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Request from a complete newbie - dark brooding classical music recommendations

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24K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  Tapkaara  
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#1 ·
Hi everyone,

I'm sure you get plenty of requests like this and some of you may :rolleyes: at me for asking but as a complete novice on classical music please bear with me. I've always been a bit daunted by the sheer volume of classical music out there but do tend to prefer dark brooding music and in my limited experience the likes of Rachmaninov (his moodier stuff) and Myaskovsky (who I have only stumbled upon this morning). Any recommendations for similar stuff would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for your patience :)
 
#2 ·
Since you seem to like Russian music, which is often dark and brooding, isn't Shostakovich an obvious choice here? His most popular symphony is the fifth. It's very dark most of the time though it ends triumphantly.
 
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#7 ·
I like brooding, even depressing, music. I like anything that communicates effectively, even if the only thing communicated is severe depression. So my recommendations:

Tchaikovsky's 6th, 1st and last movements. The last movement in particular is a romantic attempt to render in music as literally as possible abject despair.

Walton's Viola Concerto is quite brooding. But the Cello Concerto even more so, sounding at the start as if you're lost in an ice cave.

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is one of the most hopeless pieces ever written, which was the point. A monumental work.

Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left hand is quite heady, perhaps ravel's greatest work all told.
 
#9 ·
A few of the most depressing pieces ever:

Tchaikowsky 6th symphony finale (or the whole @#$! piece for that matter)
Mahler 9th symphony - specifically the last movement
Mozart Requiem - the opening and the Lacrimosa
Brahms 4th symphony - 1st and last movements
Brahms 3rd symphony - 3rd and 4th movements
Beethoven - 3rd symphony 2nd movement
Tchaikoswky - Piano Trio
Beethoven - String quartet op. 95
Barber - Adagio for strings

These are the first that come to mind.

HD:(
 
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#11 ·
Fsharpmajor said:


If you're a real masochist try Masao Ohki's Symphony No. 5 "Hiroshima."
It's available from Naxos.
Click to expand...


I quite agree about the masochism. Oki's Hiroshima Symphony is not a great work. For a representation of the atomic bomb and the destruction it causes, I'd say it's rather tame. Plus, there is little that is memorable from the work.
 
#14 ·
I'd like to add these:

Lutoslawski - Cello Concerto; Piano Concerto
Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta (esp. 1st & 3rd movts, but the last is pretty upbeat), Divertimento for Strings (2nd movt. is very dark)
Penderecki - Most of what I've heard by him can be described as dark & brooding, but if you don't want it too challenging as someone above suggests, try to get hold of some of his works composed after the early 1980's when he turned 'Romantic'
Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time (now if this doesn't scare the **** out of you, I don't know what will...)
Bruckner - Symphony No. 9 (esp. 1st & 2nd movts.)
Varese - Deserts (this is not for the light-hearted, some very high-pitched sounds, but the perfect picture of a post-industrial apocalypse)
Haydn - Symphony No. 49 'La Passione' (the darkest Haydn symphony that I've heard)
 
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