To je velmi krasny! Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 --"From The New

[joeybee12]

World."

I'm listening to it right now!

[MuseRider]

1. Beautiful!

Simply wonderful isn't it? Dvorak...Ahhhhhhhhhhh

[joeybee12]

3. I think everything he's ever done is great, then again, I'm probably

a Czech-o-phile!

[bloodyjack]

2. is that the one that goes like da da da DA da da da da da DA da da da da

da DA da da da da da DA da da DA da da DA

oh, forget it.

[joeybee12]

4. I KNOW you posted that just to try and get to 1,000 posts soon!

[bloodyjack]

5. you're on to me!

My 1000th post will be SPECTACULARLY PUERILE!

Do you want to see a dancing Hitler smilie?

[joeybee12]

9. Well, then, post away so we can all see it!

[redqueen]

6. Classical music is so underappreciated

I heard that somewhere they're trying to sex it up a bit to get younger audiences interested. I hope it works.

[joeybee12]

10. Yuk! Reminds me of the cd's they have "Classical music for Lovers"

or something like that. You know, music that makes you want to have sex!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. Make that a double yuk...

There's plenty of sexual imagery in classical music without twisting the interpretation of every composition to make the genre more marketable.

Younger audiences in Europe don't require gimmicks to keep them interested in classical music. If Americans want to get younger audiences interested, they'll expose kids to classical music as young as possible, and teach parents to appreciate it as well.

As with reading, when young children see their parents listening to and enjoying classical music, they'll follow the set example.

[redqueen]

13. lol

IIRC, which I'm pretty sure I do, it's in Europe that they're doing it... audiences are dwindling worldwide, I'm afraid.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. It probably depends on the country...

My mother went to see a matinee performance of an opera in Prague 3 or four years ago, and told me the place was sold out, and the audience was full of young people...from elementary school age through college. And she said that during the intermission and afterward, she heard some of these kids humming snippets of the opera. I don't recall which opera she saw.

[joeybee12]

22. Classical music is EVERYWHERE in Prague!

They really put us to shame!

[redqueen]

25. I think it might have been England.

Heard it on NPR about a month ago.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. Could be...

I think I remember hearing something about that as well...

[pagerbear]

15. If Americans want to get younger audiences interested

...they'll fucking support music education in the schools, dammit!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

20. Hear hear!

:yourock:

[politicat]

19. It's taken me a long while to come back to Classical, but EBM is doing it.

I trained classical as a child and teenager - cello and clarinet, but it got old after a while. My ear was not sufficiently developed yet.

I like Jazz and rock, but I really love EBM (Electronic Body Music, or electronica.). There are a significant number of EBM artists who are working on making classical available and accessible to the 4 minute, single volume level, heavy percussion tastes of those who have only been exposed to pop.

That volume level can be a big issue especially if you're listening on headphones... something that's pianissimo for 200 measures and then crescendos to forte in 5 measures will cause PAIN. Evening those levels out to piano through forte would go a long way towards encouraging classical music appreciation. Since more people are spending more of their time listening to Personal Music Devices than to sound systems (another reason being the reproduction through good, noise blocking cans or buds is superior to reproduction in an open room...) that's something that has to be addressed.

That said, I'm listening to the Enigma Variations right now (Edwards Elgar) and I came to it via EBM. Several artists sampled his work.

Pcat

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. The best way to appreciate it is in a concert hall...

There, the acoustics are such that a person can hear the lower end of the volume spectrum without being deafened by the upper end...except during performances of the 1812 Overture.

To my ear, lack of dynamic contrast (evening levels out) is one of the things that makes a lot of pop music really boring.

[politicat]

31. Sure, but you have to have a decent hall, a decent symphony, AND the spare

cash and time to go.

The Denver Symphony is feh, the hall at the CforPA is very poor because the renovations have not been kind, I rarely have the time. Lots of kids don't have the money.

Recordings are flexible. Live performances aren't.

Pcat

[fertilizeonarbusto]

7. The "Largo"

is the most beautiful image of America written by someone like me-a person that came from somewhere else. You can so hear the majesty of the Mississippi or the buttes out west or the Oceans in it...

[joeybee12]

8. Isn't it amazing that he really captured so much of America with music?

You really do have a vision before you when you listen!

[noonwitch]

12. D'Vorak is my favorite-I played the 9th in the GR Youth Symphony as a teen

I played violin. "From the New World" is a great piece for an advanced teen orchestra to play, because every player (even the second violins, violas & bassoons) gets to play their heart out at some point in the symphony. The fourth movement is really fun to play, plus it's where the "Jaws" theme came from.

If you are just getting into D'Vorak, I can recommend other works. I have a CD that has the violin concerto and the "Romance for Violin and Orchestra" as played by Isaac Stern. Izthaak Perlman also recorded it. The "Romance" is one of the finest pieces of music I know, it is a beautiful melody.

The best known aria from "Russalke" is "Ode to the Silvery Moon". Renee Fleming is one of the few performers who can sing in czeck, and she has a version on one of her cds. Also, Amici, "The Opera Band" sing it on their cd. Sarah Brightman also does a version of it in italian, with different words from the original, on her "La Luna" cd.

The "Miniatures" and "Legends" short pieces are good, as are the slavonic dances. I like the "Prague Waltzes", and have a cd that combines that work with the Legends and Miniatures, plus the Noturnes, which is also a nice, soothing piece of work. The conducter is Ivan Fisher, or some name like that.

Sometimes, I just load five of my D'Vorak cds in the player and listen to his music all day. I love all that lush romantic music.

[demzilla]

14. More Dvorak suggestions

Let me add to noonwitch's suggestions the cello concerto, and the Symphonies 6, 7, and 8. The 6th is little known and a surprising gem.

Speaking of noonwitch, Dvorak wrote a tone poem called "The Noon Witch".

[pagerbear]

16. His Biblical songs are cool

[demzilla]

29. And so is the Stabat Mater

if you like long choral works.

Am trying to get my hands on the Requiem but I keep getting outbid on eBay.

[joeybee12]

17. I have all his symphonies....I also love the slavonic dances, too!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. Don't forget his string quartets

Especially Opus 96 (The American), Op. 51, and Op. 105.

The violin concerto is also beautiful. :nopity:

[joeybee12]

18. Romantic is a very good word to desrcibe his stuff

I think his music is very Czech--not sure how to describe it other than that. I've been to prague several times and most of his music seems to really bring back the look and feel of the country to me.

[supernova]

27. I love Dvorak!

I think he's my favorite composer ever in the symphonic genre.

The Largo movement is often used in funerals, as it was at my mother's. So it's very special to me and I usually cry when I hear it.

edit: speaking of getting children to enjoy classical music, our own NC Symphony was created with the primary purpose of visiting schools and teaching about symphonic and orchestral music. They go to schools or have the children make field trips to hear them. They give big people concerts too, but their primary charter is to educate kids about great music.

[joeybee12]

28. Hope your symphony is successful--we must fight the Evil Empire...

...by which I mean MTV!

[Morning Dew]

30. That's the one that goes -

"Come on live it, it's a lovely life."

Are you sure Rick Wakeman didn't write that?

;)
;)
;)







I was fortunate enough to hear the MN Orchestra do that symphony back in 91 or 92... *sigh* - I don't get out much.