainer? Dr. Who and The Omega Man composer?
Tales Of The Unexpected too
Grainger composed the Dr Who theme, but Delia Derbyshire turned into a masterpiece!
Best thing about this is I can tell 100 percent there’s no British bias. Yes Elgar and RVW are great but Elgar’s cello concerto is far from his best work and you’re not being a very good advocate of Vaughan Williams by parading about lark and Tallis over and over again and ignoring the symphonies and many of his other great works.
"you’re not being a very good advocate" - I presume you mean the Classic FM poll...since I make this exact point in the video!
@@themusicprofessor yes, perhaps I should have said “one is not”
Elgar’s Serenade and Introduction and Allegro are two of my favourites. The opening viola figure alone in the Serenade is better than any of the film scores listed.
Grieg's E minor Piano Sonata is a good, if not overly ambitious, work. Gould's copy of the Sonata must have omitted the poco in the Alla Menuetto ma poco lento...or substituted poco with molto. Either way, he injects it with some gravitas.
Anyone else tried to scroll down that list when it appears?
Lark Ascending: overplayed warhorse! Let's hear the Sea Symphony a lot more!
I tend to agree. The Sea Symphony is underloved.
My no 1 stays forever: Ravel Adagio Assai 😢
What a discovery!!!you are a genius. Thank you so much for your great knowledge. Than you!!!!
Thank you!
I'm never not in the mood for at least some part of Beethoven 9 (right now, the 3rd movement). Can't wait to hear it live later this month conducted by Manfred Honeck! Also, its 200th anniversary is coming up.
Elgar actually cyphers the first nine or ten notes of the slow movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata in Nimrod. Forget the original key and time signature, and just concentrate on the Beethoven tune itself.
I am all the more convinced of my impression that it is simply impossible to try and name the best classical pieces ever written.
Absolutely. There's so much incredible classical music and every fan has their own subjective opinion on the matter, myself included. Although there is definitely such a thing as good and bad musical compositions, the best is always going to be a personal opinion and nothing more.
Such a list is fun but its nothing more than a popular opinion poll.
@@Zurvan101 Exactly. Even good and bad are subjective. Like Mozart's A Musical Joke for example, someone in the 1700s might think "That's bad" because of how it's a satirical piece parodying what an incompetent composer of the time might have produced, whereas I in the 21st century think that it's just as good as any other Mozart piece. Indeed one of my favorite moments in the whole piece is the moment where the opening motif of the fourth movement breaks down into just quarter notes call and response and then half notes and then tied half notes, all at piano, and then immediately afterwards, the momentum is back at forte.
This motivic breakdown into quiet long notes in call and response followed by a loud reignition of the momentum is something Beethoven would do about 20 years later in perhaps the most well known symphony of all time, the Fifth Symphony.
But yeah, that just goes to show how different people of different tastes can say opposite things about the piece.
You have to take these lists on their own terms. It’s no use complaining that listeners to a popular classical station prefer The Lark Ascending to The Art of Fugue or the late Beethoven string quartets. Once you allow for that, it’s impressive how good some of the music choices are.
Yes - I've nothing against popular taste at all but I think the network is inclined to feed its audience quite a bland diet.
Sorry, really silly list. Some pieces wouldn't have been on my top 500. I more reflects what the general public might think than someone attuned to musical content. I'd rank beethovens fourth concerto well ahead of no.5, but perhaps half a dozen of mozart's ahead of no. 4. No, I am not a mozart bigot. They are really that good. Brahms understood that. Where is brahms, anyway?
I think somewhere in this I make a case for the Mozart concertos...
@themusicprofessor yes you did. They are all good from 9 onward but 9 plus 13 to 27 are extraordinary. This was a popularity contest. Otherwise nos. 24 and 25 would have been high in the rankings. So would some haydn quartets.
It's a shame how many classic pieces weren't on that list because it was loaded with all of the film scores. Throw all of those out and give me more Schubert, Mendelssohn, Bach, Biber, Wagner, etc. I would even accept Alma Deutscher over some of the stuff that is on there.
