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Ok in (not so) popular demand but bc I love pushing the classical music agenda down y’all’s throats, here’s a thread of my favorite pieces!!
so before I get into this, I must make the distinction that classical music is just an overarching term for different genres of music classified by their time period. There’s medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century/modern.
A lot of people picture baroque and classical music as what “classical music” (as a whole) is. Most of my favorite composers are mid/late romantic composers, but as I get older I really appreciate baroque and classical music for the influence it has on modern music!!
Also I’m a cellist and Bach (who’s literally God to all musicians including cellists) wrote the most famous solo cello pieces known to man so I can’t not love him.
I also love Beethoven a lot and what’s really interesting about him was he began composing in the classical period, but his later works literally BIRTHED the romantic era. Like hes the blueprint for a lottt of modern music tbh. okay let’s get started
so first up, is the Brahms violin concerto in D major!! Brahms is one of the “3 B’s”: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. An early/mid romantics composer, he was very influenced by classical composers (IDOLIZED Beethoven) and was a master of counterpoint. https://music.apple.com/us/album/concerto-in-d-major-for-violin-orchestra-op-61-i-allegro/503127809?i=503127815
*sidenote: I’m very picky with interpretation of music bc there is SOOO much wiggle room for a musician. My go to girl is Hilary Hahn w any violin piece.
Ok wow I’m realizing I have so many so I rly gotta narrow it down. Fuck.
The next one is Mendelssohn!!!!!!!!! An Aquarius king (him and I share the same bday) he’s also a German romantic composer, and my 2 favorite pieces from him are his violin concerto in E minor and his piano trio no 1 in D minor!! https://music.apple.com/us/album/violin-concerto-in-e-minor-op-64-i-allegro-molto-appassionato/1046362897?i=1046363723 https://music.apple.com/us/album/piano-trio-no-1-in-d-minor-op-49-i-molto-allegro-e-agitato/350650543?i=350650555
Ok lemme move away from the violin works a lil bit. I also LOVEEEE solo piano pieces- waltzes, sonatas, etudes, nocturnes, etc. all around composers like Beethoven n Brahms r pretty famous for their piano works but I’m gonna shed light on composers who specialize in that more
My first favorite is Rachmaninov. Oh my god he’s easily a top 3 composer for me. He’s suspected to have marfan’s syndrome bc the pieces he wrote for piano were nearly impossible to play due to such wide span of chords (that were easy for him) .
Okay so I can pick 3 piano pieces off the top of my head from him: piano concerto no 1 in C minor (probs top 3 most famous piano concerto in difficulty) piano sonata no 1 in B flat minor, and Elégie in E flat minor.
One thing that’s also notable about Rachmaninov is that he composes in minor keys a lot. which makes a lot of his music sound somber and depressing but he counteracts that by taking advantage of the piano’s lower register and adding a lot of power to the music.
god I could devote an entire thread to Rachmaninov tbh bc that’s how influential his music is on my daily life. He was also like one of the most famous pianists in the world at the time too. And he’s a late romantic composer oops sorry forgot to mention
Another piano titan would be Chopin!! His sets of performance etudes are a standard in professional piano repertoire. My personal favorites from his etudes are no. 4 op 10, no. 9 op. 10, no. 12 op 10, no. 5 op 25, no. 10 op 25, and no 12 op. 25.
Op stands for opus number btw. It’s like a musical stamp that helps to order the music in chronological order. IE op 1 would be the first composition or at least the first composition in a catalog
Okay I should move onto cello pieces bc it would make no sense if I didn’t name pieces from my own fuckin instrument lmfao. So my first pick obviously would be the 6 cello suites by Bach because they’re essentially every cellist’s bible. Like we worship them.
The prelude to the first one is super famous, but there’s 6 suites in total and my personal favorite is either the 2nd suite or 6th suite!!
Okay and as for cello concertos, by far my personal favorite is the Elgar cello concerto. I think it’s one of the most beautiful compositions ever written and no other instrument could have pulled it off. Sorry not sorry
It was written by Edward Elgar, a British late romantic composer who wrote it in response to WW1, so it’s quite depressing but absolutely heart wrenching. I still cry to it sometimes. https://music.apple.com/us/album/cello-concerto-in-e-minor-also-arr-as-viola-concerto/158426675?i=158427626
My personal favorite interpretation of this is Jacqueline du pre’s, the most famous female cellist ever whose career was cut short by MS, but yo-yo ma’s interpretation is a close second for me imo. And his is better audio quality
Ok lemme do a chamber piece quickly. My fave quartet ever that I keep tweeting about is the Grieg quartet in G minor. If you listen to nothing else off this thread, PLEASE, just listen to 2 minutes of the first movement. It’ll blow your mind https://music.apple.com/us/album/string-quartet-in-g-minor-op-27-i-poco-andante-allegro/1452316844?i=1005911637
actually that entire album is fucking gold. Grieg is a Norwegian romantic composer; all the composers on that album are Scandinavian (I have a soft spot for them) and grieg also has a piano concerto in A minor that is beautiful and an elegiac melody that is *chefs kiss*
https://music.apple.com/us/album/2-elegiac-melodies-op-34-ii-varen-last-spring-version/510995729?i=510995930
This woman is known for being one of the most talented violinists in the world and she’s a fucking professional pianist as a side gig. God has his favorites smh
This woman is known for being one of the most talented violinists in the world and she’s a fucking professional pianist as a side gig. God has his favorites smh
