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Classical Works you know but dont know

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...well at least many dont know that they indeed know Classical Music!

 

My favourite Classic pieces you probably heard from movies, cartoons or advertising and maybe don`t know from who it is...

 

...in no particular order...

Johann Sebastian Bach,

...in how many horror movies has this been featured? Just brilliant, 250+ years old, but how fresh and modern does it sound...

 

L

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...well at least many dont know that they indeed know Classical Music!

 

My favourite Classic pieces you probably heard from movies, cartoons or advertising and maybe don`t know from who it is...

 

Must mention the classical pieces used as themes in at least two of the Bruce Willis Die Hard movies (I love those movies).

 

The first Die Hard movie featured Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

 

The second Die Hard movie featured Sibelius' Finlandia -- with an especially stirring use of the music towards the end as the nearly out-of-fuel airplanes desperately land on the impromptu runway lit up by the blazing wreckage of the villains' destroyed plane.

 

The third and fourth Die Hard movies had brief re-caps of those classical pieces in their soundtracks.

 

-- Nephele

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Some of my all-time favourites are:

 

Samuel Barber,

I've head it in a couple of films including Platoon and Am

Edited by Aurelia

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wonderful, wonderful examples, great from all of you ;)

 

p.s. here Bachs occata and Fugue in D minor on a real organ (still sounds as if it was made from outer space, just pure brilliance)

that should do :lol:

 

...and i forgot (how could i have forgotten) Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra

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These are perfect examples of how to be introduced to famous classical works through popular culture.

 

This is how I first heard Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 as a little girl. And I have never forgotten it. ;)

 

And this may very well be how I first came across Johann Strauss II's Tales from the Vienna Woods and the Blue Danube :lol:

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Great !!! :)

 

Is there a better performance for the Toccata and Fugue in D minor ?

I mean, it's sound too electronic...

 

 

Caesar, I have been doing a bit of digging for you regarding what was considered THE best rendition of the Toccata - arguably Leopold Stokowski's version in 1957, but I can't seem to find a recording that is still purchasable on the Net. I'll keep looking. As with most things Classical, I know it's a cliche, but all the best ones are dead or retired :D There was a Eugene Ormandy version in the 70s I think (off the top of my head) but I'm not the biggest fan of this guy's conducting.

 

I'll dig about on MDT (I'm a subscriber) and see what I can find for you. Chances are, we are talking an old recording with all its crackles :D

 

ETA: I have managed to find a version of the Stokowski, Caesar: Here However, this is orchestral. I did find a not half bad organ recital

Enjoy! Edited by The Augusta

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Well here is a line I like very much. Besides being a Roman-in-spirit, I am also a lover of good classical music.

I guess it's far from unusual that people discover classical music through the movies.

Have you never noticed that almost all real movie classics have excellent musical scores too ?

Often 'original' music but not seldom great existing classical pieces.

I have been known to say that Stanley Kubrick was an excellent director, but his greatest gift was maybe his taste in music and how he worked that into his movies. 'Clockwork Orange' and 'Barry Lyndon' to name a few that really stand out.

The only thing I hate is that some directors just take little snippets of great music and paste them onto their pictures, don't bother to make it really fit, not even have the decency to fade it in or out properly. But well, if it gets some people to go and listen to the complete works, can't complain too much, I suppose.

 

Most of the works I have seen mentioned here so far are some of the better known and popular pieces. Nothing wrong with that : there is usually good reason for why they are so popular.

 

But there is an almost endless store of opera's and oratorio with libretti based on ancient and Roman history for those who like both. A lot of tedious stuff, that's true, but there are some real gems there too.

Mozart has written a few. 'Mitridate, r

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Salve iterum Aurelia,

 

Some of my all-time favourites are:

 

 

Puccini, Nessun Dorma

The Killing Fields, The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Sum of All Fears, and let's not forget the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

 

I must compliment you on your excellent taste in music.

Yes, that World Cup put opera on the map in a big way, didn't it ?

Puccini is also one of my absolute favourite composers. If I was so silly as to make lists, I'd put him in at n

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Great !!! :)

 

Is there a better performance for the Toccata and Fugue in D minor ?

I mean, it's sound too electronic...

 

 

Caesar, I have been doing a bit of digging for you regarding what was considered THE best rendition of the Toccata - arguably Leopold Stokowski's version in 1957, but I can't seem to find a recording that is still purchasable on the Net. I'll keep looking. As with most things Classical, I know it's a cliche, but all the best ones are dead or retired :D There was a Eugene Ormandy version in the 70s I think (off the top of my head) but I'm not the biggest fan of this guy's conducting.

 

I'll dig about on MDT (I'm a subscriber) and see what I can find for you. Chances are, we are talking an old recording with all its crackles :D

 

ETA: I have managed to find a version of the Stokowski, Caesar: Here However, this is orchestral. I did find a not half bad organ recital

Enjoy!

 

 

Thank you Augusta, love it

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Classical music and Ancient history

 

Here is another Haendel favourite of mine : 'Ombra mai fu' from the opera 'Xerxes'

Pretty popular this one. There are about a 100 versions of it on Youtube.

The best version I heard is by

. Nice pictures to go with it.

And the worst, but also the funniest and the cutest, by

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Salvete Aurelia et Omnes !

 

Puccini is also one of my absolute favourite composers. If I was so silly as to make lists, I'd put him in at n
Edited by Formosus Viriustus

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