 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
A work colleague always has classic fm on in the background in the office. I am starting to quite enjoy it. A lot of the content is from film scores, particularly John Williams. Any recommendation for a novice looking to dip a toe in the water? I like the big orchestra sound, not so keen on the harpsicord stuff.
I really like Nicola Benedetti, seen her a few times and her choice of music is varied and interesting
Shostakovich
and you can never go wrong witha bit of Wolfie
last.fm is your friend here.
If you have library membership you can probably sign in free to the Naxos music library. Very lots of music to check out and download, and you can search by keywords rather than composer name / piece title.
Buy some compilation CDs, usually available for not very much from charity shops, then listen and see what interests you.
Buy a couple of the Classic FM compilations (relatively cheap) and figure out what you like. Last time I looked they had some film score ones (I always listen to their Saturday Night at the Movies show).
EDIT: Crikey, beaten to it by, err, crikey.
vaughan williams, fantasia on a theme of thomas tallis, holtz the planets for starters, you'll recognise them straightaway
You'll get myriad answers to this. For example, someone above suggested Rachmaninov, but frankly I find most of his music is plinky plonky piano showboating(!)
Little bits to get you going (bigger orchestra sound, but varied):
Overture from Tannhauser by Wagner
The Egmont Overture by Beethoven
Ode to Joy from Beethovens 9th symphony
Night on bare mountain by Mussorgsky
Waltz of the Roses from the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky
Jupiter from the Planets by Holst
If you want to listen to a symphony (more use of the whole orchestra all the way through), my favourite is Beethoven's 6th symphony (the pastoral). Forty minutes of genius!
Debussy has done some wonderful stuff, which is not difficult to get into. There are some good playlists of his work on Spotify (although I struggled to find them last time I was looking).
You might recognise these from TV/Film/Adverts - favourites on Classic FM
Big orchestra:
Awesome pianist:
In short, stick anything from any post above into youtube or last.fm, listen and like or not, follow the links or try something else - there's a lot of it
Mahler is a joy to listen to:
Radio 3 right now, with Sir Neville Marriner. He's a dude!
Nothing wrong with Rachmaninov, and not all of it involves pianos. One of my favourite Rachmaninov discs is [i]Isles of the Dead/Symphonic Dances[/i], very dramatic, with some really beautiful saxophone in.
Holst - The Planets is a good starter for 10.
As is Greig's piano concerto.
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition.
And once you get into it, Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 and No. 7 are immense.
I like a bit of Prokofiev. My snobby father in law reckons its not classical music for some reason but I reckon if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck
Thanks for the recommendations. Bought a couple of compilation cd's. Not been through them all yet, however liking Mozart and Holst.
Trying to find one piece of music. Quite dark and foreboding. Similar feel to Mars by Holst, but can only remember a few notes. I have heard it used a couple of times on the History Channel when programmes about the Nazi's are on. Get a feeling it nay be Wagner but not sure.
Check out 'The Concert' podcast.