What are you listening to now?

[Peter]

It is hard to keep ones self away from something they love and treasure so dearly. So, after a couple weeks I decided to listen to a little bit of Chopin. Some of his music is easier for me to be emotionally captivated by. Therefore, I have been listening to Chopin's Nocturne in C# minor. Does anyone else feel sadness in this piece? For me it is as though the piano is crying in a gentle nature?

I have listened to several different versions of this piece on YouTube, and for now, I like this one best. It is slower than the others and for me provides more emotion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4CT6ZI0XY

Yes very beautiful and as with much of Chopin imbued with melancholy - I prefer the Claudio Arrau recording - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEyEw...eature=related

Last night I watched the 200th anniversary concert from Warsaw of Chopin's birth featuring the 2 piano concertos and some nocturnes. The highlight for me was the first concerto played on an 1849 Erard piano.

[Chris]

I have always loved Ashkenazy's Chopin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5qeuVOIbHk

[Hacko]

I started learning the piano 2 months ago ... so I am learning and listening to "easy" pieces. Currently a Bach Polonaise in g minor ... its SOOO difficult

[Sorrano]

This morning it was the 3rd movement of Beethoven's G Major Piano Concerto. (Eat your liver out, Prometheus!)

[Megan]

On a cold winter's morning, the aroma of coffee and lively music to keep you warm by

A waltz from Chopin, No. 8.

Vivaldi Concerto no 10, La Caccia, (The Hunt).

Schubert symphony no. 3

[Peter]

I started learning the piano 2 months ago ... so I am learning and listening to "easy" pieces. Currently a Bach Polonaise in g minor ... its SOOO difficult

It is too difficult after only 2 months and perhaps you should try something easier?

[terry]

Tchaikovsky's 2nd piano concerto - am I alone in preferring it to the 1st?

I love Tchaikovsy, everything.. The 2nd is cool and the fifth symphony amazing! so full of rhytm, fire, and different melodies!

[Michael]

Listening to all the Beethoven "middle" quartets played by the Italianos. Stricktly speaking, Opus 95 - "the bitter fruit of a barren year" - should be described as the first "late" quartet. However, that's just cataloguing (if there is such a verb). If Beethoven had written nothing else but these five works, he would still be streets ahead of all other composers. (Instead of continents, as he now is).
My grammar (and speling) suffer when I've had a few drinks and I'm always aware that Philip may pounce! I just hope he can see past my crude verbalisations to the exaltation of my soul (or, if you are an atheist, my superior consciousness) in the presence of the great B.

[Megan]

Washing up to Mozart's piano concerto no. 13

[Sorrano]

Washing up to Mozart's piano concerto no. 13

I've been listening to the complete Mozart Piano Concerti and I quite like them--much better than his symphonies.

[Megan]

I was listening to classical radio 3 today and a piece composed by the minimalist Steve Reich , called, 'Drummer' assailed my ears, this is what I would describe as bucket and spade music. As it sounds like someone rattling a spade round a bucket, the rhythm increased like some spasm, or frenzy, lasting a good half hour, I thought something medical was going to happen, then to break the monotony, the sound transformed into chimes, continuing the same rhythm, which i thought by now was inside my head, or it was the Avon Lady calling...........but no, it was Mr. Reich. The duration of this piece lasted an hour, right up to the 1:00 news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USRGNr17Jm4




.

[Michael]

I was listening to classical radio 3 today and a piece composed by the minimalist Steve Reich , called, 'Drummer' assailed my ears, this is what I would describe as bucket and spade music. As it sounds like someone rattling a spade round a bucket, the rhythm increased like some spasm, or frenzy, lasting a good half hour, I thought something medical was going to happen, then to break the monotony, the sound transformed into chimes, continuing the same rhythm, which i thought by now was inside my head, or it was the Avon Lady calling...........but no, it was Mr. Reich. The duration of this piece lasted an hour, right up to the 1:00 news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USRGNr17Jm4




.

Thanks so much for that, Megan. I managed to listen to about 45 seconds before I began wondering if it was the Third Reich. Ouch.

[Preston]

Listened to Mozart's Piano Concerto 24 for the first time last night.

[Preston]

Yes very beautiful and as with much of Chopin imbued with melancholy - I prefer the Claudio Arrau recording - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEyEw...eature=related

Last night I watched the 200th anniversary concert from Warsaw of Chopin's birth featuring the 2 piano concertos and some nocturnes. The highlight for me was the first concerto played on an 1849 Erard piano.

I have always loved Ashkenazy's Chopin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5qeuVOIbHk

Thanks for the advice Peter and Chris.

Peter, the Arrau recording, to my ears, does seem to have a lot of emotion in it and at a good speed too, .

[Megan]

Listening to a composer whom I haven't heard before, or haven't been aware of and really grew to like is Cesar Franck.
Two peices I listened to by him was his Piano Quintet, F Minor, and
Sonata for violin and paino. Both of these wonderful peices , I found, is etched in deep groves of exposed emotion.