Thread: Hi

Hi

My name is Daniel, Im a 21 year old History Student currently in my final year at Durham University here in England.

Thats the formalities out of the way....


Basically, Im looking for a good classical music forum to chat about my passion for music. Music wise Im open to anything....Opera and Vocal is my favourite genre. Im a real Opera buff and am watching, listening or attending performances constantly and simply cant get enough of it. As you will find out Im obsessed with Carmen and alongside La Boheme those two are my clear favourites. But as I said, any style of classical music Ill give a try and usually like and some people find it odd my favourite Beethoven symphony is the 2nd

Look forward to chatting to you and getting to know you all

Daniel

Hello Daniel

I'm interested mainly in Beethoven to Brahms, and most in between, preferably piano works. There is at least one other member with similar tastes, so we should be able to give you a run for your money if you want to discuss this area in more detail.

I note you prefer Beethoven S2. As you will see, there was a vote on the ranking of Beethoven symphonies here. You won't be surprised to find S2 was the least popular. Even though I love Beethoven more than any other composer, I can't pretend I find S2 one of my real favourites. Why this one for you? Which others do you like? What other Beethoven material do you like? Are you into any of his chamber music?

Are you interested in solo piano? You'll see a couple of "top 20" threads here too.

You say you like Opera. Do you like any Wagner?

You also mentioned Choral. That's a big area. Can you say what you've mainly heard and what kind of stuff you really like.

It's probably best if you choose a topic. I would suggest orchestral, as I'm not sure there are that many opera fans here. Perhaps choose an area you'd like to explore a bit more.


Topaz

Hello there Daniel and welcome. I'm with Topaz in the interest department: I prefer solo piano works. But I also have an affinity for early 19th century opera. I can't say that I'm a big Puccini or Strauss fan. I actually like the underrated obscure opera composers like Bellini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Rossini, and Weber. Verdi and Wagner are the exceptions. It's strange how I came to like these guys, it was through the 19th century piano virtuoso fantasies on operatic themes. Liszt, Herz, Moscheles, Thalberg, Pixis, Kalkbrenner, and even Czerny all wrote phenomenal piano transcriptions, paraphrases or fantasies on operatic themes. Liszt was the most outstanding and arguably the greatest fantasy composer of them all. Anyway, I became exposed to a lot of opera material through these piano transcriptions/fantasies and then moved on to the real thing because of them.

It's hard to pick a favorite opera since I haven't explored broadly, but if I were to go by period, here's what stands as my favorite:

Baroque: Handel's "Xerxes," and "Julius Caesar"
Classical: Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni" and Beethoven's "Fidelio"
Romantic: Weber's "Der Freischutz," Bellini's "Norma," Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable," Verdi's "Il Trovatore," and Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"

Thanks for the kind welcome....Ill just do the easy thing and respond with some quotes!

I'm interested mainly in Beethoven to Brahms, and most in between, preferably piano works. There is at least one other member with similar tastes, so we should be able to give you a run for your money if you want to discuss this area in more detail.

I do have a habit of enthusing too much over Beethoven so if I get carried away please feel free to whack me with a hard object. As for "more detail", I have no musical education and a real lack of technical knowledge etc but have been learning myslef and at 21 Im happy with my knowledge and range of listening.

I note you prefer Beethoven S2. As you will see, there was a vote on the ranking of Beethoven symphonies here. You won't be surprised to find S2 was the least popular. Even though I love Beethoven more than any other composer, I can't pretend I find S2 one of my real favourites. Why this one for you? Which others do you like? What other Beethoven material do you like? Are you into any of his chamber music?

Wow....I could go on forever in response to this but if I had to select one or two pieces Id go for the Choral Fantasy and Violin Romances.

This incidentally is my favourite Cd in my collection.....




As for the 2nd Symphony, as I said above I cant go into any techincal depth etc, but simply listening to this has a greater effect on me than any other of his symphonies. There is just something indescribable about the way it connects with me and I just adore the melodies and simplicity.

Are you interested in solo piano? You'll see a couple of "top 20" threads here too.

Oh good...I love a good list

You say you like Opera. Do you like any Wagner?

Ive only been seriously into Opera for 2 years and I dont know the Wagner Oepras as well as I should be having seen them a few times in person, owning a few cd's and DVds of them, I am still on the fence as to whether I just like them or adore them.

Hexamaron...Cracking list of operas there. I do like solo piano music but its not an area Im really exploring yet.


Just as a side note I also have a deep passion for William Alwyn and Dvorak


.

Yes, I love the Requiem and have about 7 recordings of it.

As for Rossini, Barber of Seville is in my top 3 easily and I would recomend all of Mozarts operas