So You're Completely New To Classical Music . Where Do You Start ?
If Classical music is something completely new to you , and you don't know Beethoven from a baseball , where do you start ? Good question . I suppose the best way is simply to start listening to recordings of the most famous works by the most famous composers , and then go on to listen to more and more classical works , and just get accustomed to listening to this kind of music .
Also , get a really good book for Classical newbies such as Classical Music 101 by Fred Plotkin , which you can easily get at Amazon.com or other similar websites . Or "What To Listen For In Music " by the great American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990) ,also easily available on the internet . This gives you technical information about classical music in a wonderfully clear and down to earth manner .
Listening to classical music is a completely different experience from the kind of music you know. it's not just meant to be for casual listening , and it tends to be much more complex than popular music . Also, if you're accustomed to Rock music or pop , you'll be listening to a lot of music which is purely instrumental , such as orchestral and chamber music , although vocal music is a very important part of classical .
And there are many degrees of complexity in it . Mozart and Haydn from the 18th century are much less complex than much music from the 20th century or even the 19th . So it might be a goood idea to start with music from the 18th century by composers such as Bach , Handel, Vivaldi , Haydn and Mozart , and then proceed to Beethoven and later composers .
For example , you might start with Handel's "Water Music ", the stately suite of music written by this German-born, London based composer who lived from 1685 to 1759 . It's called water music , because the composer wrote ceremonial music for a trip on a Royal barge for the English monarch .
Then you might listen to Handel's famous Oratoirio "Messiah", a great work for orchestra, chorus and vocal soloists taken from the Bible dealing with the birth and crucifiction of Christ . You might then try the six "Brandenburg Concertos " of Handel's great contemporary Bach , who wrote these wonderfully melodious and vivacious instrumental works for a German aristocrat .
Next try Bach's famous "Goldberg Variations", which can be played on either harpsichord or piano , and the four suites for orchestra . For Vivaldi , try the famous and ubiquitous "Four Seasons", four concertos for violin and string orchestra , each depicting a different season, and any of his many concertos for violin , cello and other instruments .
Try Mozart's symphonies 39, 40 and 41 , and some of his many piano concertos , such as nos 20-27 , and his five violin concertos . For Joseph Haydn , some of his best known symphonies , such as nos 88, 94 , and 104 . Or Mozart's four horn concertos .
Then you might go on to Beethoven's nine symphonies , his five piano concertos, his one for violin , and some of hisd 32 sonatas for piano . Then symphonies 5,8 and 9 by Franz Schubert , the four of Robert Schumann , nos 3 and 4 by Felix Mendelssohn , the four of Johannes Brahms , nos 7,8 and 9 of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak , the one symphony by Belgian composer Cesar Franck , no 3 by Frenchman Camille Saint-Saens, and nos 4,5 and 6 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky .
Now you're into the 19th century . For more piano concertos , try those by Schumann , Norwegian Edvard Grieg , Tchaikovsky , Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninov , a Russian who lived from 1873 - 1943 . For violin concertos , the ones by Mendelssohn , Brahms, Tchaikovsky , and Beethoven .
For miscellaneous orchestral works , such as tone poems , which tell a story or describe things in nature etc , try Romeo &Juliet by Tchaikovsky , the middle eastern flavored suite Scheherezade by Nikolai Rimsky -Korsakov , The Planets by English composer Gustav Holst , La Mer(The Sea) by Frenchman Claude Debussy , and by Ravel, another French composer , Bolero , Daphis and Chloe suite no 2 , La Valse , and Rhapsodie Espagnole .
The Moldau , by 19th century Czech composer Bedrich Smetana , describes the course of a river which runs through what is now called the Czech republic ; by German composer Richard Strauss (1964-1949 ), the tone poems Till Eulenspiegel , Don Juan , Also Sprach Zarathustra (made famous by Kubrick's classical sci-fi film 2001 ), Don Quixote and Ein Heldenleben (A hero's life). Or by his great Finnish contemporary Jean Sibelius : Finlandia , En Saga, The Swan of Tuonela, and Tapiola .
These are just some basic famous works to try . There's so much to explore by these and other great composers . And when you start , listen carefully . Concentrate on the music . And if you don't seem to connect with a piece at first, give it repeated hearings , and it should start to make more sense to you . As I said , classical music is not for casual listening . But if you take the time and effort to get accustomed to it , classical music will provide you with a lifetime of pleasure and excitement .