Hey, I was having a good time until your tone got ugly. So I only study classical music in order to impress people at cocktail parties? That'll get me a date real quick. Do you know what pretentious actually means? The word gets thrown around a lot, like Kafkaesque. Call me an asshole if you must...but not a hypocrite!

Yes, Haydn invented what we think of today as the Classical Symphony. He also invented the string quartet, taught W. A. Mozart the art of composition, and even gave Beethoven a few lessons. He did place below Shosty on one of the smaller lists at the bottom. That's just stupid.

There were "symphonies" before Haydn...form-wise, they were not the same thing. Don't let the name confuse you. Haydn set the precedent for all future symphonists.

The terms Fugue and Sonata have also evolved in similar ways. Volumes have been written on this stuff...and no, I haven't read enough about it.

I made my point and I don't want to insult you personally (I know I'm a snob, but I don't consider that a pejorative word. A serious film student shouldn't be cursed for not liking Shrek. I wouldn't argue with a physicist about quantum mechanics and call him a "snob" because I didn't like his answers).

If you have a public or university library nearby with a decent CD collection, just check out EVERYTHING. It's the best thing to do.

Sorry, but I think following that list is a bad idea. Not that I know everything, but I've been listening to this stuff for years. I'm familiar with all of the composer's on your list to some degree or another.

Either way, you'll find some nice stuff.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I am really busy and was typing in a hurry. I meant both of Richter's versions of this piece. I agree he is normally an excellent piano player. But both the EMI or the earlier DG of Schumann's piece is not to my liking. On the DG he performs with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, with I believe Witold Rowicki conducting.


After Kovacevich, I would suggest Lars Vogt with Simon Rattle and Perahia also with Sir Colin Davis.

It's okay. I'm hardly able to make a coherent sentence myself today.

Thanks for the recommendations. Perahia is God.

I really haven't spent a lot of time with this piece yet. It's inevitable, though. I have the Richter and Pollini recordings.

PTL, I would like to help but you're going to have to meet me half way.

I just don't have the time to give you 80 composition titles for all those composers combined. Find the pieces you are interested in. I will than give you recommendations of those recordings that are the best for each composition you want. Depending on my schedule it might take one post, a couple of days or a week. That's the best I can do at this time.

The Vogt is on EMI and the Perahia is on Sony.

They only have three Kovacevich recordings at my Library (which I'll check out next week).

It's a start:

Brahms, Johannes
The late piano music
442 589-2 Philips
Performers:
Stephen Kovacevich
Dinorah Varsi
Adam Harasiewicz

Brahms, Johannes
Scherzos, piano. op. 4., Eb minor
411 103-2 (CD) Philips

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827.
Piano concerto no. 5 in E flat, op. 73
Sonata no. 30 in E, op. 109
422 482-2 Philips

The first two are not essential by Kovacevich.

If the Beethoven is the one with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra than you have hit the mother load for the PC 5. It in my opinion is the best version of the PC 5. The PS 30 is also very good. They have been reissued on a import label called Virtuoso.

That's the one!

Okay...I'll borrow that one and get some Perahia, too. Hey, they have the Vogt/Rattle/Schumann recording! My lucky day.

Thanks again!

Satchmo, I must have underestimated the length of time it takes to come up with ten essential works from various composers. On the film message boards I used to visit, it generally took one no longer than two minutes to whip out ten worthwhile films from directors like Fritz Lang or Yasujiro Ozu, prolific as they were. The oeuvres of classical composers are no doubt immensely larger and more diverse, which I guess would make this more of a challenge.

I'd go with your idea, but I don't know what pieces I'm supposed to be exploring from these composers in the first place. A couple suggestions would be helpful, and recommended recordings would be really great. Don't worry yourself about getting ten; 1-3 is perfectly fine, as I mentioned earlier.

My dear if you had a simple question like films I could have given you 20 films from a great many directors. Without event thinking about it. That's easy. Classical music is a lot different. Remembering all the different film titles is easy. Remebering what I think is the top compositions by 8 different composers some of which have a great many to choose from is another story. As you can see


There are symphonies, piano concertos, piano sonatas, and a good many other variations on instrumentations like string quintet or quartet, cellos, organ, etc....


Some excellent Classical Music sites


http://www.classicalarchives.com/

http://www.classical.net/

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/classmus.html

http://www.karadar.com/Default.htm



http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/music/index2.htm





Here is the gramophone forum link. All they talk about is classical music.


http://www.gramophone.co.uk/forum.asp