It is because of such point of view there is a lack of understanding for modern classical music. I would prefer to see more film scores, as it represents modern-day writing - at least in some way. And as a composer I am quite happy to see such vast variety in the ClassicFM top pieces list. Although I strongly disagree with the order, as such order indicates poor level of education and unwilling to get to know new music.
I don't see why film scores shouldn't be in the list, considering that a lot of music written for films is excellent. Your comment is only stupid musical racism, as if the quality of a piece of music was determined by the category.
It's a good thing for me that contemproary classical music is valued by Classic FM. It's not that we have to listen only to the old stuff for the next 1'000 years.
In any case when it comes to movies Bernard Hermann is better.
Beethovens 5th piano concerto 2nd movement is one of my favourites. I have many more, We are all individuals as Monty Python sort of said so what appeals to one may well be a ho hum to the next. I hate to say it but maybe ring tone downloads for phones could be a good measure of the fan base. I’m cringing as I say that. Love your channel and I’m so glad I found you, ❤️🌈🦘cheers from rural Australia.
Addit or PS
I live in a very bucolic farming, dairy cattle, sugar cane growing area and to have a fellow who was camping in a field in the adjacent paddock to my house with no electricity, running water, cooking facilities or creature comforts to tell me hearing me play the piano late at night was the high light of his life brought home to me how powerful music can be and it doesn’t have to be the worlds most popular tune to touch some one who has never heard live music before and takes the time out to tell you how your playing made him feel. Thanks for your great channel. 🌈🦘
Thank you so much! That's wonderful, and somehow inspiring to know that the channel is being listened to in rural Australia. BTW - Percy Grainger (born near Melbourne) is one of my favourite composers. I've just played his 'Blithe Bells' in a concert (You can hear Grainger playing it here: th-cam.com/video/4fUzlbigOkQ/w-d-xo.html)
@@themusicprofessor yes, I’m a fan of Percy Granger. In fact I was playing Country Gardens just yesterday. The copy I have has the words Violently Wrenched written as an instruction on how to play the arpeggiated chords in the left hand. I’ve always thought what an interesting instruction. Quite different from cantabile or what ever. All the best to you and your dog. I’ve a rescue dog who is nearly 18 and he likes to sit under the piano when I practise.
"Violently wrenched" is fairly typical. He had an eccentric preference for Australian/english terms in preference to Italian ones. But he was such a wonderful original in every way, and his folksong arrangements are completely masterful.
@@themusicprofessor thanks for the info, yes, he uses English. I’ve noticed a lot of American composers who write for students today also use English terms. Call me old fashioned but I like the Italian or French terms as I’ve grown up with them and I think it’s sad that when things get damped down. They also call a crochet a quarter note etc. Learn both terms other wise there is going to be a lot of music you’re not going to understand. Those who think theory and scales etc are a waste of time will never be good sight readers or have a good understanding of how a piece is put together. Just my opinion, I’m sure there will be many who disagree. My dad (now 95) has an AmusA on the piano and an LTCL on the pipe organ and technical work was drummed into me from the very beginning.
I like Italian terms too. But I respect Grainger's weird English expression markings because they're so expressive and interesting
Best composition of all time ?
Shorten bread - soruce - brian Wilson.
Jokes aside good video!
I'll speak up for Adagio for Strings. It is better in its original setting as the second movement of a string quartet. The larger orchestral arrangement just amps up the schmaltz too much, but it is very effective when it is in the more restrained setting of a quartet.
Yes,the quartet is great. My favourite Barber is his violin concerto.
Barber’s three Essays and two Symphonies are infinitely better.
Beethoven 9 isn’t my absolute favorite, but it’s very close. My Beethoven symphony ranking list is:
1. Fifth
2. Ninth
3. Third
4. Sixth
5. Seventh
6. Eighth
7. Fourth
8. Second
9. First
Reason for the First Symphony being at the bottom? It just doesn’t really sound much like Beethoven to me, not until the finale that is. It’s a good piece, definitely as good as a Mozart or Haydn symphony, but the relative lack of drama and other things characteristic of a lot of Beethoven’s other works, even his other early period works, is why it’s at the bottom of my list.
