The Classical Music thread

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Originally Posted by Caversham Green

True, opera just doesn't work as well when they all live happily ever after.

The very start of La Traviata did it for me - the slightly melancholy overture followed by the curtain going up to a colourful party scene and Brindisi. A mate told me that last night's performance was a minimalist setting so I didn't tune in as I felt it wouldn't be the same - ok if it was live, but minimalist and onscreen just didn't really appeal. If anyone did watch it, was it any good?

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Been to Verona with my wife a number of times for the outdoor opera. It’s a fantastic setting in the Arena de Verona.
Not expensive to attend and highly recommended .
They usually run a summer season with three main shows repeating so if you go for a couple of days you can catch two or three operas.
La Traviata was the first Opera I saw there. Amazing and made better when I discovered that what I thought was an ice cream seller at the interval had bottles of wine🍷

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Originally Posted by HibbyDave

Been to Verona with my wife a number of times for the outdoor opera. It’s a fantastic setting in the Arena de Verona.
Not expensive to attend and highly recommended .
They usually run a summer season with three main shows repeating so if you go for a couple of days you can catch two or three operas.
La Traviata was the first Opera I saw there. Amazing and made better when I discovered that what I thought was an ice cream seller at the interval had bottles of wine🍷

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Cant recall if I posted this already but Mrs Mibbes and I went to Verona to see Aida. It was a warm, balmy night and it was simply spectacular. The kind of thing that even if you didn’t have any knowledge or taste for opera, you couldn’t fail to be blown away by. I would recommend it for anyone’s bucket list. It is almost impossible to describe the setting, it is simply magnificent but also weather-dependent :greengrin

It was a short break and we had a couple of days in Venice. But French air traffic control had a systems glitch and loads of flights got postponed if they were crossing over French airspace. We got three additional days in Venice, comped by the insurance. It sounds great but boringly, we just wanted to get home!

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Originally Posted by Mibbes Aye

Cant recall if I posted this already but Mrs Mibbes and I went to Verona to see Aida. It was a warm, balmy night and it was simply spectacular. The kind of thing that even if you didn’t have any knowledge or taste for opera, you couldn’t fail to be blown away by. I would recommend it for anyone’s bucket list. It is almost impossible to describe the setting, it is simply magnificent but also weather-dependent :greengrin

It was a short break and we had a couple of days in Venice. But French air traffic control had a systems glitch and loads of flights got postponed if they were crossing over French airspace. We got three additional days in Venice, comped by the insurance. It sounds great but boringly, we just wanted to get home!

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The arena in Verona is stunning. I was in Verona just before Christmas and Covid 19. I was amazed that a small choir was singing Turnbull’s Tornadoes just outside the arena.

At least that’s what it sounded like to me 😂

This house is full of music on BBC inspirational viewing

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Originally Posted by Caversham Green

Another heads up. A series about Beethoven to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth starts tomorrow at 9.00 pm on BBC4 - narrated by Peter Capaldi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsSI1V713jk

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I've watched the first two instalments now, it really is very good. If you want an insight into how Beethoven came to be the composer he was and how he changed the face of music this is essential viewing. Final part tomorrow night.

I've dug this thread back up, seeing as the Proms have got underway. Eight weeks of classical music concerts featuring the well-known, the less well-known, the rather obscure and a fair dose of the new.

All available on broadcast on BBC R3 and BBC Sounds with some making it onto BBC2 and BBC4.

As per usual, there are some worthwhile-looking attempts to bridge the perceived barriers between classical music and other forms. Earlier tonight we had the BBC Concert Orchestra adding a bit of heft to some Northern Soul sides - I didn't watch it, will get it on catch-up.

For those who like some classical music but are put off a bit by the stuffiness, the Horrible Histories lot have their own Prom next Saturday, which will be an entertaining and enjoyable listen I suspect. And for those who enjoyed the music of the likes of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and some of the award-winning music in gaming there is a concert, again on TV, but also on the BBC Sounds app, at the end of August.

And just more generally, another 70-odd concerts with something for every taste. I will be tuning in or listening back to at least a dozen, starting with the Halle Orchestra playing Shostakovich's Fifth, a week on Wednesday.

Link below for the full concert listings:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/rrbp5v/by/date/2023

Does this pass as classical music? If so, then it is my all time favourite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1fiOJDXA-E

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Originally Posted by Edina Street

Does this pass as classical music? If so, then it is my all time favourite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1fiOJDXA-E

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I’m a firm believer that if you like it, it doesn’t matter what label gets attached to it. There’s a lot of unnecessary status and snobbery around music, not just classical either.

As far as that piece goes, I would say it is a bit of fusion. There is some orchestra and an operatic soprano alongside one of the biggest pop/rock voices of the two previous decades.

In some ways it almost borders on the musical - when I listened to it there, I started thinking about “I Know Him So Well’, another eighties power duo, which is from a musical!

Good to see this thread resurrected.

Anyway, a few months back I went to a performance of The Enigma Variations, got goosebumps when the first notes of Nimrod kicked in then came back home and found this version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwdeqVmXlHk

It made me wonder - is there a more powerful instrument than a well-trained human voice?

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Originally Posted by Caversham Green

Good to see this thread resurrected.

Anyway, a few months back I went to a performance of The Enigma Variations, got goosebumps when the first notes of Nimrod kicked in then came back home and found this version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwdeqVmXlHk

It made me wonder - is there a more powerful instrument than a well-trained human voice?

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I don't think there is.

Having said that, its a happy place to be where the runners-up are pretty awesome too.

At the risk of being hackneyed, I think many people would struggle not to be swept away by this, especially hearing it the first time, and especially once they know the back stories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX1zicNRLmY

I also think a little bit of seasoning can complement the voice and raise the piece from the extraordinary to the ethereal. See here, lodging a soft, sparse trumpet and judicious organ as evidence for the prosecution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vtHBGOz_Ns

Outside the voice, the piano would be the bookies' favourite if for nothing other than the range. But I would take strings using modal scales every day - Vaughan Williams' scoring for Five Variants still takes my breath away despite having listened it forty-eight million times.

I suppose the cello is the other instrument to consider - supposedly the closest in sonority with the human voice. The apotheosis being Rostrapovich performing Shostakovich (apologies to Du Pre and Elgar!)

Been some cracking stuff at this year's Proms. Yuja Wang's Rachmaninov performance the highlight. Not classical, but the jazz night with NYO was also excellent.

Always liked this .
https://youtu.be/GXFSK0ogeg4