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To: Pharmboy
You are absolutely right about the string quartets and piano music never wearing themselves out. I'm looking for a good set of the string quartets, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would enjoy reading them.

But a good recording of any one of the Beethoven symphonies can trick me into thinking I am hearing it for the very first time. Unfortunately, many of our most revered conductors, past and present, have butchered his music and taken artistic license when there was no need to do so. Most of his symphonies are nearly perfect as written.

All this is personal opinion, of course. If we all liked the same things, this would be one boring world.

Oddly, I have never been drawn to much Bach. I certainly recognize the genius and know how prolific he was. I am much more drawn to Handel or the Italians.

68 posted on 10/13/2005 8:46:12 AM PDT by SaveTheChief ("I can't wait until I'm old enough to feel ways about stuff." - Phillip J. Fry)
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To: SaveTheChief
Here is the Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations You must register for this site in case you are not currently a member.

These two minutes are a jewel--listen to it five or six times before passing judgement. Glad we agree on Ludwig van's chamber music. I'm a bit older than you, and perhaps when you add a few more years you too will burn out on most of his symphonies.

Back to Bach. The partitas and sonatas for solo violin are some of the most brilliant and beautiful music I've ever listened to. The other thing about Bach is: everything he wrote was a masterpiece or semi-masterpiece.

73 posted on 10/13/2005 8:58:38 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they have to.)
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To: SaveTheChief; Pharmboy
Oddly, I have never been drawn to much Bach.

The B minor Mass was an important discovery for me. Several years ago I took clarinet lessons for a while. That didn't last, but my teacher made half of each lesson a music history class, which did. He emphasized the B minor mass as an important work and it turned me into a Bach admirer. I have since attended two live performances of it. Another piece that made the baroque click for me was Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Beethoven's seventh did the same for the romantic period.

BTW, one of the mass performances was performed largely by amateur singers and and musicians and it was wonderful. My own struggles with an instrument enabled to better appreciate the work that goes into a solo performance, let alone a dauntingly ambitious project like the b minor mass

86 posted on 10/13/2005 10:48:37 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
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