Fans of Beethoven symphonies tend to either prefer the odd or even-numbered symphonies. You're in the odd-numbered crowd!
My current favorites are Debussy's _Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun_ and Mahler's _Adagietto_ from Symphony No. 5.
Edit at 15:30 you mention Holst's _The Planets,_ and you mention that Mercury is the final piece with the offstage choir, but that's actually the "Neptune, The Mystic" section.
Ah yes - of course. My mistake.
The Grieg A minor is a decent reboot of the Schumann A minor.
Yes. I love the Grieg but I love Schumann's even more.
As I understand it, Classic fm plays music that people know and know they will like, and is for listening while doing other things (hence, much more dynamic range compression than Radio 3, for listening in the car). Don't knock it. Some fine pieces (especially in the 18th century) existed as background music, more or less. But it means that a listeners' poll of Classic fm is not going to foreground _interesting_ pieces. And I was driving along, listening to the local classical music station, and on came a piece I didn't recognise (that's a large field); I was pleased, and tried to locate it, and got it to something like English early c. 20th Arts and Crafts, and lo and behold, the back announcement revealed it was Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, and I resolved to overcome my block about him. And, BTW, 1812 ain't great, but it's better than Wellington's Victory.
So now I'm persuaded to give Rachmaninoff a proper try, even though I am averse to the bombast of a modern Main Battle Steinway.
Of course you're right that the station exists for those reasons, and it's certainly a good thing when people get drawn into new and exciting areas of music that they didn't know before. The downside with any platform is when it becomes uncritical in upholding its own set of values, and I guess my (not at all serious) video is just attempting to gently interrogate those values. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that, as an indicator of musical quality, the Classic FM Hall of Fame seems problematic.
@@themusicprofessor Oh, absolutely, and the mild acerbity of my comments was not at all directed at you, but at some other commenters who seemed more dismissive of the poll, or its contributors. I was actually struck by your openness to film music; if ballet music, why not film music, indeed -- but then, I have some hesitations about ballet music. So I should have made it more clear just who I was responding to. You're one of the people who persuade me that I could actually *understand* music, if I were to have another life to start over again.
BTW, what strikes me about this poll is that the modern music is all music-as-accompaniment, and not the sort of music that interests my younger hip friends, like Steve Reich or Terry Riley (which is hardly inaccessible).
P.S. speaking of film music, I wonder why no Prokoviev? He was quite the darling of my contemporaries, long ago, and Lieutenant Kije and The Love of Three Oranges are a tonne of fun, not to mention Romeo and Juliet.
For someone, with a PhD thesis to write, these polls will be invaluable primary sources for a study of popular taste in classical music (what Gareth Farr, a New Zealand composer, describes as "unpopular music." BTW, if you don't know the work of Gareth Farr, I don't think you really need to catch up.)
Well I don't think there's much argument about Prokofiev: the creator of some of the most astonishing music of the 20th century, and his film (Alexander Nevsky, for example) are all marvellous.
I really only came to classical music in my late 20s - there’s definitely a syndrome of a large number of people listening to particular movements of symphonies/concertos (because that’s what’s played on stations like Classic FM) and not to the entirety of the works. I can occasionally get into that “groove” myself - it’s definitely not going to deepen one’s knowledge - or increase one’s appreciation - of the huge amount of extremely inspired music from over the centuries. One heartening thing though from this list is that Ravel’s “Bolero” doesn’t feature (perfectly fine piece though it is) - there was at time - perhaps 20 to 25 years ago - when the “average punter” seemed to “plonk for” that piece when asked to name a piece of classical music they liked !
I love Bolero (and everything by Ravel!) I suspect it was popular in the 1980s because of Torville and Dean.
🍿 been waiting for the rest of the list. Lets do it. Sibelius Violin Concerto is far far superior to Finlandia. Knoxville Summer of 1915 is one of favs. Leontyne Price is my favorite recording
Rach 2 is number 1? I guess i am surprised and not. I do love it, but I am not sure I would select it as the greatest. I don't have a different work in mind though. I am surprised Mahler was so high (or is it low?)